4000 Weeks To Live: Let's Live it Well

: Written by: Kamran Mofid; Published: 13 August 2021; Hits: 662

'Our acceptance of finite time, Burkeman suggests, roughly coincided with the clocking on and clocking off of the Industrial Revolution'.

Photo: Maremagnum/Getty Images/Via The Guardian

'In the current average human lifespan we get 4,000 of each day of the week: 4,000 Saturday nights, 4,000 lazy Sundays, 4,000 Monday mornings. When we are young, that might feel like a dizzying number of tomorrows. As the years go by, not so much. Oliver Burkeman’s midlife inquiry into how we might most meaningfully approach those days is perfectly pitched somewhere between practical self-help book and philosophical quest. Having been the Guardian’s resident “pursuit of happiness” correspondent for a decade, offering the weekly promise that “This column will change your life”, this is something like his accumulated wisdom...'-Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It by Oliver Burkeman – review

‘The Dalai Lama was once asked what surprised him most. He replied: "Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future. He lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

'Now let me share with you the words and sentiments of a young executive, a CEO, earning a lot of money, with bonuses, power, and more: “Now it's all about Productivity, Pay, Performance and Profit - the four Ps – which are fuelled by the three Fs: Fear, Frustration and Failure. Just sometimes I wish that in the midst of these Ps (& Fs), there was some time left for another set of four Fs: Families, Friends, Festivals and Fun.”

'You see ladies and gentlemen, we need values, we need love, friendship, kindness, generosity, sympathy, empathy, and compassion to be the guiding principles of all we do. Otherwise, no amount of money, capital, technology, IT, theories and policies, can save us from our own mistakes, the crises of our own making.’- Kamran Mofid, “A Better Path”, School of Economic Science, Saturday 8 February 2014

Photo:amazon.co.uk

...And all said and done, let's lead a Meaningful, Purposeful and Rewarding Life

Why We Never Seem to Have Enough Time

24 hours in a day and so much competing pressure on what to do

‘Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.’

A Must- read Book: Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It

Photo:amazon.co.uk

‘The human lifespan is ridiculously short: on average, we have four thousand weeks on the planet. And yet our definition of time management is narrow-minded - we perfect routines to manage our lengthening to-do lists and overfilled inboxes, all in the name of “productivity”.

'The day will never arrive when you have everything under control - work deadlines, home life and family commitments - and this, says Burkeman, is excellent news. In this uplifting, engrossing book he rejects the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' and introduces us to ways of constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying our limitations. This guide to ‘time management for mortals’ draws on the insights of ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, to realign our relationship with time.

'Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, and for many years wrote a popular weekly column on psychology for the Guardian.'

Meet Burkeman online on Thursday 26 August 2021

4000 Weeks To Live: Let's Live it Well

A Selection of offerings from our GCGI Wisdom Corner

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