What would you do when you meet a real genie??

The answer may surprise you.

Suppose a genie appears and tells you that he will give a stash of about 1,000 magical gold coins for you to spend whichever way you like. But you’re skeptical, so you ask, “What is the catch?” (isn’t every genie story supposed to have one?). And the genie laughs and says, “At the stroke of midnight, the unused coins would turn to dust!”

Oh! How unfair, you say!

But he’s a good genie, so he says, “I’ll give you a fresh stash of 1,000 coins tomorrow morning”. But then the unused coins turn to dust that night, so he again gives a fresh stock the following day. This goes on for a while.

Think for a moment. What would you do?

If you’re anything like me, you’d indulge! Buy everything that you desire! But wouldn’t you want to use the 1000 coins to their fullest before they disappear? Why waste such perfect wealth, you think. But how to achieve it? Perhaps you’d try to trick the genie by converting this asset class of “gold” into something else. How about stocks? The trick works, and you’re elated that the stocks don’t turn to dust, and day-by-day your Net Worth also soars! How easy it was to fool the genie, you think!

Unfortunately, after you get used to this proverbial golden hen for some time, the genie decides to call it a day, and vanishes without any intimation, never to return. You’re sad initially that there won’t be any new shiny coins to fulfill all your desires; but are content that at least the assets that you created are still around. But then you realize to your horror that the genie took away all your assets as well. Nothing is now accessible …Gasp!

Even the thought of not getting the next batch of coins can make one cringe. And the genie just played a cruel joke by even wiping off all the other assets!

Unimaginable. Yet, does this not happen all the time?

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We all get such gold coins every day. We just call them ‘time’ (in the form of “waking minutes in a day”).

Don’t the wise proclaim: “Time is Money!”

And exactly as in the above story, if we are not careful, we simply waste these valuable minutes with each passing day! Soon those days turn to weeks, weeks to years, years to decades and then it’s time to die.

How do I arrive at the magical number of 1000 coins, you ask? Well, its easy! Just assume that we sleep on average of 7 hours 20 mins each day leaving us with 16 hours 40 minutes of waking time. This nicely rounds off to 1,000 golden minutes. Every. Single. Day.

So, the real question is what do you do with all this time at your disposal? Do you spend it wisely, or do you fool around with this limited and valuable resource, believing that the genie will give you more coins tomorrow? What if tomorrow does not arrive at all?

• How much time do you spend arguing with a loved one? Most of the times the argument is over something silly or over a habit of theirs (which you do not approve of). And we all know how much the arguing helps!

• How many times do you tell yourself that you will pursue your dream, only to defer it for lack of ‘time’?

• How many times do you say to yourself that “tomorrow will be different”, but tomorrow is just the same as today (which was just the same as yesterday!)

• How many times do you keep worrying about a situation, which you have no control over?

• How much time do you waste on your fancy devices consuming news or scrolling through comments section in your social media feed? 

Imagine what you could have achieved if you had instead just been mindful of such wasted time? You could have potentially improved your health, pursued a hobby, upskilled yourself professionally, spent time with family, with kids! But the time is now gone, just like the stash of gold coins, never to return.

We all know this fact, but we still waste our time on mindless activities; as if we have an infinite supply of time at our disposal. And such wasted time also has a name. It’s called “Time Pass”.

But I must hasten to add that I’m not at all suggesting that we should not have leisure time in life. Leisure is essential and is required. After all, “doesn’t all Work and no Play make us …dull?”. However, I am against the mindless leisure which we pursue at the expense of the priorities in our life.

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Benjamin Franklin famously said that “In this world, nothing is certain except Death and Taxes”.

And the sign of death is everywhere. We just don’t take notice. Kids outgrow their old clothes. Our eyesight weakens as we hit our 40s. Our hair starts to thin, and we develop greys. Our skin wrinkles out and our teeth eventually fall off.  And all this while we keep paying taxes!

But we behave as if we’re going to live on this planet for eternity. We live as if we will always see tomorrow. We put off important things. We procrastinate. And with each passing day we’re only inching closer to our death.

Samartha Ramdas, the famous 17^th century rationalist Saint captured this perfectly when he said “Look at all the famous people in history who’re all now dead. Don’t believe in the fallacy that you’re immortal. One day, you also need to leave this world. Go find your purpose!” [ translated from मनाचे श्लोक (‘Manache Shlok’)]

This realization hits each of us occasionally, especially when we lose a loved one. If the loss is sudden, the feeling is also deep. But eventually, the feeling dissipates, and we get back to living life as an ‘immortal’.

However, knowing that we are eventually going to die helps us rise above the chaos called routine, and gives us an improved perspective towards life. It helps us to see through the haze, and we can zoom in on our priorities and ultimately get the courage act on it.

Focusing on your limited time on this beautiful blue planet can:

• help you to improve your relationships (with your significant other (will lead to less conflict!), with your parents, with your siblings, your kids, and with your relatives and friends!);

• help you to work on your physical health and eating habits (after all, you will get old eventually. And everyone wants to spend those golden years in good health, and disease free. Not in bed and certainly not in and out of hospitals! The only time to act on that is NOW!)

• even help you to prioritize working on that dream start-up idea that you’ve been putting off; or to check items off your bucket list!

Who knows! prioritizing what matters to you most will even help you to unwind from work on a regular basis, so you can consume your vacation days in time, rather than seeing those lapse (like those shiny golden coins).

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Concluding Thoughts

Nobody on their deathbed will be happy about all the TV shows (and reruns thereof) they’ve seen. Nor would they be happy about the countless hours of video games they played. But they will have a regret about a missed opportunity to mend a relationship, or to pursue their dreams!

Finally, the question that bothers is how do we remind ourselves of this “Ultimate Truth” so that we don’t waste our time and get to stay on track, to live a life with purpose?  

One way is to follow what the Stoic author Ryan Holiday does. Holiday understands that our mind is very hard to tame. So, he carries a medallion in his pocket which says Memento Mori (which literally means ‘remember that you [have to] die’ in Latin). Just putting a hand in his pocket and feeling the contours of the coin gives him a reminder about the fleeting nature of this life. 

While I don’t have a similar coin with me, I simply love this idea! And I have my own relic with me in my wardrobe. It is my son’s broken Toy Car (which the manufacturer interestingly claimed to be ‘unbreakable’). Every day before my bath when I’m taking out clothes from my dresser, I see the broken car and I get my reminder. Eventually, this body is also going to break.

There is a Chinese Proverb that says: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is today”.  Even if you feel that you have been slacking till yesterday, you still can start today. No more coins turning to dust.

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