life is short

Hey there,

I read something recently that I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

The average person lives around 30,000 days. That's it.

And if you're 25, you've already used about 9,000 of them. Gone. Never coming back.

I know that sounds heavy. But I don't think it's a bad thing to sit with. Because the problem isn't that life is short.

The problem is that most of us live like it's infinite.

We keep telling ourselves we'll do the thing later.

Someday. When the timing is better. And someday quietly turns into never.

Why time feels faster every year

Here's something that genuinely changed how I see this.

When you were a kid, summer felt endless.

A single day could feel like a week. But now the years just blur together and you have no idea where they went.

It's not just in your head. Your brain measures time by how many new experiences you have.

As a kid everything was new, so your brain was constantly recording, which made time feel slow.

But as an adult, your life becomes routine.

Same morning, same commute, same scroll, same evening. And your brain basically stops recording because nothing stands out. So the weeks disappear.

That's why time feels like it's speeding up. Not because you have less of it but because you're filling it with the same day on repeat.

And the fix is actually simple.

Do new things. Take a different route. Learn something. Talk to someone you normally wouldn't.

Every new experience forces your brain to pay attention again, and time expands.

The trap most people fall into

We massively overestimate what we can do in a day. But we massively underestimate what we can do in a year.

That's why people give up on things too early.

They try something for two weeks, don't see results, and quit. Meanwhile the people who actually build something just kept going while everyone else stopped.

And there's this test I think about a lot.

Imagine yourself at 90, looking back on your life. Are you going to care about that extra hour you spent scrolling? Or the things you were too scared to start?

Suddenly what actually matters becomes really clear.

The part nobody wants to hear

Here's the uncomfortable truth.

You already know what you should be doing.

You don't need another video, another book, another piece of advice. The information isn't the problem. The doing is.

Most people are stuck not because they don't know the next step but because they keep waiting for the perfect moment to take it.

And that moment never comes. You don't think your way into a new life. You act your way into one.

So whatever it is you've been putting off, start it now.

Badly. Imperfectly. Today.

Because the version of you at 90 isn't going to care that it wasn't perfect. They're going to care that you finally did it.

And this is exactly the problem I kept running into myself.

I knew what I wanted to do. I just kept forgetting it the moment life got loud. I'd feel motivated for a few hours and then fall right back into the same routine, the same scrolling, the same wasted days.

That's pretty much why I built the Elevenstoic app.

Because the thing you pick up 100 times a day could be the one thing that keeps reminding you that your time is actually running out, and that you can still do something about it today.

Every time you look at your phone, instead of getting pulled into noise, you get pulled back to what matters.

It doesn't fix everything. But it keeps the reminder in front of you long enough that it actually starts to change how you live.

→ Start using Elevenstoic today

Before you go

Time is going to pass either way. That's the one thing you can't change.

Your habits become your days. Your days become your years.

And your years become your life.

So pick one thing that hit you while reading this.

Just one.

And do something about it today. Not someday. Today.

Just one life.

Richard, Founder of Elevenstoic

P.S. A while back I closed Cinematic Studio, the course where I teach everything I know about building a brand and creating content. So many of you kept asking for it back that I'm reopening it for a few days only. It opens next Thursday. If you're done just consuming and ready to actually build something, keep an eye on your inbox and our Instagram stories. It won't be open long.