10,000 Days

Embracing your Ikigai Era

"The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whomever he is."

As C.S. Lewis reminds us in the quote above, no one gets any special privilege regarding the future.

We are all getting there at the same time. The difference, of course, is in what we do along the way.

If you take a typical lifespan today, you get about 30,000 days of adult life, give or take. If you break it up, the first 10,000 ends as you move toward 30, the second middle to late 50s.

Those in their 50s are embarking on what will likely be their 3rd and final segment of 10,000. I’m a little into that third 10,000.

I like to say I’m mid-century modern. It sounds so much cooler than 60.

Something about the framing of 10,000-day eras gives it importance over age or a random point in life. It gave me an even greater sense of urgency about embracing my Ikigai.

Photo by Alvin Lenin on Unsplash

Richard Rohr calls it the ‘second half'’ occurring most often in the final 10,000 though it doesn't have to.

Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, refers to it as the Artist’s Journey, similar to the Hero’s Journey, only it comes in the second half that Rohr talks about.

I call it living fully into your Ikigai.

Whatever 10,000 you are in, you will reach the next one just like we all will.

What are you going to do with those days?

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