#7: 43million

My mom celebrates her 83rd birthday today. She's had over 43, 624, 800+ minutes, going by the song, Seasons of Love from Rent. 43 million.

Every year, it's a little different. Her body weakens yet her mind is lucid for the most part. Her sudden zingers always hit the mark. After I explained to her what I do as a leadership coach and when I asked her what my career is, "Accountant". For most of my adult career, she had a belief that I was an accountant. Never a dull minute.

About ten years ago, we spent her birthday marveling at how much the world had changed in her time. She came to Singapore on a ship from India and returned over 15 years later on an aircraft. Her first ride knee-buckling ride on an escalator when we were at a mall and how effortlessly she rode the elevator back then. It's the engineering & tech evolution that takes her breath away. Calling international via an IDD number in the 80s to now, video calls on Whatsapp almost anywhere in the world. I remember her saying that she hadn't expected to see this much change in her lifetime.

I am reminded of this Mohammad Ali quote: "The man who views the world at 50?the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life."

We get very caught up in the job of living life and lose track of how much our lives have changed in the process, even in a day. It's when we hit our 40s that we rave about our awesome 20s. We need to marvel more as we continue living! Look up every now and then to marvel at our lives. Yes, while we may have our goals, mission, life purpose & vision boards, the focus is on the big-ticket items. Dive into those moments in between. Every 525, 600 minutes that we get in a year helps us create meaning in our lives.