LDOV
Every time I travel to Taiwan, my family has a list of a million things to do?—?places to visit, things to eat, people to see.?
The first few days of every trip are fairly leisurely.?
The last few days are the opposite: there’s a heightened sense of urgency, this sense that we have so little time remaining and need to be a bit more intentional about maximizing our time there.?
I call this phenomenon the last-days-of-vacation effect, where the more finite an opportunity or series of moments seem, the more likely we are to seize and savor them.
What makes this phenomenon so intriguing that it’s a shift in perspective that invokes it?—?a shift, that I think we can all learn to more readily call upon.?
If you feel like you have all the time in the world, you might be more inclined to squander it.?
If you feel like you don’t, you might make better use of?—?and more fully appreciate?—?what time you’ve got.?
We’re talking about same amount of time?—?that is however many ever days, weeks, months, and years we’re here?—?but a fundamentally different approach to it that will make all the difference in how we reflect on our lives.?
It’s up to us how we want to live.?
The only thing I’d caution after experiencing this effect many times over is to try to not forget that the fact that we we get to live at all is an extremely rare, gem of an opportunity.?
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About me:
I'm a second-generation Taiwanese American trying to find life’s greatest sources of meaning and make the most out of it