Why do people say life is short?

Surely life is the longest thing anyone could possibly imagine?

Also, from experience, it takes what feels like eons of hard work to get where you want in life - once you get there without fails it turns out not to be that great after all...

Life is just a big fat disappointment :frown:

Reply 1

DannyYYYY

12

The universe is ~13.8 billion years old. We experience, what, 100? years. It's pretty short. :tongue:

Life is only a disappointment if you had an expectation of what it was going to be like to begin with. Don't expect anything and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Reply 2

ApeMob

3

Sometimes TOO long. Anyhow dya know how many hrs there are in a day to make the most of it! I think life is a gift! Death is a sentence. Please make the most of your life...or not. More room in Heaven for me :cool:

Reply 3

Neuth

19

Because it is...

Make the most of every second :h:

Like DannyYYYY said, don't expect anything, because then whatever you manage to do is always much better :redface:

Reply 4

The vampire

3

I don't understand why people say this either. Life is the longest thing we will experience. :confused:

Reply 5

Chief Wiggum

20

Because it's short relative to the history of the universe, I guess.

Reply 6

xylas

OP

21

Original post by EastGuava

Afterlife is everlasting (regardless of whether or not you believe it exists), hence life is short.

How do you know that after our brain dies, our exact same 'self consciousness' can ever be materialised again. For all we know the afterlife lasts zero time, hence this life is infinitely long in comparison. Hell, some people think that we just relive this life over and over again in a sort of circular time universe...

Original post by DannyYYYY

The universe is ~13.8 billion years old. We experience, what, 100? years. It's pretty short. :tongue:

Life is only a disappointment if you had an expectation of what it was going to be like to begin with. Don't expect anything and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah but I certainly didn't experience the 13.8 billion years of the universe so what does that matter to my life? And what did you think gave me expectation - was I born with it?

Reply 7

xylas

OP

21

Original post by Chief Wiggum

Because it's short relative to the history of the universe, I guess.

Do you think our ancestors felt that life was long then before they knew about the age of the universe? How can a fact change our subjective experiences?

Reply 8

xylas

OP

21

Original post by Neuth

Because it is...

Make the most of every second :h:

Like DannyYYYY said, don't expect anything, because then whatever you manage to do is always much better :redface:

Sorry but it sounds like you're saying 'if we want to feel its short it will be short...'

Isn't there a limit (a pretty strong one mind you) on what we can choose to do every second?. I just don't believe for a second that we have full control/ free will like that...

Reply 9

DannyYYYY

12

Original post by xylas

And what did you think gave me expectation - was I born with it?

Unlikely you were born with it. You've probably gained an expectation of life based on a lot of your experience, all of it very specific to you. Disappointment happens when something doesn't match with what we thought it would. I've fallen victim to it several times; most of us do. Eventually I realised it's better to have no pre-concieved expecations of something because it means that however something turns out, it's just fine.

And I can see where you're coming from. The 13.8 billion years don't matter to us as our ~100 year existence is all we will know about. Nontheless, my grandparents tell me it flies by. :tongue:

Reply 10

username878045

17

I think when people say life is short, they mean relative to the amount of things we can spend our life doing.

Reply 11

bumblebee342

13

I suppose it is pretty short in the grand scheme of things.

But I agree with the whole "it's the longest thing we experience" idea. I think sometimes, you kind of look back and realise how fast things have happened, so that could be why people talk about life being short. Then again that's more to do with time passing quickly...

Reply 12

TroyAndAbed

14

Original post by xylas

Also, from experience, it takes what feels like eons of hard work to get where you want in life - once you get there without fails it turns out not to be that great after all...

Don't spend your life hoping for a better tomorrow, spend your life making a better today. Happiness needs to come from within & if you aren't happy, it's going to be near impossible for something to just suddenly come along & make everything perfect.

Reply 13

xylas

OP

21

Original post by PythianLegume

I think when people say life is short, they mean relative to the amount of things we can spend our life doing.

Ah but isn't this potential just an arbitrary concept? Could we actually achieve anything other than what we already did/ or are about to do? So the idea that life is short could just be an illusion?

The fact that people can live their lives with completely different philosophical beliefs is quite fascinating!

Reply 14

xylas

OP

21

Original post by bumblebee342

I suppose it is pretty short in the grand scheme of things.

But I agree with the whole "it's the longest thing we experience" idea. I think sometimes, you kind of look back and realise how fast things have happened, so that could be why people talk about life being short. Then again that's more to do with time passing quickly...

Yeah but humans are notoriously bad at reducing our inherent recall bias- you only need to look at any study of a case control clinical trial to learn that. And I am interested is this 'grand scheme of things' that you speak about :smile:

Reply 15

xylas

OP

21

Original post by TroyAndAbed

Don't spend your life hoping for a better tomorrow, spend your life making a better today. Happiness needs to come from within & if you aren't happy, it's going to be near impossible for something to just suddenly come along & make everything perfect.

Oh well that sucks, I guess that means once unhappy always unhappy :frown:

Now if only we could choose to be born different...

Reply 16

DannyYYYY

12

Original post by xylas

Oh well that sucks, I guess that means once unhappy always unhappy :frown:

By no means! You have the power to create happiness, and I mean this literally since happiness is a combination of chemical reactions and neural activity in the brain. You can form a 'positive' neural network just be thinking positively. At first it seems childish; over time it becomes habitual and the brain has (actually) rewired to the point where you now think positive by default. Welcome to the world of neuroplasticity. :wink:

Seeking happiness from external cues never lasts.

Reply 17

xylas

OP

21

Original post by DannyYYYY

By no means! You have the power to create happiness, and I mean this literally since happiness is a combination of chemical reactions and neural activity in the brain. You can form a 'positive' neural network just be thinking positively. At first it seems childish; over time it becomes habitual and the brain has (actually) rewired to the point where you now think positive by default. Welcome to the world of neuroplasticity. :wink:

Seeking happiness from external cues never lasts.

It sounds great what you're saying it really does but what would motivate someone to 'think positively'. Surely it's all to do with the environment around you; I just can't see for a second how one would spontaneously change, creating happiness from nothing...

Reply 18

bumblebee342

13

Original post by xylas

Yeah but humans are notoriously bad at reducing our inherent recall bias- you only need to look at any study of a case control clinical trial to learn that. And I am interested is this 'grand scheme of things' that you speak about :smile:

That's true, but I think we often entertain the idea that everything happens quickly, which sometimes makes life seem short (even if this isn't the case!).
And I just meant in terms of how long people have been around and how old the universe is, compared to the age we live to

Reply 19

LostGear

19

It's a saying.

Why do people say life is short?

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