Dr. Karl Pillemer

That is understand that

that every older person I talked to, and the older they were, the more likely they were to say, life is short, or life is really short, or life is really, really, really short.

Or as one retired engineer said, it seems like it passed by in a nanosecond.

I had a 99-year-old, actually one of my favorite quotes in the book, is a 99-year-old looked at me and said, I don't know what happened, because the next thing you know, you're 100.

I can guarantee to every person listening to this that when you get in your 80s, 90s, and beyond, you will say, I cannot believe how quickly this passed.

It seemed like my life passed by almost in an instant.

Now, the thing about older people is they're telling you, don't let that depress you.

Use that as a superpower.

I mean, use it as an understanding to both take the long view, whether my colleague has a nicer office than me isn't going to make any difference to me.

in 60 years and in the short term.

Life is going to seem so short that I cannot waste it in things that aren't ultimately fulfilling.

So I would say the one message that came in all the books I've done, all the research, is this overpowering sense of how short life really is

And over and over, people said, there's not enough time to cram everything you want to in it.

Don't waste your life.

So I would say, I think in the Hebrew scriptures, teach us to number our days so that we may get ourselves a heart of wisdom.

It's very hard to do because it's so depressing for people.

But if you live like your life is short, you will make very different decisions about how long you stay in a crappy job, about how long you stay in a bad relationship, about how long you wait to express love to people you love, about how much time you spend with your children when they're growing up.

That's what older people have to tell you, that you're going to come to my age and you're going to say, wow, this was a short time I had.

And you're going to reflect very seriously on how you spent your time.

And I think if you live like your life is short, you have a pretty strong chance of a better life.