I’m closer to age 40 than I am to the day of my birth.

The difference, though, will be in how I perceive the speed of next 20 years, approaching 40.

The time will proceed—in the relative sense—much faster.

Let me explain:

Each day we live, our age increases while the duration of a single day remains the same. In the relative sense, a day becomes less significant in comparison to the length of our life.

A year to a 90 year-old will be small compared to their entire lifetime.

A year to a 2-year-old is a significant timespan.

These last 20 years have been eventful: my birth, my transition from kid to adolescent, education, adolescent to adult, first love, first heartbreak

The next 20 years, which will proceed much faster, may include: gaining philosophical conviction, finding love (casual dating?), building a family, having kids, leveraging skill to provide real value…death? A motorcycle accident? Inventing a new database technology? I suppose the fun lies in nobody knowing what’s to come.

Death could be tomorrow, so what’s the use of projecting this far down the future? I’m not really sure.

It’s an interesting thought experiment to see how I’d integrate my days to be best prepared at: 40, 60, 80…100? Perhaps, on the contrary, it’s an interesting thought experiment to assume today is my last, and understand how that would change my day.

I’ve concluded that my character development should position me to be: the best husband I can be, the best father I can be, a value-adding member of society.

If any of what I’ve predicted is true, then I hope to revisit this post with my kids one day.

To my kids:

Yo-yo munchkins, what’s up? Just your awesome cool Dad predicting the future! Is “yo” still cool? Heck yeah, cause I say it—duh!

How’d I end up doing?

Lame advice: always eat your greens
Cool advice: a day is only successful when you fail at something