Choice
 

imagine you are told you have to make a choice: 1) you can live 50 more years, but will never achieve the goals you set, and will only find mediocre levels of success in all areas of your life. 2) you have 18 months to live but you will be granted everything you desire during that 18 months.

Which would you choose?

50 years. Most people are lucky to get mediocre success across the board.

yeah, what she said.

moderate success beats being dead.

Depends on your age... I'm 24, I wouldn't like to die in 18 months, but maybe in 50 years ore more I would be glad only living 18 months but having succes with my last few plans.

Re: Choice
 

wait a minute. what if one of the things i want is to live to be 100, and i'm only 33 now?

I'll take the 50.

I find my goals are frequently subject to change without notice.

Re: Re: Choice
 

i thought you were already in your 70's???

i'm going to take the 50, i've found that its usually when i fall short of a goal that i find something that really improves my life anyway.

the being dead in 18 months doesn't bother me, but i think i would get bored if i was guaranteed everything i wanted i would get.

Re: Re: Re: Choice
 

well, my soul is over 900 years old, but this body is a sprightly 33 years, 9 months, 13 days, 11hours, 55minutes old

Re: Re: Re: Re: Choice
 

no it's not. it has been more than a minute since you posted this.

Isn't life itself an alloted amount of time to achieve your goals?

I mean, racking up years isn't like collecting bags of money, there's no point in hoarding time if you've lived a full life, right?

18 months, and I achieve all my goals? No matter how lofty my goals are?

I'll take it.

I see the 50 years as an extended limbo, a purgatory in which you can never diverge from the middle of the road.

Give me 18 months and the assurance that my goals to make the world and those around me infinitely better, and I'll die satisfied and comfortably.

pffffffffffffftt - who said anything about improving the world. i'm thinking, like, a 3-some with alyssa milano and charlize theron....

LOL

the thing you overlook is that the fulfillment of your goals is only satisfying because of the uncertainty of acheiving them. If you know going in that you will acheive them all, how is your life any better than someone who hits it half the time?

*bows with respect to the master*

you are ready for the next phase in you journey.

Depends on your viewpoint.

Achieving a goal is not an endpoint, it is a beginning.

Grasshopper, when you can snatch the pebble from my hand, it will be time for you to leave the monastery.

and when you realize that there is no pebble, you will be ready. ;)

50 years. I don't have goals - I just try enjoy whatever comes my way and avoid stuff that rubs me the wrong way. Looking ahead is not one of my gifts.

i just achieved a goal - i just whacked a rattle snake with a 5 iron! rock on. i can die happy now.

If the goals are limitless -- if I can set some serious crush-my-enemies, see-them-driven-before-me, hear-the-lamentation-of-their-women, put-Grover-Norquist-and-everyone-like-him-on-a-one-way-rocketship-to-Pluto, rub-Aladdin's-lamp-and-make-anything-happen kinds of goals -- I'd consider the 18 months.

But eighteen months can go like _that_. Hell, I can't believe it's June already, and that's just THIS year. Gimme the fifty.

I think the range is too far. I think a better question would be 10 years of overwhelming financial and personal success (not enough to watch you kids grow up), or 50 years of being a middle-management person who never stands out or does anything great.

Nice Conan-like goals vsp!

Where oh where did May go!?

Re: Choice
 

Hrm...well since I'm not a goal orientated person, and so far my life has been somewhat mediocre (read: normal), then what's another 50 years, eh? Especially in my situation, since I have no idea if I am going to even really live another 10 much less 50 years! :p

I'd take the 18 months. If I could achieve what I really wanted to do rather than live a life of mediocrity, hell yes! Burn out bright and burn out fast. It might have been short, but I would have LIVED my life.

OK everyone. Stop talking. You DO have 18 months to do whatever you want to do, to at least TRY and achieve the goals you want to achieve. I am sick of these 'wish' questions. It is lazy to want rewards with no effort and believe me the reward truly is sweeter for the suffering, in whatever context. I climbed a very tall hill a few weeks ago. We didn't go up the tourist route. We climbed up the side of the hill amongst nettles, brambles and 6 foot high grass. It was at least a 60° gradient and I hated every minute of it. But when we got to the top, we realised something important. If we hadn't struggled, fallen, cut ourselves and got thoroughly exhausted and frustrated with each other, it just wouldn't have been the same. We realised it's all about the journey, not where you're going.

So I'll take the 50. And I'll make every month what I want it to be.

pffft - i don't have time to work towards my goals when i keep cellar on my screen all the time.

Easy. My goal is to live the rest of my life in mediocrity. I'll gladly take the 51.5 years at this point.

As for me, time's up. I'm outta here! I'm waaitiing! (taps toe and looks impatiently up at the sky).;)