10,000 Years

No one remembers, off the top of their head, who the sixth king of England was. No one remembers his wife or his children and his cousins. No one remembers his successes and failures. Sure there might be some historical record of it, but it isn’t common knowledge. It isn’t talked about often.

If a monarch from one of the largest nations at the time isn’t remembered, chances that you will be remembered 500 years let alone 10,000 years from now is pretty close to zero.

This can be a good thing.

Once you see things from a 10,000-year perspective, you realize that most of your fears don’t make sense. Going to the gym and looking stupid the first few times doesn’t matter, because no one will remember it. Stumbling while giving a talk in public isn’t so horrible with a 10,000-year perspective. Writing online isn’t scary when you realize that no one will remember the one time you misspelled something in 10,000 years.

You have to get through failure, and failure is less scary when your timeline is in the order of a few millennia.

If you are afraid to look stupid, remember in 10,000 years no one will remember you or your failures. So, as Epictetus asks, how long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

What I've Been Reading This Week

Nobody Wants To Read Your Sh*t by Steven Pressfield. I like the title of the book, because it's true. There's so much content out there that simply writing things and expecting people will read what you write is foolish. You have to provide value to the reader. They are spending time, a resource that they can't renew. So as a writer, Pressfield says, "we cannot give our readers ore. We must give them gold."

Thanks for reading the article. If you enjoyed this and would like to receive similar articles, please consider subscribing. It's free, and I won't ever spam your inbox. Share on Twitter.