The Things You Can't Measure

The last words that I ever heard Hannah, age 104, say were, “I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places and meet many nice people. It’s been a good life.”

Years ago as a hospice volunteer in Minneapolis, MN, I was assigned to Hannah. During my visits I would sit and listen as she recounted stories of her travels with family and friends. It was during such moments that her pain disappeared and a smile spread across her face.

Recently the memory of Hannah resurfaced while I was writing Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings. During my interviews with quarterlifers—people 16-35—I was struck by the number who feared living an incomplete life. As 22-year-old Nicholas Reid told me, “My biggest concern is how I’m going to reach the goals that I would like to achieve in my life?”

Thinking about this myself I imagined that I was at the end of my life. I wondered, ”What has been most fulfilling about the first quarter of my life?” To my frustration I realized that it was not my achievements that mattered most. It was not the act of earning a doctor of chiropractic degree or being offered a television and radio program. What stood out was walking hand-in-hand on the beach with my girlfriend, Thanksgiving dinner with family, working on people in my office, and mountain biking with friends. It was the times I was present to the people and places around me that I remembered most. What I had viewed as the background of my life, turned out to be the foreground.

The poet, Thomas Merton, said it well. “The things I thought were so important have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the things I was never able to either measure or expect, were the things that mattered.”

The month of December offers the chance to be with family and friends. It is also a time of packed schedules, holiday parties and rush traffic. When feeling overwhelmed take a moment to pause and ask yourself what memory do you want to create. Like Hannah, you can choose to be filled with fond memories for future days.

All Rights Reserved Nasoj Publications, LLC

Jason C. Steinle is a chiropractor at Health and Harmony, PC in Evergreen, CO, the host of The Steinle Show talk radio and television programs, and author of Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions which is available at HearthFire Books and http://www.amazon.com/.

The last words that I ever heard Hannah, age 104, say were, “I’ve seen a lot of beautiful places and meet many nice people. It’s been a good life.”

Years ago as a hospice volunteer in Minneapolis, MN, I was assigned to Hannah. During my visits I would sit and listen as she recounted stories of her travels with family and friends. It was during such moments that her pain disappeared and a smile spread across her face.

Recently the memory of Hannah resurfaced while I was writing Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions for Teens and Twentysomethings. During my interviews with quarterlifers—people 16-35—I was struck by the number who feared living an incomplete life. As 22-year-old Nicholas Reid told me, “My biggest concern is how I’m going to reach the goals that I would like to achieve in my life?”

Thinking about this myself I imagined that I was at the end of my life. I wondered, ”What has been most fulfilling about the first quarter of my life?” To my frustration I realized that it was not my achievements that mattered most. It was not the act of earning a doctor of chiropractic degree or being offered a television and radio program. What stood out was walking hand-in-hand on the beach with my girlfriend, Thanksgiving dinner with family, working on people in my office, and mountain biking with friends. It was the times I was present to the people and places around me that I remembered most. What I had viewed as the background of my life, turned out to be the foreground.

The poet, Thomas Merton, said it well. “The things I thought were so important have turned out to be of small value. And the things I never thought about, the things I was never able to either measure or expect, were the things that mattered.”

The month of December offers the chance to be with family and friends. It is also a time of packed schedules, holiday parties and rush traffic. When feeling overwhelmed take a moment to pause and ask yourself what memory do you want to create. Like Hannah, you can choose to be filled with fond memories for future days.

All Rights Reserved Nasoj Publications, LLC

Jason C. Steinle is a chiropractor at Health and Harmony, PC in Evergreen, CO, the host of The Steinle Show talk radio and television programs, and author of Upload Experience: Quarterlife Solutions which is available at HearthFire Books and www.uploadexperience.com