The universe is just over thirteen billion years old. 

Humanity’s odds of coming into being, evolving and flourishing are so astronomically low, it wouldn’t even register in the worldview of many of us. On top of that minuscule percentage is the compounded odds of your conception and birth… bringing it even lower.

In other words, we’re really lucky to be alive and a fraction of us will find fortune in being here for over eighty years.

Eighty years of life on a speck of dust in a corner of the universe that’s already been around for thirteen billion years and in the next five billion years, our nearest star (the sun) will expand outwards, incinerate our planet and then die.

If we’re being honest, our lives seem pretty insignificant. However, when we’re ready to face that reality, it provides a completely different perspective that is inspiring.

We can be honest with ourselves in everything by asking, “does this really matter?”

Not asking in a nihilistic way with the subtext that nothing matters, but in the long-term vision of what really matters in life. What is it we’re doing that’s going to echo beyond our briefest blip in history?

Suddenly, all the things we think are important get reduced to insignificant details.

The universe doesn’t care what colour of shirt you wore this morning. It doesn’t care about your high score in a video game or about the features of your latest gadget. It doesn’t even care if you’re not living the life you wanted.

All it’s done is given you the most infinitesimal odds of being alive and watched as you came through. The rest is up to you.