According to the CIA World Factbook, the average worldwide life expectancy in 2010 was 67.2 years. The life expectancy in different countries varies of course, with some countries having a higher life expectancy, and with other countries having a lower life expectancy than the world average. To allow for a model upon which this article can be written, let us assume that we have until the age of 65, after which we retire from our professional life.
A person is born, generally starts school at the age of 5-6, and finishes High School at the age of 18-20. After High School, the person would most likely go to university, which takes another 5 years on average (seeing as finishing a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s course is the most common choice, which together take 5 years on average). The person has now reached the age of about 25, and would like to enter the job market in order to earn a living from his/her desired field of work. The person’s initial position in his field will most likely not be the one he/she wishes to attain in the end, therefore, in order to become successful and reach the very desirable final position, the person will spend maybe the next 15-25 years working towards that. If everything goes well, having achieved that by the age of 40-50, the person is now considered successful and happy in his/her professional life. The person will now spend the remainder of his/her professional life continuing their work at that level, perhaps improving a few things, and thinking of something new for his/her profession. When the person hits the age of 60-65, they can hopefully retire, and spend the remainder of their life in peace and relaxation, where they can further pursue their hobbies, and maybe even explore the world further. This is however just a description of a very ideal professional life of a person. During all this time, this person also has to have fun, travel and explore the world, get married, have children, enjoy his/her hobbies, live as a healthy individual, keep up with the world, sleep, and so much more.
What I’m essentially trying to do by describing the life of this prototypical person, is to show that in our society, we already have a pre-designed model of our educational/professional life, which we generally follow without any questions, and which also allows us to do the other things we do in life. It seems as if the majority of people simply follow this model without questioning it, as it is for their own and society’s good, and since it also gives them free time to do the other things people do in life, while allowing them to make a good future for themselves and be successful. Hence, if everyone is generally following the same structure educationally and professionally, believing that it will allow them to fulfill their goals, while doing all sorts of other things in their free time, where do we find the time to do that extra bit in terms of work and education which gives us an edge, without it going over our “free-time” or making us fall behind in our educational/professional life?
Of course, one can choose not to follow this structure for their educational/professional life, however, in order for one to achieve something in anything, one first has to learn the workings and rules in order to fully understand it. Only after that, can one adjust things to better suit himself/herself. However, since we are all so consumed by following this structure for our educational/professional life, and by the other things we do in our free time, how can we find the time to think differently, and achieve something out of the ordinary, even though we may fully understand the workings and rules of our society?
Referring back to the title of this article, seeing as we all generally follow this structure for our educational/professional life, while doing the other things we do in our free time, “How much time do we really have” to think of something different on our own, and then achieve it without “getting out of the game”?
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