I’m reading The Midnight Train by Matt Haig at the moment and it’s great. It’s a companion to The Midnight Library, so if you liked that one you’ll probably like this too. I won’t give anything away, but one line jumped off the page and I haven’t stopped thinking about it.
“Live life like it can’t be measured.”
It’s going straight onto my quotes I like list.
What does it mean?
The way I read it, you stop judging your life by the things that are easy to count, like time, money or status, and pay more attention to how good the experiences are. A good life is more about moments, love and growing as a person than how many years you clock up or how much stuff you own.
We measure heaps of stuff. Steps, sleep scores, pay rises, followers, likes, how many countries we’ve been to. Some of it is useful. The trouble is it’s easy to start treating the numbers as the point.
The best bits of life don’t really fit on a scoreboard. A long lunch with mates that runs into dinner. A swim on a cold morning. A good chat with the kids in the car. None of that shows up in a spreadsheet, and to be honest that’s probably why it feels so good.
How do you actually do it?
I don’t think it means throwing out your fitness tracker or ignoring your budget. For me it comes down to four things.
Experiences over things
Put your money and time into trips, adventures and doing stuff with people you like. You’ll remember a weekend away with mates long after you’ve forgotten what you bought last year.
Notice the small moments
Life is mostly made up of small moments. A smile, a quiet morning, a good conversation. The big milestones are great, but there aren’t many of them.
Stop keeping score
Try to let go of measuring success by numbers. Live by what you value and be grateful for what you’ve got. I’m trying to notice when I’m keeping score and ask whether it matters. Leaving the phone in my pocket and saying yes a bit more often helps too.
Focus on people
If you want to measure anything, measure the love you give, the people you help and the fun you share. You can’t put a number on any of that, and it’s what makes a life feel worthwhile.
Grab the book
If you want to see where the line comes from, pick up a copy of The Midnight Train on Amazon. It’s an easy read, and it’ll probably leave you thinking about your own life a bit. If you like that kind of novel, Replay by Ken Grimwood is another good one.
