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Combating Writing Perfectionism: Test Two — Speed Writing
Start time: 5:28 a.m.
One day, I woke up and I was 44 years old. I once had a boss who, at around the same age, calculated how many years, months, weeks and days he thought he had left on this planet (using the “average” life span of an American male), and he walked into work the next day slightly devastated.
At the time, I thought he was depressed about what he had yet to accomplish in life, but in reality, his life was nothing to sneeze at. He had worked his way up to Partner at one of the larger, more prestigious law firms in town. He sat on the boards of the local chapter of the Boys and Girls Club as well as the local elite swim club. He was a triathlete. He had a wonderful wife and three kids who were his everything.
What he was sick about was how much time he thought he had left with his family, and whether he was spending his remaining days on Earth doing what ignited his passions.
For years, he was the first person in the firm and one of the last to leave every night.
End time: 5:38 a.m.
Word count: 193 words
Substance check: Did I say anything of substance in 10 minutes? I was trying to set the stage for an article about how you never know how much time you actually have left in life…
