Your Life In Jelly Beans | Lifesigns Magazine

There are roughly 28,835 jelly beans in a pile. In this pile, there is one jelly bean for each day that the average American will live. You might have more beans in your life, or maybe less, but on average this is the time we have: 28,835 days or approximately 79 years.

A single bean represents your very first day—a special day, but kind of a rough day on everyone involved. Add 364 more and you have the first year of your life. The first fifteen years (5,475 days/jelly beans) of life brings us to the threshold of adulthood. And at that moment, the time that we have left is represented by the remaining 23,360 jelly beans… I mean, days.

On average, the following is what we will do with all that time.

We will be asleep for a total 8,477 days. If we're lucky, some of the time will be sleeping next to someone we love.

We will be in the process of eating, drinking, or preparing food for 1,635 days.

We will be at work, hopefully doing something satisfying, for the equivalent of 3,202 of those days.

1,099 days will be spent commuting or travelling from one place to another, maybe a little bit more if you live in LA, NY, or some metropolis area.

On average we will watch television in one form or another for a total of 2,676 days.

Household activities, like chores and tending to our pets and shopping, will take another 1,576 days.

And we will care for the needs and well-being of others, our friends and family, for 564 days.

We will spend 671 days bathing, grooming, and doing all other bathroom-related activities.

And another 720 days will go to community activities like religious and civic duties, charities, and taking classes.

After we remove all those beans from the pile, what remains is the time that we have left: 2,740 days.

Time for laughing, swimming, making art, going on hikes, text messages, reading, checking Facebook, playing softball, and maybe even teaching yourself how to play the guitar.

So, what are you going to do with this time? How much of it do you think you've already used up? If you only had half of it, what would you do differently? What about half of that? How much time have you already spent worrying instead of doing something that you love?

What if you just had one more day? What are you going to do today?