Make the Dash Count
Today at a Glance
- One year ago, my family came together to mourn the loss of my grandmother. Reflecting on the experience later, I was struck by one thing: The card for the memorial had her date of birth and date of death, with a simple dash in between.
- That dash holds everything. Every ounce of a person's life captured in that single, small, insignificant line.
- The experience sparked one idea I can't stop thinking about: Make the dash count.
- This piece is derived from concepts explored in depth in my upcoming book, The 5 Types of Wealth. Preorder and unlock exclusive bonuses here.
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One year ago, my family came together to mourn the loss of my grandmother.
We stood in a circle in my parents' garden, shared reflections, and told stories of our fondest memories with her: How she impacted us, how we would remember her long after she was gone.
It was beautiful—much more a celebration of her life than a mourning of her death.
Reflecting on the experience later, I was struck by one thing:
The card for the memorial had her date of birth and date of death, with a simple dash in between.
To be sure, this was not out of the ordinary. Go to any graveyard in the world and you will find thousands of gravestones with the same simple marking.
But in the midst of this beautiful memorial of her life, I couldn't get the tiny dash off my mind.
That dash holds everything. Every ounce of a person's life captured in that single, small, insignificant line.
Every hope. Every dream. Every success and failure. Every heartbreak and struggle. Every fear, stress, and joy. The seasons of love and the seasons of loss.
All of it. An entire life. Everything held in a single dash.
On the surface, it's tragic. Yet somehow, elegant, perfect—the complexities of life distilled into something so beautifully simple.
The experience sparked one idea I can't stop thinking about:
Make the dash count.
Time is the Most Precious Asset
In his On the Shortness of Life, the Stoic philosopher Seneca writes, "We are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it...life is long if you know how to use it."
The Stoic concept of Memento Mori—a Latin phrase that translates to "remember that you must die"—is a reminder of the certainty and inescapability of death.
It is not intended to be morbid or dark, but to clarify, illuminate, and inspire.
Some modern day Stoics have taken to using a Memento Mori calendar, which tracks the passage of time in one's life. Each box on the calendar represents a week of life. One row represents a year (52 boxes across), and there are 80 rows (for ~80 years of life). Each week, one box is filled in, providing a very clear reminder of time passed and time remaining.
To me, this is about awareness. Awareness of the precious nature of the time you do have.
It is about embracing the shortness of life and finding joy in ordinary daily moments of beauty.
Make the dash count.
"It Goes By Fast, Cherish It"
On a warm Friday afternoon in the summer of 2022, I was out on a walk with my newborn son when an old man approached me on the sidewalk.
He flashed a knowing smile and said, "I remember standing here with my newborn daughter. Well, she’s 45 now. It goes by fast—cherish it."
It hit me hard.
Time is your ultimate currency—it's all you have and you can never get it back.
You are creating your dash every single day. You are living the dash. That one, single, tiny dash is all you get.
What do you want your dash to say about who you were, about how you lived, about how you loved?
What are you doing with your one wild, crazy dash?
Make the dash count.
P.S. Several readers sent me a beautiful poem called The Dash by Linda Ellis. It's wonderful! You can find it here!
