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English 10:27 TED Talks

What Happened When I Started Measuring My Life Every Day | Chris Musser | TED

TED · 28,102 views · Added 1 month ago

Subtitles (238 segments)

00:03

Can I get a show of hands if you use a wearable?

00:07

Fitbit, Oura, Apple Watch,

00:08

track your health, come on.

00:10

OK, OK, it's like 50 percent of you.

00:13

I love this.

00:14

So my question for us today,

00:16

for you, but also the non-wearables,

00:18

is what if we expanded from not just measuring our health

00:21

but to measuring all the important parts of our lives?

00:25

So this really started for me

00:27

right after I turned 25,

00:29

and I started to wake up in the middle of the night

00:31

pretty consistently with these panics.

00:33

A lot of folks wake up with to-do lists bouncing through their minds.

00:36

A lot of you maybe, some of you?

00:38

I had to-do lists, but I also had this major to-be list.

00:41

Really just will I be a good man,

00:43

will I live a good life?

00:46

And now, I'm a pretty insecure guy generally.

00:49

But I have this thing, I have one of those extremely encouraging moms.

00:54

Which maybe some of you have.

00:55

Mine is very likely more encouraging.

00:57

And so, with her voice in my mind,

00:59

I would basically answer the question,

01:01

yeah, I am going to live a good life.

01:03

In fact, maybe she's right, I will change millions of lives.

01:06

Maybe I'll be president.

01:08

So I had this narrative from 25 to about 33,

01:11

and then I hit 33.

01:13

And I haven't changed that many lives.

01:16

And I find out one day

01:18

that Bill Clinton was already a governor by 33,

01:22

which to most of you is no big deal.

01:24

But ask my wife, Ashley,

01:25

that broke me.

01:27

I think what happened is it kind of shattered

01:29

this, sort of, mom-induced megalomania I had,

01:32

and it made me take an actual look at my life.

01:34

And so I looked at my professional life,

01:37

but then what about my friendships?

01:39

What about my contributions to society, what about my character?

01:43

And honestly, I looked and I was fine,

01:47

but I wasn't thriving, I wasn't flourishing.

01:51

And so then it struck me,

01:52

you know, Chris, a lot of people don't live good lives.

01:56

Why do you think you would automatically be any different?

02:00

What if I wake up in 50 years

02:02

and I discover I have not become the man I wanted to be.

Full subtitles available in the video player

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