Soccer. It’s A Lot Like Life.

Last month, virtually the entire world was caught up in “football fever” as the quadrennial World Cup soccer tournament came to North America.

While I am not a soccer fan, I nevertheless found myself sitting down to watch a few games and was especially taken by the concept of “stoppage time;” that is, the time added onto the end of every game to account for injuries, substitutions, penalties, and other delays.

That’s because this “added time” seemed to me to be an interesting metaphor for life.

In soccer—unlike in other time-bound sports—the clock keeps running, regardless of what’s happening on the field. There are NO time-outs.

Such is the case with life.

The clock starts ticking the instant we take our first breath—and it keeps on ticking at the same, steady pace until the instant we take our last. Regardless of what happens in between.

Similarly, while each team has somewhat of a sense of how much added time they have following their 90-minutes of regulation time, only the referees know precisely how much time that is. And that’s complicated further by the fact that additional time can be adding DURING the stoppage time!

So none of the players truly knows how much time is left until the final whistle is blown.

Just like life.

Even more remarkable is the fact that, no matter the score, these players keep playing their hardest until the bitter end.

No “taking a knee” like in American football. Or running out the clock like in basketball. Or, if you’re the home team in baseball and you’re in the lead in the middle of the ninth inning, forgoing your final at bats.

In soccer, they keep on playing until the referees call, “TIME!”

As we enter older adulthood, questions about our own mortality can creep into our thoughts—especially as we begin to consider our health spans and our wealth spans.

Will we be able to enjoy our older age in good health? And, just as importantly, will our money last as long as we do?

For those of us who can’t possibly know for sure, these are sobering thoughts.

On the other hand, as we’re confronted by these practical realities, how much time are we spending thinking about how we’d like to spend our own “stoppage time,” especially considering none of us knows exactly how long that will last?

I suspect the answer for many of us is, “Not enough.”

Several years ago when my daughter was heading off to the University of Texas for college, MLB pitcher Huston Street, a UT alum and at-the-time pitcher for the Colorado Rockies gave her and several other of her fellow UT freshmen a piece of advice that has stuck with me ever since:

“Never have a lazy day.”

Now, I suspect he didn’t mean, “never take time off.” What I believe he meant was, “make the most of every minute you’re given.” Be intentional with your time. Decide how you want to spend it—and then spend it that way.

So often we get so caught up in the busyness of our daily lives that we forget to consider how we’re actually spending our time.

While it’s unrealistic to think that most of us will have the privilege of spending every minute of every day doing exactly what we want to do, I do think it’s important for us to at least carve out some time—if not daily, then at least as frequently as we can manage—to do the things that fill us up. Make us happy. Give us a sense of purpose. Enable us to pursue our dreams.

I’m not saying we should all play as hard as we can until the last possible second. That certainly is NOT how I want to spend my “stoppage time.”

But making time to do at least some of the things we want to do—travel, garden, read, go to the movies, have friends over for dinner, take a class, go for a walk, volunteer, advocate for a cause you believe in, learn a new skill, spend time with loved ones, even just sit someplace quite and comfortable and breathe—is vital to our physical and mental health and well-being, especially when we’re older adults.

I’ve had the privilege of being surrounded by a number of super-agers throughout my life—people who’ve lived (and thrived) well into their 90’s and beyond. And one lesson I’ve learned from watching and listening to them over the years is, “No matter how long you live, life’s too short.”

Which begs the question: HOW ARE YOU GOING TO SPEND YOUR STOPPAGE TIME?