... it saves you the trouble of counting them.

And MakeEverySecondCunt

... it saves you the trouble of counting them.

Sorry, CouldNotResist

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Many things can happen in a lifetime that makes it almost feel worth living. Making friends. Falling in love. Being loved. But most of it is ephemeral. Every time a friendship breaks or you realize love was only an illusion, you risk being left with emptiness. What is the point of your life? What difference would it have made if you were never born?

To be able to hold on to life, something is needed that you can rely on. You need to be sure that there is something to fall back on when everything else fails. Let me tell you what that is: To enjoy it while it lasts. To learn new things, to ''do'' as much as possible. Sure, love must die, but at least you had so many years, months, weeks -- or even days -- of bliss. Those were some well-used seconds of your life. You'd better start thinking about putting the remaining seconds to good use too.

And if at all possible, make a difference. Make sure that at your death bed, when you ask yourself "would it have made a difference if I was never born?" you are able to say yes. Yes, I have left an imprint on this world. It wouldn't have been quite the same without me. It could be ever the smallest thing, like having helped a woman across the street. That makes a difference. You have interacted with the world, changed its fate. The plan is to do all the things a time traveler is not allowed to do.

Whether you are religious or not, pretend God asks you when you die, "What have you done with the time I have given to you?" And make sure you have a good answer.

These are not necessarily things that give you a ''reason'' to live. But they may make the stay bearable. -- MattiasFlodin

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Unlike other resources that one may or may not have at one's command, Time is not negotiable.  It passes, and there's nothing else you can exchange to get it back.  I have learned not to simply trade my time for money, because it is far more valuable than that.

I would also raise the bar Mattias set - instead of just making a difference, I seek to leave the world in a better state than when I found it.  Whether that's creating new technology that improves the human condition, and tools that spread freedom and the ability to express oneself more creatively, empathizing and supporting friends through their trials and troubles, setting an example and teaching my sons to be good people, or just preparing myself for future unknown battles; I'm not sure what my final contributions will be.  But that is the path that I have set before myself.

-- DerekWoolverton

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Life is too short to be in a hurry.