Young's Hundred Year Test

I try to helicopter up when considering how much things truly 'matter' - or don't matter.

To help me do that, I have what I call my 'hundred year test'.

How this works is that we simply imagine people talking about this particular situation one hundred years from now. We ask ourselves "Who’s going to give a f&@# in a hundred years?" (feel free to drop the 'f&@#' but I find the use of an Anglo Saxon epithet helps me to focus).

We consider what they would think about our reaction or actions to the situation. How would those 22nd century people view what we - long dead in this future time - are reacting to today?

If we think 'over-reacting', or 'worrying about nothing', then we tone down our response in the now. If we get a 'this is important', and 'this will still be important' then we need do something constructive about the circumstance we find ourselves in.

This simple test is surprisingly useful. It also helps us to simply let go of things that aren't that important.

As far as I know, this is entirely my own idea, developed and used by myself for probably the last ten or so years. It is possible that this idea is based from something that I have read, or from an amalgamation of other concepts, but to the best of my ability, it is my own construct.

Feel free to use it :-)

Sam