Illness is a Chance to Redesign Your Life: What 'DIE WITH ZERO' Taught Me About Life After Illness

Hello!

Following the previous post, this is the second half of my review of the book 'DIE WITH ZERO'.

In the first half, I introduced the core arguments of the author, Bill Perkins, while incorporating quotes from the text. It was a book with many memorable messages, such as 'spend money on things you can only do now' and 'life is the sum of your experiences'.

It has been five years since its release in 2020, but it remains a long-selling book that continues to rank high. I'm sure many of you have seen it in bookstores.

This is the cover of the book. The obi strip says, '9 absolute rules for maximizing money and time in a limited life' and 'The new bible for money and life'.

Influenced by these taglines on the obi and reviews, many people might perceive this book as a 'money book'. Of course, how to spend money is one of the themes. However, having recently reread this book, I strongly felt that it is not a 'money book', but a book about life optimization—specifically, what to use your resource of time for and how.

In this article, I would like to organize why I felt that way and the messages that resonated with me precisely because I have experienced illness.

Those days when I dedicated all my 'time' to work

I developed depression due to work and was on leave for about two years. When I look back at my diary from the time I got sick, these words were written:

“I am working to live, yet work occupies the majority of my life. I don't really know what I am working for or what I am living for.”

At the time, I was working full-time plus overtime, and I was using most of my life's time for work, both physically and mentally. Even while commuting between home and the office, and even after returning home, my head was always full of work.

Just as my diary from back then said, before I knew it, most of my time for 'living' was filled up with 'work'.

I was supposed to be working to live, but my life was being squeezed by work. I was struggling with that contradiction. Looking back now, I think I believed that 'the way to make life better was to work as hard as possible'. I believed that 'working hard is the only path to happiness', and I lived a life entirely focused on work.

What illness taught me

It was illness that forcibly gave me 'time to stop'. As my return to work approached and I was in a situation with no other options, I strongly felt that I had to change how I worked and lived, and that was when I encountered 'DIE WITH ZERO'.

I would like you to read the first half for details, but to explain it very roughly:

“Life is the sum of experiences.”
“The best life is one with many memories.”

These words are the framework of this book and became my guide for thinking about how to live after illness. The best life is not about how much money you have, but about how many 'memories (experiences)' you have.

To that end, I realized that being conscious of what and how we distribute our only resource, 'time', is the key to enriching our lives.

'Time allocation' is the way to enrich life

In his book, author Bill Perkins discusses how to balance money, time, and health. However, I believe that if you boil it down, it is all a matter of time allocation.

• To earn money, you allocate time to 'work'.

• To maintain health, you allocate time to 'rest' and 'exercise'.

• To gain experience, you allocate time to 'play' and 'learning'.

Everything is about how you use the limited resource that is time.

The author uses the term 'life energy,' but I found it easier to apply to real life by thinking of it as 'time'.

You shouldn't spend too much time trying to earn money. You cannot be happy if you spend all your life's time on work. I feel that just realizing this fact made reading this book well worth it.

Thinking about how to use time to avoid 'regret'

In 'DIE WITH ZERO,' the author repeatedly says this:

'Spend your time on things you can only do now.'

No matter how much money you have, there are challenges you can only take on while you have the physical strength, and things you can only do while your children are young. In this way, there are 'things you can only do' during certain life stages. Of course, there are also things you must do. Life experiences have their own 'prime time'.

It is said that many people have this regret just before they die:

'I wish I hadn't worked so hard.'
'I wish I had spent more time with my family.'

I was the same way. Many of life's regrets are born not from how we spend our money, but from the accumulation of choices regarding 'what we spent our time on and how.' Conversely, I believe that if you are conscious of how you use your time, you can reduce your regrets.

Illness is not an 'end' but a 'chance to redesign'

If there is anyone reading this article who feels that because of an illness, they 'can no longer work like before' or that 'their life is over,' I have something I want to tell you.

Getting sick is not the end of your life. Rather, it is a chance to rethink how you live. The 'time to pause' that you gained through illness is a precious opportunity to redesign how you will live from here on out.

What were you spending your time on in your life until now?
Work, child-rearing, relationships...

In my case, it was work. I didn't realize that my way of using time was too skewed, and I ended up breaking both my mind and body. But it was precisely because of that experience that I was able to rethink my way of life. Now that I have been reborn through illness, it is a chance to accumulate new 'experiences' and increase my memories.

Conclusion

What 'DIE WITH ZERO' teaches us is that the best life is one filled with a wealth of experiences.

I believe what matters is choosing for yourself 'how and on what you will spend the time you have left in life.' How you spend your time is your life itself. Please try allocating a little bit of your time resource toward experiences that move your heart.

I believe that will be a step toward making your life ahead even richer! Wishing you all the best in your life after illness!

I have compiled articles regarding returning to work below.