We are told that life-expectancies are lengthening and that we might not be adapting sufficiently to this change.

What’s In a Name — AThetaLife?

AThetaLife is built around a simple but uncomfortable truth: Time is always moving whether we are managing it or not.

But longer lives might not automatically be better-prepared lives. Many people still reach later stages of life under-financed, under-planned and unsure of how their earlier choices shaped the future they now face.

Enter AThetaLife. The name comes partly from the idea of “Theta” in options trading. In finance, Theta describes the loss of value that occurs as time passes. Nothing dramatic has to happen. No crisis is required. The investment-option simply loses time-value as it moves closer to its expiration. In ancient Greek culture, Theta (Θ/θ) was used as a symbol of death and bad fate. Death represented the end of potential, the loss of remaining time and a loss of value. Theta became linked to the idea of depleted worth.

Human life follows a similar pattern. Our life-time quietly decreases; so slowly as to be ignored. This gradual, constant time-drain is not something we actively watch --particularly while young-- which is why we find it easy to delay decisions, postpone goals and under-prepare for retirement. And with life-expectancies continuing to lengthen, we are further comforted that there will be enough future-time within which to fix past-time.

In financial trading, Theta is watched carefully. Traders know too well that time-decay is silent, constant and irreversible. AThetaLife intends to apply that same level of vigilance to human lifespans. It is not to prompt foreboding but to create a clarifying comfort of our distant future. Being able to view a timeline that approximates a lifespan, is the first step toward full awareness of our limited, personal time.

The term for this visualizing-of-time is reification. When a person can see a life-span (time) as if it were a physical thing (timeline), that time becomes less abstract. A year or a decade are no longer just numbers. They become a viewable form, a measurable space. When displayed as a progress bar we can view the length of our past years and our remaining future years.

So the simple purpose of AThetaLife is to help people see their lifespans with some perspective. Of equal import is to encourage the documenting of our past years and to think more intentionally about the years that remain. Your best use of AThetaLife's timeline will likely be the surprising popularity of your autobiographical experiences amidst other family legacies.

Of course life-time will keep draining as it always has. This is the Theta of our lives. A Theta Life is a life of supreme appreciation for the ultimate gift. It is a life that demonstrates such appreciation through its contributions; to family, community and society. The question is whether we can be worthy of our life-time and attend to it, early enough, to use it well.