Future Tool #4 You Have a Lot of Time Left Think of your life as a horizontal straight line. At the beginning of the line, put a 0 to represent the day you were born. At the end of the line, put the number 100. Now, tick on the appropriate area in between these two numbers your age now. As you look at this dia- gram, see the space that represents the time you have already lived, then look at how much time you possi- bly have left to live. I call this tool the future diagram to help you consider how much of your life you might have left. If you are planning on living until you are one hundred years old (which is not unrealistic when you consider the advances that will be made in science over the next twenty years), how many years do you have left to live? For some of you, you have more life to live than you have already lived. When you further consider that the first fifteen years of your life you were living according to the demands of school and the wishes of your parents, you have a much more self-defined life to live in your future than you might have already experienced. 192 • If IAm So Smart, Why Can’t I Lose Weight?