How many times have you told yourself ‘not today’? You want to see the world, but not now. You want to switch jobs, spend more time with your kids, take that trip, start the hobby you’ve been thinking about for five years, but the timing isn’t right. There’s always another deadline, another month of bills to cover, another reason to wait. Most of us are in this loop. We postpone everything that matters and show up for everything that doesn’t. We tell ourselves, ‘It’s okay, we can do it tomorrow’, but what if life has other plans the next day? But life doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t wait. And one day, you’ll realise the postponement has become permanent. Dr Dhivya Dhyana, a Malaysian doctor in Australia, watched this happen to a patient. A 68-year-old man came into her ER (emergency room) with cardiac arrest and never walked out.
The holiday he never took
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In a video shared on Instagram, Dr Dhyana recalled the man who walked into the hospital and never made it back. “I had a 68-year-old patient who came in with a cardiac arrest yesterday. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it,” she said. According to the doctor, that isn’t even the worst part. “The worst part is what the wife told us after he passed away.”The real story began decades ago. This man worked the same job for 37 years. Not because he loved it. Not because he was building something. Just because that’s what you do when you have a family to feed. So he worked hard. He skipped family holidays. He didn’t take his annual leave. He showed up sick when he should have been resting. While everyone around him lived a life, he was still at the desk, putting in the hours, telling himself the same thing millions of people tell themselves: work now, live later. For 37 years, he sacrificed his valuable time with his family and friends, all because he put work above himself. And finally, after 37 years, it was time for him to retire. He was about to enjoy his first hard-earned holiday. But two months later, he collapsed. He didn’t survive.“They were planning to go on their first holiday, a month-long holiday in August to travel and see the world. They had everything booked,” the doctor said.But he never took that holiday. He didn’t make it to August. And just like that, his time on Earth was over.
Was the sacrifice worth it?
Dr Dhyana found this incident deeply troubling because this wasn’t just one man’s story. There are dozens of people like him. The ones grinding through careers they tolerate at best, sacrificing their health, their relationships, their youth, convinced that someday it will all pay off. But life does not work that way. “I can’t help thinking how many people I know who are like this. You work so hard for a job that most of you don’t even like. You sacrifice so much of your time, your freedom, your health, because you put your job above yourself.” She also asked something that cuts deep: what’s the point of this rat race? “Everyone is running in a rat race. Everyone wants to finish, but finish what, though? Where’s the end? After you’ve lost all your youth? After your children have all grown up and have their own lives? Or when you’re too old, too tired, and too sick to actually enjoy life? What’s the point? I don’t think this is how life is supposed to be,” she said.
Don’t wait to live
Dr Dhyana also shared something that may raise eyebrows. She is asking about the point of devoting one’s whole life to work. “I think unless you are running your own company or your own business, where you’re trying to build a legacy for yourself.” She is not suggesting people work half-heartedly or without integrity. Showing up to work matters. But there’s a difference between working hard and working so hard that you evaporate in the process.“I’m just saying that you shouldn’t sacrifice so much of yourself that you end up losing your best years of life. Because work alone is not life. Take your annual leave, take your sick leave. These are your entitlements. Go on holiday. Take care of your health. Take breaks. Put yourself first. Most of the people I know are slogging so hard at a job that will give them nothing but a jamuan at the end of your retirement,” she said.The doctor also shared something profound. Life is so short. Sacrificing your prime years thinking you’ll enjoy everything later doesn’t make sense. Because you don’t even know whether there is a tomorrow.
