BY JEFF CORBETT

Most of us think of our lives as a straight line, running from birth to death. May I offer you a different, broader perspective?

Your life is not just one year after another (linear), but rather it is three-dimensional, having depth, length, and width.

The length is obviously your lifespan.

Depth is that dimension that is the inner you. It includes how much you learn, how much you improve yourself, how compassionate you are to others, and your constant attention toward deepening your understanding of things both worldly and spiritual.

I had never thought about life having width until I ran across this quote from American author Diane Ackerman: “I don’t want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.”

The width of life is one of those phrases that looks simple until you stare at it long enough and realize it’s actually a doorway.

Defining ‘Width’

If length of life is how long you live, the width of life is how fully you live — how much attention, curiosity, connection, courage, and presence you pack into to your days.

We often obsess over the length of life: your years, milestones, and longevity. But the width is everything that makes those years feel inhabited, memorable, and savored, rather than merely endured.

Width includes:
· Breadth of experience — how many corners of yourself and the world you explore;
· Emotional range — how deeply you allow yourself to feel.
· Relationships — not how many, but how real.
· Attention — the ability to actually notice your own life, to optimize it
· Risk and courage — the willingness to step outside the narrow hallway of routine.
· Contribution — the imprint you leave on others. Contribution is the part of you that becomes part of someone else.
· Wonder — the ability to be surprised, even late in the game. When is the last time you felt joy in your life? What made it happen?

As we age into adulthood, we settle for the familiar. That’s when joy, awe, and wonder slowly disappear.

The River of Life

Imagine life as a river. Length is how far it runs. Depth is how deep it is.

Width is how much water actually moves through it — how alive it is, how much it carries, how many banks it touches.

A long, narrow trickle is technically a river. A shorter, wider, rushing one changes the landscape.

A traveler once complained that his life felt small. An old gardener replied, “Then stop measuring it by the path you walk. Measure it by the shadows you cast.”

Focus on the advantages of living a three-dimensional life, with an emphasis on going wide. Shift your perspective and you’ll live more fully!

Healthspan vs. Lifespan

Earlier in this column, we talked about lifespan. Now, there’s an alternative for you, an approach known as healthspan.

The Mayo Clinic tells us that “the simplest answer to how these two differ is to paraphrase a quote from President John F. Kennedy: ‘It is not enough for a great nation merely to have added new years to life — our objective must also be to add new life to those years.’ ”

Mayo continues, “We are trying to optimize the number of active, healthy and productive years that you enjoy. Lifespan refers to the total number of years a person lives, from birth to death. Healthspan is a concept that focuses on the number of those years that a person remains free of significant illness or disease.”

Yes, you guessed it, this is all about quality of life, throughout your entire life.

Living Longer and Better

Scientists are working to do two things at once — to increase the number of years you live and to make those years healthy ones for you.

Dog owners, listen up: “Healthy-life-extending treatment is now being tested on dogs whose owners are eager to keep their beloved pets around as long as possible,” according to a March 2025 article in Smithsonian Magazine.

The article, entitled “The Healthspan Paradigm,” notes that “the average number of years of good health people enjoy—their healthspan—hasn’t been growing as quickly as lifespan. In the U.S., the average person can expect to experience nearly 13 years of relatively poor health in late life, compared to fewer than 11 years in 1990, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.”

There is a bright side in this same article. João Pedro de Magalhães, a professor of molecular biogerontology at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said “the goal is to extend lifespan while having the health of someone 20 years younger.”

How healthy you will be throughout your life is not set in stone. You have the amazing power to choose a lifestyle and practice healthy habits that will fill your years with energy while living your life to its fullest.

There’s an old saying that rings true here: “You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough.”

Final Thoughts

Steve Goodier, in Do Something Great, tells the story of how President Abraham Lincoln would often leave the White House to attend Wednesday evening services at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, led by the noted Dr. Phineas Gurley.

Lincoln preferred to not be noticed, so he gave Dr. Gurley advance notice of his attendance, and the minister would leave his study open. The pastor’s study adjoined the sanctuary, and from there Lincoln could hear the sermon in private.

After one such evening, walking back to the White House, an aide inquired of Lincoln’s thoughts on the sermon.

After a moment of thought, Lincoln responded, “The content was excellent, he delivered with eloquence, and it was obvious he had put hard work into creating his message.”

The aide quizzed back, “So you thought it was excellent?”

“No,” replied Lincoln.

Puzzled, the aide pressed for an explanation. “But you just said it reflected much work, that Dr. Gurley was eloquent, and the content was meaningful.”

“Yes, that is true,” Lincoln replied. “But he forgot the most important thing. He forgot to challenge us to do something great.”

In the spirit of Lincoln, may I close with a double challenge for you?

First, consider adopting the philosophy that your life is three-dimensional, in length, depth, and width. Focus on the width of yours, go big and go wide.

That approach will uncover amazing possibilities for you that you may have never considered.

Secondly, live your coming years with the healthspan concept as your guiding light. Focus on the quality of your life, not just on piling up decades of being here.

It will change the way you think and live.

Jeff Corbett is an experienced public speaker, meeting facilitator and sales and marketing professional. He lives in Statesville. He can be reached at jeff@speak-well.com.