If you’ve ever watched the movie “Saving Private Ryan,” you probably remember the ending scene where Captain Miller pulls Private Ryan aside before dying and tells him two words 

“Earn this.” 

It kind of flew past me upon my first few watches, but I’ve been reflecting on it more recently. 

Throughout the film, eight men risk their lives trying to save one man, and most of them die doing so. Logically speaking, it makes no sense. How could one life possibly outweigh eight others? And yet, they go anyway. And with his dying breath, Captain Miller tells Ryan to “earn this.” Not because Ryan could somehow become worth the lives sacrifice for him, but because he now carries a responsibility to the fallen to make the most of the life he was given. 

I don’t think Captain Miller’s “earn this” meant that Ryan deserved their sacrifice. I don’t think Miller thought Ryan’s life was worth more than that of his men to “earn” the value of their sacrifice. 

Instead, I think he was just telling Ryan to not waste the life he’s been given. 

I’ve been thinking about what that means for my own life. When I take a moment to step back to look at the opportunities that have been afforded to me, I start to realize how unbelievable they are and that I could never completely “earn” it.

There are people smarter than me, more disciplined than me, more gifted than me. There’s no chance I was the most “deserving” person to be afforded my opportunities. 

So then, what would it mean for me to “earn it?” From where I am, I think it means to refuse to drift through life once you’ve been given a chance. 

I think one of the scariest things about life is that nobody plans to wake up in the morning and consciously decide “I’m going to waste my life away.” It usually happens 15 seconds at a time: one more scroll, one more hour online. You start being complacent and allow yourself to start slipping. 

And honestly, that drifting worries me more than failure does. I don’t want to suddenly look back years from now and realize that I had wasted such amazing opportunities since I was too busy scrolling on tik tok. 

If I want to make the most of my life, I need to build systems that put intentional friction in my life to prevent drifting.

Deleting apps that consume hours of my time. Making it harder to scroll. Spending more time with the people I admire. Taking care of my body so I have the energy to be present in my life. 

It’s true that none of these habits are revolutionary: but I think that the fact a meaningful life is wasted through small repeated choices means that it’s probably built the same way too.