I inspire new possibilities to deepen love, intimacy and self-expression. I mainly write articles about that, but you'll also find refrences on design, fitness and finance. More
Time is important. Time is limited. Remember you're going to die one day. We all know these things but why do we act as if we'll live forever?
We seem to know the value of time when we say we gave someone “our best years” and when we speak of time as something we sacrificed. On the other hand we give our time away so easily. It’s because we don’t see the loss. We can look behind us and see the time we’ve spent, but there’s no clear end we can see in the future, so we pretend it’s not there. We don’t have a visceral feeling that our time is limited and when it’s gone we’re gone. How many days do you think you’ll live if you get to 80? Most get a feeling it’s such a high number it’s not even worth counting, like “a million.” But it’s really just above 29,000. If you’re already 26 years old, you can cut that number by a third. That’s what you have left. If you’re lucky. What have you got to show for the time you’ve killed? Years of unfulfilling work? Tasks ticked off? A house full of junk? A pile of obligations we failed to say no to?
We often avoid looking deeply into reality because it threatens us. Reality is the unknown and we’re not prepared for it. Sure, you’re prepared for some of it, but even what you think you know will likely prove out to be false one day. It’s a deep-seated fear, which is why we prefer our illusions. With this in mind, it’s understandable that the reality of our death is something we prefer to ignore.
This is unfortunate though because keeping our death in mind can actually bring more appreciation and awareness to the time we do have left. Each morning you can ask yourself, “is this the day I die?” One of these days the answer to that question is, “yes.” Are you ready for it? Are you doing all you need to in order to die in peace? Injecting a sense of death deepens any moment. Don’t mistake depth for seriousness. The point is not to be somber but to connect you to your deepest values. It’s when the horizon of your end comes into view and gives you perspective on this moment. Learn to die in order to learn to live.
Do not confuse it with living as if you’ll die tomorrow because that would lead to very reckless behaviour. Rather, act with the awareness that it might happen tomorrow. Or imagine you’re a soldier about to be deployed and you don’t know if you’ll come back. How would you want to leave things? What would you make time for? What wouldn’t you make time for?
"As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death."
— Da Vinci
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Spend your time wisely