Despite us knowing that we will all, one day, die, many of us fail to recognise, or at least, accept, what this really means for us;
that time is
finite,
and that,
each passing day,
each passing hour, minute, second, even, brings us one step closer to our ‘end point’
i.e., it brings us one step closer to our death…
With our ignorance to this universal, inescapable fact of life- the fact that we will all die- the vast majority of us spend our lives essentially ‘floating about’, performing one menial, futile, even, task after another, never stopping to question if what we are doing with our lives is bringing us happiness.*
(*Genuine happiness, not just ‘surface-level’ happiness).
To reinforce our limited time here on earth, we should all be asking ourselves;
‘Would I still be feeling stressed out about that window that needs cleaning,
or,
feeling ‘upset’ about that hair dye that turned out wrong,
if I were to be told; ‘tomorrow is your last day?’ No, I’m sure you- we– wouldn’t. Whereas, to the question; ‘Would I be filled with regret for all the things which I didn’t do, for all the times that I ‘put it off until tomorrow’, and yet, tomorrow never came?, the answer is ‘yes‘, I’m sure we all would (be filled with regret, that is)…
The issue we have though is that, with time being as finite as it is, we can only do so much with it, meaning that there will always be an opportunity cost for the things which we have not had time to do.
Now, it is precisely because of these inevitable opportunity costs we all face, as mentioned above, that we must prioritise the things we do based on how important they are to us, and, based on whether or not they will contribute to us achieving our purpose in life, and leaving the legacy that we want to leave.
The sad fact of the matter though is that too many of us will get to the end of our lives having failed to prioritise what really matters, and, with that in mind, too many of us will have also, in turn, failed to achieve our full potential/we’ll have failed to realise our dreams…
My hope for this post is that it helps to stop so many of us from reaching the end having never considered whether what we are doing with our lives is what we truly want to be doing with them, or whether what we are essentially doing is ‘just passing the time.’
More than that though, my hope for this post is that it serves as a reminder, a stark reminder, for us all to;
Be mindful of our finite time on earth,
to;
never take today for granted
& to;
always do the things which make us feel happy,
whilst asking ourselves;
‘What legacy do I want to leave?’,
&
‘Is what I’m doing today going to help me to leave that legacy?’
If the answer to the latter is no, then take steps today (not tomorrow for, we know that tomorrow never comes), to do what you really want to do with your life/to leave the legacy which you really want to leave. Do this, and you will get to the end knowing that you have lived out your life’s purpose–
a good life.
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