How would you spend your last day on earth?
Imagine you were to just know that tomorrow was the last day you’ll ever wake up.
It’s weird to think about, but how do you think you would spend that day?
You certainly won’t have enough time for a vacation or to finally visit a place which you’ve always wanted to.
You probably won’t have time to do that thing you’ve always put off.
You would probably choose to spend it with your closest people, squeezing every moment, eating anything you’d like and certainly not worrying about money.
The question is, why don’t we all live like this already?
Why do we wait until it’s too late to actually use our time on things we want to?
Just why?
There’s no way to know when our last day is, but one thing is for certain, it will hit us all at some point.
Why gamble with the time we do get and only do the “necessary” things in life?
Why do most of us put our entire lives in someone else’s hands?
Why do most choose to work at places because of money but don’t really enjoy and end up missing their entire lives?
There’s a lot of why’s now, and there will be a lot of why’s later in life if you continue this path.
It’s extremely difficult to live every day as if it were our last, but the message is very clear – squeeze every moment you get, be present now and do things you want while you can.
I promise it won’t be very pleasant to turn 70 and have a huge trail of why’s hanging behind you.
I promise you will regret the things which you didn’t act upon.
When you wake up that next day, you know it’s your last.
The fear of wasting this last piece of time is building up inside you.
This was the last time you woke up.
You look back at all the things you’ve done and wonder, is there something I could’ve done differently?
Perhaps you regret spending too much time and energy on working.
Perhaps you had a lot of visions and dreams which all got sacrificed due to a job.
Maybe you had a great career that you’re very proud of and made part of your life.
Maybe you did everything you ever wanted and are very pleased with where you tie the bag.
We constantly look to our past to see what we could’ve done differently and when a similar situation comes by, we know exactly how to respond to.
The thing is, it could all be too late by then.
Thankfully no one can know when their last day to live is, so we won’t have to worry about wasting that one day.
However, since we don’t know when our time is up, wouldn’t it make sense to apply this thinking to every day?
Making the most out of our time.
Exploring the things we want to explore.
Because instead, we risk wasting our entire lives – not just one day.
If we are to just wait for time to tell us what we could’ve done differently, there’s no certainty we’ll be able to change anything.
Like Steve Jobs said in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, look yourself in the mirror each day and ask yourself: If today were your last day to live, would you still do what you’re about to do today?
And when the answer has been no for too many days in a row, you know you need to change something…
PS. Skip to 9:03 if you don’t want to watch the entire thing…