Imagine for a moment what it would be like, a day you knew in advance would be your last on Earth. Imagine what it would be like to wake up for the last time; how much love you would feel for the people around you; how amazing it would be to look out over the sea one last time, or, quite simply; how much you would enjoy that last cup of coffee.
The only sure thing in your life is that it comes with an expiry date: Sooner or later there is a final time for everything. Both that which bores you to death, that which irritates you to no end, and all that which you care infinitely about you will at one point or another experience for the last time.
Neither a stupid comment from a colleague, the time you waste in some sickeningly long phone queue, or the fact that you have made a fool of yourself is something you need to waste your energy on if (you choose to believe that) you will never experience it again.
You probably won't know until much later.
But one day you see the sun go down over the sea, it will be the last time you will see just that. One night, it's the last time you read a bedtime story to your child. Maybe you've already smoked your last cigarette and maybe—and some will probably hope that is the case—you've wasted an entire Sunday hung over for the last time.
Most of us have probably heard the phrase about living each day as if it were the last, implied: with full focus on the bucket list and without wasting any precious seconds.
Always so damn much to wing off and achieve.
However, living each day as if it were the last can also be understood as appreciating each day as if it were the last: an encouragement to stop and be grateful in the moment, instead of just doing and trying to achieve the most.
How indifferent we would be to many of the things we otherwise care about—status, appearance, income, you name it—if we knew for sure that in just a few hours we were going to have to check out . . . .
When you're in trouble, or stuck in something you can't even fathom, think about the fact that it could turn out to be the last time in your life that you're in that exact situation. Make it a habit to rejoice in any given day as if it would turn out to be your last.
Neither a stupid comment from a colleague, the time you waste in some sickeningly long phone queue, or the fact that you have made a fool of yourself is something you need to waste your energy on if (you choose to believe that) you will never experience it again. With that in mind, the unpleasant experiences just become things that happen in the present, while at the same time you have the energy to smile and find peace in the larger perspective.
Not that we need to smile at everything that happens.
But having a fundamental gratitude for existing and for experiencing and being with the people you have around you is perhaps what more than anything else defines the good life.
Peace out 💚🌍
