Memento Mori

The reminder so many of us desperately need…

You could die right now.

Don’t believe me? Let’s go on a quick journey together in the many ways you could leave life at this very moment.

You walk across a street — a car obliterates you.

You sit in a chair — a heart attack strikes.

You’re eating food — it gets lodged in your throat, causing you to suffocate.

An earthquake occurs — the building you’re in collapses, crushing you.

You get the point. Although the odds of you dying right now are pretty low, there’s always a chance.

The Latin phrase Memento Mori translates to “you could leave life right now.”

This idea isn’t supposed to be depressing and daunting. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This saying is meant to remind us of our mortality.

So, how do we “LIVE NOW”?

We commit to creating the most fulfilling and impactful life we can imagine. We allow our intuition to guide us.

We acknowledge and operate on the foundational idea that a life guided by fear — full of regret — is unacceptable.

We recognize our only option is to live a life where we make our cup overflow, so we can share with others and continuously step into discomfort.

One of the best ways to immerse ourselves into this way of living is by acting with love instead of fear. Fear-based motivation is often short-lived and can leave a path of wreckage behind someone.

Love, however, can always become more infectious and leaves a positive impact wherever it goes.

Author, investor, and startup founder Kamal Ravikant shares a powerful guiding question in his book Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It.

Ravikant asks, “If I loved myself truly and deeply, what would I do right now?”

Acting in ways that show we don’t love ourselves is a hard thing to do. Who wants to look themself in the mirror and say, “I don’t love myself”?

Not many.

Such reflections are why this question helps us make the best choices possible. Pair this introspective experience with the sense of urgency from knowing you could die at any time, and you’re setting yourself up for a powerful life transformation.

Also, I recommend meditating on death right after waking up. It helps ensure you win the morning.

To end this week’s thoughts, enjoy this excerpt from Seneca:

“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”

Stay alive and thrive my friends.

(You can find the Momento Mori medallion here: https://store.dailystoic.com/products/memento-mori)

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases discussed in this article)