Today , take a moment and think about the people In your life who need to be cherished , appreciated And told that their support has been helpful .
42 . The Value of Dying Daily
I have no desire to be the richest person in the graveyard . To me , a life well lived is mostly about being surrounded by people I love , staying healthy and happy ( no one ’ s happy all the time , except in the movies , by the way ), stepping toward my highest potential each day , doing work I love and having an impact on the world around me . so how can you stay focused on the things that are most important to you amidst the daily pressures of life ? Die daily .
I wrote about this in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari , but the point of wisdom bears repeating : Connecting to the fact that life is short and no one knows when it will end is a great personal habit to stay centered on your highest priorities . Walking up each morning and asking yourself , “ How would I show up today if this day was my last ?” is not some cheesy motivational exercise . It ’ s a profound way to bring some urgency and commitment into your days . Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it far more powerfully than I ever could when he observed : “ No one wants to die . Even people who want to go to heaven don ’ t want to die to get there . And yet death is the destination we all share . No one has ever escaped it . And that is as it should be , because death is very likely the single best invention of life .”
Most of us let life act on us – we are asleep at the wheel of our own lives . And the days really do slip into weeks , the weeks into months and the months into years . Before we know it , we are lying on our deathbeds , wondering where all the time went . I ’ ve talked to a lot of elderly people who express that very sentiment , with tears in their eyes . A participant in a recent seminar made the point beautifully , sharing the following quote from one of his family members with me : “ When the sun shone and the shops were invitingly open – alas – I forgot my shopping . Now the night has fallen – and I remember my shopping .”