How would you live every day as if it were your last? Go skydiving? Attempt to ride a bull for 2.7 seconds? Kathleen Taylor has spent over 20 years as a counselor and community engagement facilitator for the dying and has found that in the last chapter of their lives, most people become their authentic selves. They become courageous – they change their minds, apologize, forgive… they find joy in the smallest moments. In this TEDx talk, Taylor urges us not to wait until we are at the end of our lives to find our true selves.
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We need to remind ourselves every day that today could be our last so make it count 🙂
What a lovely choice, Dennis.
“When you face death, most other things become insignificant.” These are my father’s words, thank God not his last, but his explanation why he rarely got offended or angry. The relationships were much more important to him so he assumed that the other person just misspoke/ had a bad day/ needed lunch or that he had misheard what was said. And by responding from this mindset, the situation usually resolved itself.
He lived this way for 50 years, spreading the same message as this TED talk, because he had been out there on the edge but got to come back to live what he had learned.
A rare man that puts the importance of relationships above all else – God Bless your father, Charlotte. Much wisdom to be gained from him, my friend – thanks for sharing…
Love the line – I wish I had lived the life I wanted rather than what others expected. Follow YOUR passion.
Amen to all that you’ve said so eloquently, Aldo – thank you for sharing your wisdom, my friend!
One of the lessons of the great Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is “memento mori”!
Don’t act like you have to live infinitely. During your life, for what is in your power, be a decent man, carry out every action as if it were the last of your life, be aware that you are mortal. Don’t postpone your actions. The future is not promised to anyone.
In fact, one of the main reasons why we are unhappy concerns precisely one of our limitations: thinking that life is infinite.
The point is that we are afraid of death and therefore don’t ask ourselves the right questions when we are alive. This wanting to constantly ignore death deludes us that we have time for everything. That’s why most people who are close to this moment have regrets. In fact, ignoring death, we have priorities that make us distract from the things that are really important to us. To recognize and find the true self.
Recognizing that in a relatively short time our body will cease to function and that we will no longer exist on this earth would give us the opportunity to focus on the things that really matter, such as finding the purpose of our life, and thereby making us feel greater fulfillment in time we have left.
If we had more awareness of death and understood that it is an absolutely natural and necessary (as well as mandatory) step, we would face our life in a different way and with a different set of priorities.