We’re all going to die someday. Even if advances in technology and medicine help us live much longer than we currently can, eventually either time will catch up with us or we’ll decide that we’ve had enough. Death is the great equalizer in that we all have a limited amount of time before we die. Some people believe that life continues after death (as I do) while others believe that there is no life after death. Either way, our lives as they now exist will someday end and keeping that in mind can provide some useful perspective.
Whenever I think about everything that existed long before humans first appeared and how much would still be around if humanity suddenly ended, it reminds me of what’s truly important. Zooming out, along with the related overview effect, makes it hard to stay focused on trivial matters. Why spend your relatively short life pushing people around, getting caught up in pointless drama, and feeling miserable? Even though those things are all pretty common in the modern world, at best, they bring only temporary satisfaction; at worst, they suck all the joy out of life. You’ll never achieve truly lasting contentment by focusing on those things. You’ll always be looking for the next project, the next victory, the next big thing to make you feel whole. Some people go to their graves with this mindset and others give it up in their last moments on their deathbeds. I think the latter situation is much sadder because those folks realize the folly of their ways too late to live differently.
With the knowledge of my own mortality in mind, the only thing that makes sense to me and provides me with lasting satisfaction is to enjoy my life, improve myself, help others, and try to make things better. Whenever I don’t live up to any of those things, I feel bad and wish I had decided differently. I feel grateful that I have adopted this perspective as early in my life as I have. Some people come around to it much later in life and others never get it. I think that widespread acceptance of this perspective could go a long way toward ending the recurring problems of modern life: divisions, fighting, desperation, and the sense of purposelessness that so many people share. I hope this helps you and I will see you in the next post.