Life is short and often throws unexpected curveballs. Things usually take an unexpected turn when you feel like nothing can go wrong. It’s easy to assume that life is long, predictable and secure and that the future will always be there for you.
“You are living as if destined to live for ever; your own frailty never occurs to you; you don’t notice how much time has already passed, but squander it as though you had a full and overflowing supply — though all the while that very day which you are devoting to somebody or something may be your last,” argues Seneca in his book, On the Shortness of Life.
Living life to the fullest should be our daily goal, but we fall short and waste our finite time worrying about the past we can’t change and the future we can’t control. It’s imperative to seize opportunities daily to live your best life. “Life is long if you know how to use it,” says Seneca.
Everyone fears the end of their life. But the idea of our existence coming to an end is something nobody wants to think about. So we don’t.
Yet it remains one of the most critical questions we must ask ourselves to live intentional lives: how do I spend my short life with little or no regrets? Pondering your mortality can help you assume a more conscious living.
Anaïs Nin was a woman of great insight and strength who combined her experiences as a poet, novelist, and essayist to write about the richness of life in her journals. Her observations on life, femininity, masculinity, love, art, sex and culture are profound and insightful.
Nin found beauty in every stage of her existence, even the darkest ones. She wrote journals almost every day from when she was 11 until her death at age 74. These books have become some of the most important documents of the 20th century and one of our best sources of insight into human psychology.
Anaïs Nin thought being fully alive meant acknowledging our own mortality and living consciously as if we might not be here tomorrow.
She explains: “The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. It eliminates the vice of procrastination, the sin of postponement, failed communications, failed communions. This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters, meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked.”
When you truly embrace the idea that “you might not be here tomorrow”, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities. It forces you to reassess what’s important and gives you a sense of urgency to make the most out of every moment.
To live as if we might not be here tomorrow means making sure that we leave no regrets when we pass from this world. It means making the most of every opportunity life gives us and cherishing the people in our lives right now. It also means acknowledging life is not linear and that our sense of self is fluid and evolves as we mature.
The most important relationship in your life is with yourself. If you are happy and fulfilled, this will show in all of your relationships. If you are unhappy, it will show in your relationships.
Life is an eternal challenge; we must continually make new and exciting beginnings
“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present,” says Nin.
Every moment counts when you live as if you might not be here tomorrow. The details become more important. You take greater care in how you spend your time, who you share your experiences with, and the most important things to you.
When you recognise that life is short and unpredictable, you define your own meaning in life. “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person,” she said.
When you’re living deeply, you’re not afraid of your mortality. You’re not afraid of dying because when you fully live, you know there is more to life than just being alive. You look at the world with fresh eyes and see it for what it really is — a beautiful, fleeting moment in time.
When you live a shallow life, you have much to fear. You’re afraid of letting go and falling in love because that means you might get hurt. You’re afraid of taking risks because that could lead to failure.
You’re afraid of seeing the world for what it really is because that will show you that your current state isn’t good enough. And most of all, you’re afraid of death, perhaps the final and most frightening risk.
When you live authentically, you will leave a lasting impact on those around you because they can see that you care about them. And when they know that you care about them, they are more likely to care about you as well.
The secret of a full life is to live as if you might not be there tomorrow. This simple idea unlocks a world of possibility in your life because it means that everything you do counts and everything you say matters.
You start acting as if all your actions have consequences so that every choice you make has a ripple effect on the people around you. And this mindset turns out to be incredibly empowering because it forces you to take responsibility for the outcomes of your actions.
“People living deeply have no fear of death,” says Anaïs Nin.
When you are alive, life is an opportunity. When you are living, it’s a challenge. And when you’re living deeply, it’s a source of strength.
Once we understand and accept the inevitability of death, life becomes beautiful again. What matters is not how long we live but how well and how deeply we live until that moment.
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This psot was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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