The words below are subject to interpretation and deal with a vast, personal, topic of self development. It thereby makes sense to clearly state what this article is about from the get-go.

The thorough contemplation of your own death can aid you to:

Limit procrastination Develop an unwavering desire to give to others

You’ll read through various tips and tricks to help you start work now and invest in your future. All of which are short-term solutions to a fundamental misdirection of motivation. People, and everything else, will come and go – in and out of your life many times over. If you have not gotten used to that by now, life does not fail in teaching this lesson to all.

People’s understanding of death seems to be limited in its approach. They action their anxious fears of everything turning into nothing by attempting to collect, salvage, save, and grow. They envision themselves in powerful positions before death, with an extended loving family, a prize-worthy career, and owning property measuring as far as the eye can see. They are not wrong in doing so, just limited.

Do not attach your motivation to do work to a version of yourself you aim to be. Life is the most unpredictable and the most random, as all unpredictable things and random events are part of life. Life will shred your expectations quickly, and can leave you with nothing but visions of yourself you failed to meet. It is a good and happy thing to accept these truths, don’t view them through lenses of gloom. The only thing you can ever be sure of, is of your perception in the present moment.

Procrastination

If certain death does not stop you from procrastinating, nothing will. The culture you live in downplays death. It hides it from the mainstream and from public conversation. We are often forced to deal with this certain reality on our own, in bed laying awake while contemplating the death of our closest ones. Look in the mirror and remember: the one looking back at you will be as dead as the ones under the gravestones you see while avoiding the shortcut through the cemetery. Remember that we live our lives with a feeling of limitless opportunity, while forgetting that we have a limited pool of hours to spend on this unlimited sea of ventures.

Narrow your vision in life, and have death watch over everything you do. Limit your options, and appreciate the ventures of others without trying to mimic them all. You will never do it all. Focus on the thing before you and feel death breathing down your neck.

Do things with desperation, as you never know when you’ll cease to breathe another breath. The ones who died didn’t call the time and place. A true understanding of death’s certain circumstance can only lead to desperate action. Read with desperation, write with desperation, and act with it as well.

Procrastinating is laughing in the face of death, as if to challenge its certain course of nature. Never forget that you live on death’s watch – a fact most never fail to remember when the ticks begin to slow.

To Give, Is the Best Way of Preparing

Exploring death leads to the following understanding: though you’ll not take any memories, ideas, or items with you when you die, you will in fact leave all those things behind for those who live. In a state of nothingness akin to before your birth, you won’t have access to feedback on how you lived your life. You’ll spend your whole life building, developing, growing things which you’ll leave behind for others to enjoy, disregard, forget about, or worship. Their feedback will matter not, as your ability to perceive it won’t exist.

If this, to you, sounds frightening, then the best way to prepare for death seems to be to give. Give in life, without expecting anything in return. Give, and don’t stop to witness how your gifts are cherished and loved by others. Simply give, and keep on walking. With every gift, you’ll mimic a tiny death. You’ll work for something and give it away for others to perceive after you’re done creating it. Much like with the fruits of the life you’re living now, give yourself no choice but to let go, and give.

You’ll thereby make giving a very selfish act. Those who interpret the gifts you give will ponder as to why you’re so kind and giving. “What’s in it for him/her,” they’ll ask, suspiciously. Little would they know, you’d be operating in an absolutely selfless manner, whilst simultaneously acting more selfishly than the rest. What you’ll be doing is preparing yourself for something many fear, and all must go through. You’ll be solving the universal problem of developing a peaceful, kind, relationship with death. Making friends along the way will be the unintended bonus.

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