I’m going to die on December 10th, 2025.
Or so I’m telling myself for the purpose of a thought experiment.
(I hope I don’t actually die. That would suck. I won’t be riding my bicycle that day, just in case.)
Oprah asked Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, how we non-artists can fulfill our potential.
“I believe that everybody has a calling,” Pressfield replied.
He said there are certain “tricks” to find it.
“What would you do if you knew you were going to die in three months? What would be the last thing you would do?”
I have 89 days left.
In a Wait But Why post titled “The Tail End”, Tim Urban laid out the typical human lifespan by years. A 10×9 grid, one diamond per year of life.
Urban hopes to have another 30 years with his parents. He spends around 10 days per year with them. 300 days left.
My dad is 79. He’s healthy, and I hope he lives late into his 90s. We have, at most, 20 years remaining together. 20 Christmases. 20 Thanksgivings. 20 birthdays.
We act as if we’ll live forever.
Premature death — including imagining it — clarifies.
You feel the urgency. You remember you won’t live forever. No more delay. Time is evaporating.
You feel more purposeful.
Warren Buffett, 94, just announced his retirement as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, the trillion dollar company he’s built for 60 years.
On what he planned to do after stepping down, he said, “I’m not going to be home watching soap operas or anything like that.”
He’ll be doing the same thing he’s done for the past 70 plus years: reading, studying companies, thinking about investments, and spending time with people he loves.
Buffett said again and again to do what you would do for free. He’s always thought it crazy to work at something you don’t like for most of your life only to finally get to do what you really want to do.
What would you do if the world were ending and nobody were watching?
Buffett would study businesses.
Big wave surfer Laird Hamilton would hunt for another wave (he’s still surfing big waves at 61 years old, which is insane — and amazing).
We spend most of our lives in the process of accomplishing what we want. The actual accomplishments are brief and anti-climactic.
It makes no sense to do something you hate to get something that you won’t enjoy.
At times you have to do what needs to be done. Provide for your family, take your kids to school, go to the dentist, file your taxes.
Most of our time, however, is spent without thought.
TV. Social media. Gossipping. Griping. Shopping. Trying to impress others. Working at jobs or in businesses we don’t enjoy.
So how do you do what matters most, what you’d do if you had only three months left to live?
Do it. Every day. Without fear. Without guilt. Without shame. Be yourself.
Go back to Lesson 1. You have greatness in you — it’s waiting to come out.
You also design your life to create the space to do what which you actually enjoy versus what you feel you should enjoy.
Be frugal. The less you spend, the less you have to earn, the more you can work on what you enjoy. The Joneses aren’t any happier or wealthier, they just buy more stuff.
Be proactive. Solve problems early and quickly. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Small leaks sink great ships.” Patching leaks is easy and cheap, replacing ships isn’t.
Be kind. I believe in practical Karma. If you run around doing nice things for people, even just saying “Hi!” with a smile, you create a world in which more people reciprocate with niceness to you. Not everyone will. Some people act like turds. If you’re kind to a lot of people, some will be kind back. That’s a good world to create for yourself.
Such a world encourages you to be your better self. You contribute more. You are free to be and do what you wish.
The opposite, a world someone creates by driving around flicking people off, gossiping, criticizing, and being vindictive, causes that person to shrink. They create a hardened shell (read Lesson 1 to learn about Gladys) for protection. They stop letting people in. Their world gets smaller and smaller. Many never get back the possibilities they lost.
We all die eventually. Some tomorrow, some decades from now.
Spend time doing what really matters to you.
Paint. Invest. Surf. Write. Build. Celebrate. Listen. Say “I love you.”
Every day counts.
This post is part of a series inspired by Steven Pressfield’s calling question, “What would you do if you had three months left to live?” I’d share what I’ve learned with those I love and anyone who’d listen. Here are all Lessons.