Live Like You Are Dying

This week is part 4 in a series on Michael Singer’s The Untethered Soul.

Today, we explore the profound impact that death can have on helping us live our best lives…

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

🎯 The Idea In a Nutshell:

• We move through life as if it will go on forever.

• Death feels like a distant abstraction, something that happens “someday.”

• In reality, it could come for us at any moment.

• Remembering this isn’t morbid; it’s clarifying.

• It puts our day-to-day worries and concerns in perspective and grounds us fully in the present.

📝 Diving Deeper

Imagine this. You go to the doctor for some routine labwork. A few days later, the phone rings. They want you to come back in. You can tell from the tone in the nurse’s voice that the news is not good. Further tests are needed. A couple of agonizing weeks later, the worst is confirmed.

You’ve got a few months left.

Imagine how your perspective shifts. That simmering argument with your spouse over the dishes in the sink. The way you’ve been butting heads with your kids. The sleep you’ve been losing over that project at work. How do those concerns appear in the face of death?

What do you wish you could change about the way you showed up in life? In your relationships? What are the risks you regret never taking?

The thought of death is unpleasant. We push it away. Bury it. And go about our daily lives as if we have all the time in the world. But death could come at any time. It does so every day, for babies, teenagers, adults, and the elderly alike. Ignore it all you want; it doesn’t change the facts: There will come a time when you draw a breath and not another. And you can never be sure when that moment will come.

It seems morbid to linger on this. But Singer argues we should learn to sit with it. That we can leverage it as the most powerful conceivable motivator. A tool to help us live with a level of depth and gratitude that is impossible to achieve without an acute awareness of our own finitude.

We don’t need to wait for the diagnosis. We can choose to live fully now. Slow down. Be where your feet are. Hug your children a little longer. Go for a walk outside. Tell your partner how much you appreciate her.

Learn to live like you are on the verge of death, because you are.

👉 Why it matters:

• It is easier than ever to distract ourselves.

• When we recognize how tenuous our grip on life actually is, we unlock a powerful tool for clarifying our priorities.

• This becomes a strong motivator for taking risks, investing in relationships, and creating shared experiences with our loved ones.

🤔 Prompts for Reflection

• Can you take 30 seconds a day to reflect on your own mortality?

• What issues or frustrations appear blown out of proportion when weighed against the loose grip you hold on life?

• If you truly knew you had one week, one month, or one year left to live, what would you start doing differently today?

Make today impactful.
~Jason