Living With Purpose: How Awareness of Death Can Transform Our Lives

Blessing Orogun April 16, 2023 0

I like to imagine things and paint scenarios in my head a lot. It can be too much sometimes but for the sake of this piece, I would implore that you indulge me. I just want to show you how the awareness of death can transform our lives and help us live more purposefully.

Imagine you were diagnosed with a terminal illness (God forbid! It’s not your portion and I don’t wish that on anyone) but just picture it for a moment.

If you were given a specified number of years to live, let’s say five years give or take, would it change the way you would live your life? Well, at first, you might be depressed and unhappy but after a while, you would accept your fate and when you finally come to terms with reality, wouldn’t you want what little time you had left to count for much? I bet that a lot of us would put those years to good use.

We wouldn’t leave anything to chance anymore. Starting from our health (both physical and mental) to our loved ones to our jobs and the pursuit of our life’s goals and dreams, we wouldn’t take anything for granted.

Some of us would quit our jobs because we’ve never actually derived satisfaction from them and launch our start-ups. After all, that’s where our passions really lie. For others, their diets will change to more healthy ones and exercise would be incorporated into their routine if that’s what it would take for them to live longer.

We would cherish the time we get to spend with our loved ones and create more meaningful memories. We would treat each moment with them like it would be our last.

We would be more honest, more intentional with our time and energy, kinder, more compassionate, more loving and more accommodating. You would visit places you always wanted to and try out new things.

You would remove all the limitations that you’ve placed on yourself, wouldn’t you? And you would just live.

So, what if I told you that you have a terminal illness anyway? I mean, it’s not leukaemia or cystic fibrosis but we’re all running out of time. We all have a shelf life and one day, we will expire.

So, you have to protect the integrity of the life that you have now. It’s bad enough that you do not know for how long you’ll get to be here on this side of life. Hence, you can’t just leave your life to happenstance.

A casual knowledge of the inevitability of death is one thing but living with the awareness of it is another thing entirely. You do not get to choose what hand life deals you with. And that’s it. There’s no need to sit around complaining and grumbling about how your life is or how you wish it was.

You have to play the hand that you’ve been dealt. The life you want doesn’t always just automatically fall on your lap. You have to create it.

It is time to embrace your purpose and manifest your potential to the fullest. Live right so that you can die well. Death shouldn’t scare us if we live intentionally.

Rather, the awareness of it should spur us on to make the most of the time we have before it is up. Mediocrity never did anyone much good. Find a balance. Dance to the rhythm of your destiny.

Let this understanding fill you up and flow through you until you are transformed into a better person by it. Don’t be a spectator in your own life. Be proactive and take an effective role in this script you’re writing. Such that when your time on earth is done, you’ll leave peacefully with the assurance that you gave it your best shot. For, it is not the fear of death that informs our living meaningfully, it is the acceptance of it.