How to be motivated by death

Death is the second most important thing that will happen to you after being born. But we typically try not to think about it and avoid talking about it. It doesn’t help that western society has a pretty limited view of death where it is little more than a sad thing that should be avoided if possible.

I made a change in my view on death less than a year ago. Since then I feel like my life has new momentum and new meaning. I want to share this view and its consequences.

I think it is important to internalize that someday you will die and take time to understand it. To imagine that moment and how it will feel. You should take steps to be prepared to die. Otherwise you may end up in a terrible situation of feeling yourself die and not knowing how to be ready. Death can be a positive presence in your life and you can be prepared for it. Let me tell you the specific things about death that scare me. Then I can tell you how I handle those fears and turn them into positives.

Death is unknown territory and that is scary. I don’t know what it will be like to be dead. It could be heaven, it could be hell, it could be very quiet. Being stuck in a human body is limiting and death seems to be a liberation from that limitation. Maybe I will be able to explore the universe. Maybe I will be able to join my ancestors. The unknown aspect of death is both scary and exciting which makes it more fascinating than dreadful.

This combination of fascinating and scary is something we are all familiar with. Like the first day of kindergarten, the unknown is scary, but also exciting. Or jumping off something high into water. That familiarity makes the unknown aspect of death easier to manage.

The scariest thing to me about death is that once I die I will no longer be able to do things in this plane of existence. If someone needs my help and I am dead then I won’t be able to help them directly. If something important needs to be done and I am dead then someone else will need to do it. As I consider the possibility of getting a dog, having kids, and other large life commitments, I find the reality of my transiency to be troubling. Death imposes a limit on the time we have.

It is possible for a person who is nearing death to be at peace because there is nothing more for them to do. This must be the case because having unlimited time is unrealistic so everyone must accept that there is a finite amount they can do in a lifetime. If you can get all of that done then you should be able to face death without a sense of panic that more needs to be done. It would be nice to be able to get more done, but we need to be realistic with ourselves.

I don’t want to panic as I approach death. As I near death I hope to already have done everything that I want to. This requires me to find out what I want to get done. And I need to do it all. Most days I think about death and a big part of what I think about is what I want to get done before I die. I check if it looks like I am making progress towards completing these things and if they are realistic. Since we never know when we will die it is a good idea to try to get everything done as early in life as possible. It also important to keep investing in ourselves so we can do more tomorrow than we did today.

This belief that I can face death with dignity and respect rather than with sadness and panic if I can get everything done is a powerful motivator in my life. It keeps me working on the right things. It keeps me from getting discouraged. It can do these things for you too.