Exploring our own mortality, is one the biggest motivators of all. Let’s face it. None of us are going to live forever. Most of us, forget that we are fragile, vulnerable to a million things going wrong, every day. And, we all have miles to go before we sleep .
“Come on, you apes! You wanna live forever?” - Starship Troopers.1
About two years back, I read an article on writing your own Living Eulogy 2. It’s a psychological exercise. Now, I am not a morbid person. Nor do I have a morbid personality. But, last year, I started writing my own, living eulogy. Making it a yearly exercise. From 20th March, 2014, I decided that I will write a living eulogy, every year.
Tomorrow is the 20th of March, 2015. From this year (2015) onwards, I will be publishing and sharing it, online. Every year on the 20th of March, I will publish my living eulogy, here on this blog.
If you are someone like me, then you know that we need constant motivation, to accomplish all that we want, from our lives. This is where we can use our own mortality, as a motivational tool.
Writing our own eulogy, brings out our deepest fears, wants, wishes and, dreams front and center. It brings all that we care about, in this life, into perspective. It’s one of the most challenging exercises. Imagine yourself dead; then write an obituary/eulogy from a third person perspective. It can be difficult, at first. It needn’t be long, or arduous. It can be simple or complex. It is, also, a great exercise in writing. We can write it for someone, other than ourselves too. This is done to show our appreciation of the other person. Kinda like a love note? - Be careful here, when writing it for a third person. You never know how he/she might react. They just might call the cops on ya…(lol).
We can use our own mortality as a tool. A tool, to understand ourselves. To remember, who/what it is we care about the most. To explore, the changes we all go through. To live, everyday. To achieve, every day. To set, make and earn our goals.
David Brooks: Should you live for your résumé … or your eulogy?
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by that final form of love, which is forgiveness.” - Reinhold Niebuhr
PS:
Please forgive and forget this post, if death and grief are significant issues, for you. And/or you have lost someone.
Disclaimer:
This post does not encourage to take your own life or to write a suicide note. It's meant for self-exploration and learning. It's meant for self-motivation and self-appreciation only. Under no circumstances, is this post to be taken as a permission for suicides.This blog and I, are not liable for any actions you take after reading this post.</p>
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Starship Troopers is a military science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. ↩
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A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person(s) or thing(s), especially one who recently died or retired or as a term of endearment. A living eulogy, as the name suggests, is writing a eulogy for a person who is alive. For self development and, as a psychological exercise, you can write your own eulogy, while alive, for yourself. ↩
