We, as a people, have a pretty morbid relationship with death. And that’s understandable — most people don’t want life to end, lose their loved ones or be alone.
But it is inevitable.
Getting through life is like working through a maze. You do your best to figure out your way out as things get difficult. You sometimes take a left turn you shouldn’t have and you end up somewhere completely different. You get lost in there from time to time. And sometimes you just want to give up from the confusion and distress.
At the end of the day though, no matter what route you take through the maze, when you get out — you end up in the same spot. Each and every one of us ends up in that same spot. Whether we take ages to get out or find a shortcut, we end up in that same spot.
So why not use this inescapable destination of ours to our advantage?
Make death a daily habit.
A habit, a reminder of one’s own mortality. A daily reminder, early in the morning. And no, not in a morbid way and no, not as a chore.
Rather, remember that at the end of it all — everything is going to end. And you don’t know when that day will come. It could be today, it could be next week, next month or fifty years from now.
So really, the only logical way to live life is to live it on your own terms. To be grateful for what you have and to do your best in whatever matters to you.
If you’re going to die anyway, why not live the way you want to live? If you’re going to die anyway, why not push yourself to be the best and happiest version of yourself? And if you’re going to die anyway, why not remember that from the 30,000 ft view of your life, your daily problems don’t really matter?
If you’re going to die anyway, why not make death a daily habit.
Originally published at medium.com