What death teaches us about life
Busyness and loss.
If I were to ask you what is more important, family or success, what would you choose? For me the easy answer is family. I’m sure many of you feel the same. But when I reflect on my actions, it isn’t quite clear where my priorities have been. Having gone to university, and now in a corporate job, I’ve been surrounded by entrepreneurial high-achievers for quite some time. Pairing this with social media, it’s always been easy to focus on what’s next. As a result, I have become ‘busy’. Not busy in that I’m some important person with important things to do. I mean it in the sense that I’ve fallen into a state of never fully appreciating where my own two feet are.
I only realised this very recently, due to a loss in my family. The experience was sad, but also interesting. All these different people, from all these different backgrounds coming together, united by the unique purpose of celebrating life. In that sobering moment, how much I earned, all that I had achieved and the pressure to do more didn’t matter so much.
The theme I’ve written about more than any other is about the finite nature of life. Despite this, as humans (and not Econs) we underestimate the likelihood of something bad happening to ourselves or to those around us. It’s a difficult idea to resonate with. It’s a shameful feeling when you experience loss, and you realise that perhaps you didn’t do enough. That you were so busy worrying about where you felt like you needed to be, that you didn’t appreciate where you were, and who you were with.
As I’ve said in the past: it’s important that we keep death at the forefront of our mind and the principle of our action. Time is a scarce resource, and should be treated as such. If you are blessed enough to have special people in your life, be it family or otherwise, don’t wait for unfortunate news to begin valuing the time you have together.
Check in on your mates. Have lunch with your grandparents. Be where your feet are. You’ll be kicking yourself if you don’t.
What you leave behind is not engraved in stone, but what is woven into the lives of others — Pericles
Just Something To Consider.
Ka kite anō i a koe Kaea
❤️