Deliberately think about death

​This morning, I was reading Ryan Holiday's list of 100 (short) rules for living a better life. I got to number 23 and stopped. It said, deliberately think about death. Every day, multiple times a day.

I thought about that a bit.

Then it occured to me, I think the one thing that gets us to being content with parts of our life that maybe we shouldn't be content with, or we get stuck in places that aren't the best places to be stuck in, I think that happens because we get to thinking life just goes on forever.

We know it doesn't. But so much of life is geared toward avoiding death that I think some days we actually get to believing it IS avoidable.

I had dinner with the boys last night. While we were eating, there was a television showing news coverage of the horrible accident pro golfer Tiger Woods was in this week. As part of the story, they interviewed a fellow golfer. They asked this golfer if they thought Tiger would ever golf again.

This golfer answered, that's the furthest thing from our minds. We're just happy Tiger is alive.

I looked at the boys and said, I bet Tiger is too...

My guess is, Tiger Woods' life will look dramatically different on the other side of his very near death experience. When life rolls you upside down in your vehicle, when you hear the jaws of life cutting that vehicle apart to free you, I think you probably hear life saying, I'm not here forever.

When your day gets smacked with a reminder that this day might be your last, you get a little more real about the things you do with that day.

You get a little more real about asking yourself, is this who I'd want to be if it ended this moment? If it ended right now, would this be the thing I'd feel proud to be working on? This thing I'm putting off until tomorrow - what does the world miss out on if that tomorrow never comes?

If you're content, that's fine. And if you're stuck, that's fine too.

Unless your content because you think you've got plenty of time to find true contentment. Unless your stuck because you feel like there's plenty of time left for life to come set you free. Because in that case, you may be telling yourself a lie.

In that case, it might be helpful to deliberately think about death. Every day, multiple times a day. It's probably a better reminder than hearing the jaws of life....