“Memento Mori” – Marcus Aurelius.
This is a Latin phrase, which means to “be conscious of your own mortality”. This phrase goes through my mind everyday.
Now, as a Father, I use this quote as a reminder to cherish every moment with my Son, be present with him, teach him all that I know, and to make each moment count.
In fact, Gary Vaynerchuck, the well known social media influencer thinks about death very often. He even goes so far as to say,
Every morning, when I wake up, I pretend that my family dies because if you can really feel that like I can, nothing else could possibly upset you. Everything comes down to perspective and understanding how good it is that we really have it.
Pondering death allows him to realize that
The greatest thing about accepting your own death and using “You’re gonna die” in a very positive, optimistic, empowering way is that it motivates you to do extraordinary things.
I totally agree with this, because when you ponder your own mortality you are instilled with a sense of urgency – a desire to create and positively impact the world.
As someone who suffers from a mild case of OCD, the pandemic has heightened my OCD compulsions and I use this quote constantly to help me stop myself from engaging in my compulsions and wasting precious time.
To put this phrase even more so at the front of my mind, I heard news late last night that one of my childhood Hockey coaches, “Coach Diddle”, who’s full name is “Johnny Ray Mcdonald” had just past away at the age of 58. What is strange is that just a few weeks ago I hugged him and said, “Coach Diddle, how are you? I haven’t seen you in so long”. To which he replied, “Yeah, it’s so good to see you. I’m good, about to play some Hockey”.
And I said, “I’m doing Basketball skills training for kids and adults these days.” Coach Diddle said, “Yeah, you got to make money.” I said, “Take care Coach Diddle”. His last words to me were, “Take care Sonam”.
The eerie part of this is, Coach Diddle is the second friend, whom I hugged and spoken to who passes away in the same week. My previous friend was Alexa Valiente, who was just 28 years old when she passed a few years ago.
Most of all, however, is the advent of Covid-19 and the various new variants that spring up everyday, which has caused me to contemplate and meditate on the thought of “Memento Mori” and to cherish each moment, because we never know when it will be our time.
Last week, in fact, I noticed I had a little tickle in my throat and the signs of a cold coming on, but then I also started having a fever and coughing a lot. I decided to take a PCR test and lo and behold I tested positive for Covid-19.
After a week of rest I am now negative but finding out I was positive, triggered me to think of death and remember that some day we will all die. I thought for a brief moment, “will this be my time?”.
But, I quickly dismissed the thought since I am a healthy man and have learned that “Omicron”, though highly contagious, isn’t as dangerous as “Delta” or the other previous variants of Coivd-19. Even still, the thought of death was there.
However, I have used it as a source of inspiration to spur me on to take massive action on my dreams, goals and ambitions.
I urge you to remember “Memento Mori” throughout your daily life and allow it to inspire you to take action on your dreams as well.
The late Steve Jobs put it best when he said,
“Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
“Memento Mori”.
Remind yourself that you will die one day. Now live your life knowing this fact and make each moment count.