You are going to die
At least once a day I repeat to myself, “You are going to die”. For me the reminder gives life its urgency and is activating rather than deflating. This daily mantra stems from how my thinking has been heavily influenced by the writing and speaking of philosopher Martin Hägglund, specifically his book, This Life. As a non-religious person who was raised religious, I had bought into the idea that infinite life would be preferable to the cold, dark and lonely existence of atheism even if I didn’t believe it. Preferable even if it weren’t so. Due to his work, I have been convinced otherwise. The basic premise of the book is that the finitude of life and all of its fragility is what gives it its meaning. Without precarity, nothing could be of the essence. To paraphrase him from an interview, lions don’t wake up and ask themselves, “why am I doing all of this lion shit?“. Humans do, though. All the anxiety and worrying and suffering about what to do with out lives, is a blessing not a curse. If nothing was at stake, there would be nothing to worry about. I try to take this in stride.
There was also an app called WeCroak that really tickled me. They’ve summed it up well
Find happiness by contemplating your mortality.