There are endless cliches about living your best life.
Live every day like it’s your last. You only live once, and so on.
While you’ve most likely heard these hundreds of times, have you ever taken a moment to really contemplate the meaning behind them?
In one of the greatest books of all time (Meditations by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, written nearly 2,000 years ago) Marcus said:
“Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life.”
Imagine what our lives would be like if we strived to keep this at the top of our mind day in and day out.
By putting in the effort to intentionally experience each thing we do in life as if it literally was the final moments of our existence, our entire world and perspective would change instantly.
Life would take on a much deeper significance and meaning.
This technique would bring a heightened sense of awareness to the present, enabling us to live in the moment without distractions about the past or the future.
Our capacity for appreciating and seeing the beauty in our lives as well as the love and compassion we have for others would increase tenfold.
Time is finite.
We all know for certain that one day our time will come to depart from this world.
Instead of drifting through life and allowing our impulses to dominate our state of mind, we can apply this concept and find the positive in nearly everything that we do (even the things that we don’t always enjoy doing).
We can inject a sense of urgency into the here and now and unlock the treasure chest of gratitude that is within all of us, leading to an enriched life filled with passion for simply being alive.
While it may not be realistic to live this way all the time, this method could be a valuable tool to enhance life during both good and bad times, when emotions arise of both positivity and negativity.
Tony Robbins once said, “If you can learn to love, or at least appreciate, start to enjoy the things you used to get upset about, how much freedom would you have? How much more joy would you have?”
As you journey onwards with this insight and new point of view in mind, if you find yourself struggling to enjoy many parts of your day to day, then take it as a sign to make a change in your life for the better.
All we have is right now. Why not ensure we can make the best of it?
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.” – Marcus Aurelius