Live a Life That Matters

The past few weeks have been heavy. Downright heavy. They’ve reminded me just how quickly life can change.

Numerous people close to me - or close to someone close to me - have experienced life-altering health events. All just days apart from one another.

Some are family members. Some are (roughly) my age. Some are in seemingly perfect health. Some are all three.

Our lives can change on a dime. And without warning.

For some of those above, we celebrate what all signs point to being a full and complete recovery.

For others, we fervently pray for just a small glimmer of hope in what feels like an endless period of uncertainty.

And for one, we mourn the loss of a life entering into eternity far too soon.

In the days that have passed, I’ve tried to arrive at what to make of all this. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I land on the obvious yet stark realization that we don’t control the number of days or minutes we have left on this earth — we only have control over how we choose to spend them.

This leads me to a short essay I read inside the program handed out at a funeral I attended several months ago. It spoke to me deeply when I first read it and I’ve kept it on the corner of my desk ever since. The writer does a far better job articulating in much fewer words what I would hope to share on my own.

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Live a Life That Matters

(Author - Michael Josephson)

Whether you are ready or not,

Someday your life will come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, no hours nor days.

All the things you collected, whether treasure or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you are owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived at the end.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant, even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you have built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who love you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom, and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstances, but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

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Spend some time reflecting on the words above and ask yourself - what in your life are you actively choosing? Will it matter in the end?