Mortality Awareness

Mortality Awareness is the practice of remembering that life is finite to help make better decisions and live more fully.

Core Insight

“If you could walk around like that all the time, to really have that awareness that it’s actually going to end. That’s the trick.”

Steve Jobs’s Perspective

“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. Almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Effects

• Clarifies what truly matters
• Reduces fear of embarrassment or failure
• Removes external expectations
• Encourages following your heart
• Makes you want to do something decent with your life

Practice

• Think about death every morning
• Read about people who are dead now and what they did with their lives
• Use mortality awareness as a tool for decision-making

Related Concepts

• [[Resilience]] — continuing despite challenges
• [[Hope Is a Good Thing]] — maintaining perspective
• [[Amateur Mindset]] — starting despite imperfection

Source: [[Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon]]