How about a nice discussion about death to get you motivated today?

Donald Miller posted this on his blog yesterday and I had to share it.  It is a short speech from Steve Jobs after he was diagnosed with cancer and knew he only had a few months to live.

He said a few things I hope I never forget:

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”

“Remembering that I’m going to be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. “

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

If you knew you were going to die soon, would you care about pride, embarrassment, conflict or failure?  I doubt it.  Realizing your time is limited helps you strip away the things that don’t matter.

Maybe the reason we don’t pursue the things we want is because we think we still have forever to live.  I can just wait until tomorrow.  Then, when we get old and death becomes a more vivid reality, we think it’s too late to do the things we wanted to do.

I know it is a little morbid to think about dying, but this reminded me of one thing Gregg Medlyn told me he makes his clients do.  He makes them write their obituary.  I sense a common theme.  If you look at the end of your life (whether it’s tomorrow or 80 years from now) it changes the big decisions we make everyday.  Going through that exercise with Gregg changed my perspective on everyday life, because I had to fast forward to the end.  When you look at the end and work your way backward, you only think about the things that really matter.  It made me think the end could be sooner than I think, and I need to get going now to get the obituary I want.  It’s like Paul said in his sermon last week “We are all on the clock.