The Value of Mortality

Why it makes life worth living

He who fears death will never do anything worthy of a living man — Seneca

One of the most certain realities of anything in life is this: If it had a beginning, it would have an end.

You may cringe at how morbid this is going but stay with me for a moment.

This is beyond morbidity. It is about reconciling with the certainty of the end and having a sense of clarity about the purpose of life.

But we have been conditioned to avoid contemplating the reality of our mortality. This could be mainly because we consider death to be a debt we must all pay — a debt we never want to pay, if possible.

This debt avoidance mindset creates fear that drains the essence of life.

The fear factor

For the first twenty years of my life, I struggled to come out of the ashes left behind by death. My precarious childhood existence was a creation of death. Death of loved ones, death of love itself, and death of vital relationships. I grew up in the dry and dusty ruins of death.

Naturally, I came to fear death and dreaded the subject like a plaque.

But fear, not death, is the real enemy of life.

Fear has a tormenting influence. Anything you fear would dominate your thoughts and cripple your potential.

Fear of death has the capacity to keep people frozen in time. It keeps them bound to their loss or thought of losing what they have.

Fear of death could stand like a looming obstacle shaping decisions, outlook, and actions in all the wrong directions.

It can keep its victims gazing out of a small window while life passes by.

Facing it

There is an alternative way to approach the certainty of death.

If you are reading this post, it means you are alive.

It also means that you have an opportunity to turn things around and leverage mortality as an asset to power your progress.

Embrace mortality as an asset

The first step to harnessing the power of mortality is to understand that the life you have is a gift with an expiry date.

Understanding life as a time-bound gift shouldn’t cripple you with fear. It should create a sense of urgency that is invigorating and empowering.

The certainty of mortality should help you to live courageously.

Courage is the middle ground between cowardice and recklessness. Mortality should push you forward without letting you off the cliff edge into the abyss of reckless and thoughtless existence.

Embracing mortality would help you to prioritize what is important and to approach them with full consciousness of the legacy you want to leave behind.

Coming to terms with mortality will shape your perspective. It would change your outlook on life and keep you grounded in purpose.

Mortality also teaches you to focus on the essential, the immediate, and the meaningful. It also gives deeper meaning to your purpose in life.

Mortality levies a high premium on time. It abhors time-wasting. There is no better way to disrupt procrastination than to consider your mortality. You don’t want to waste your gift while the clock runs down.

A contemplation of mortality would teach you to love and to love passionately and intentionally. Love for the sake of love, and not just for yourself.

This is important because a time comes when you will only be a memory in other people’s hearts.

When you are gone, the love you lived and shared will be the only tangible substance of your existence.

Mortality is an opportunity to take stock. Stock-taking is essential in every business, including the business of life.

How do you know what you have left to offer to the world when you don’t take stock?

There’s a day every steward must return to give account to their principal. You take stock so that you can reconcile with your maker. The giver of life will certainly require an account.

Stock-taking also helps in approaching the reality of transition from the physical to the other realm, where you have no clue and no control.

This is why we should begin to learn how to let go, and how to maintain a lighter grip on things knowing that a day comes when we will have zero control even over our own bodies.

This is the unavoidable and universal destiny of everyone alive today irrespective of race, class, or creed.

The final act

When the end is near, everything in life defaults to the absolute essentials.

Nothing else matters but the moment — that moment.

Just imagine that final humbling state of irreversible oblivion, where nothing else matters — not career, money, or even life itself.

Thinking about mortality should inject a dose of humility into every one of us.

In the end, mortality is an opportunity.

Human life is a time-bound gift we must cherish every day. It’s a race against the clock — whether you like it or not.

So instead of being afraid of death, I would rather be wary of not living, or failing to live my best life daily.

I would prefer to focus on living, loving, sharing, and leaving my little trails in as many hearts as possible.