Mortality is your superpower
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The JD Letter December 6, 2024 Memento Mori: "Remember you must die, so you remember you must live." What if you were told you only have 24h left to live?
Meditating on your mortality isn't meant to be depressive. It's meant to wake you up. If thinking about death only scares you, you've missed the point entirely. Most people think they'll live forever, or at least act like it. But here’s the truth: You don’t have forever. When you remember that your days are finite, you start living differently:
Mortality is a gift in disguise. It forces you to treat your time as your most valuable asset. It is in fact a tool to create clarity, focus, and purpose. The wake-up call"It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it."– Seneca My first wake up call to stop wasting my time, was when my grandmother passed. She was my first experience with mortality, and it changed everything. I started questioning everything. That moment forced me to confront the reality that most people die at 25 but don’t get buried until 85. So In 2019, I made a decision: I wouldn’t be one of those people. Since then, I’ve tried many things in search of life fulfillment. Some worked, some didn’t. But one thing has become clear: Nothing makes me feel more alive than writing. Writing this newsletter every week has become my life’s work. As I evolve into courses, books, scripts and other creative projects, I’ll always remember the lesson my grandmother’s passing taught me: Life is too precious to spend it doing anything other than what makes you feel alive. So I'm writing more than ever and it will only go up from here. 5 rules I live by:"The goal is not to live forever, but to create something that will."– Chuck Palahniuk At 31, I've learned a few things about living a meaningful life. I'm convinced that if I continue to be able to apply these 5 rules, I can live a long, fulfilling, simple, happy life. A life I'll be proud of and be at peace with, if I ever get told I have 24h left to live. The 5 rules are:1- Find something you enjoy doing and figure out a way to do more of it until you can do it full-time. 2- Love the people that love you for who you truly are. 3- Give yourself permission to explore your curiosities. 4- Go on a walk every day. 5- Take a moment out of your day to breathe and sit in silence. The price of joyI'd like to end with a reflection from Tim Ferriss: "Think of the most joyful moment in your life. It could be watching the sunset at the beach while watching your dog play with a stick or a surprise birthday dinner your family threw for you. 40 years from now how much would you pay to relive that moment?" Most likely a shit ton of money. Write that number down. That number highlights the value of each of your life experiences and it should create a sense of urgency to create a life full of those moments. The ones you look back and want to pay millions of dollars to relive. That's it for today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Chat next week, Jess Inspire, Empower, Transform. P.S I'm helping clients on X:
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