Just Start, Think About Your Own Mortality, and Be Patient
Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one:
What goals, habits, dreams, or desires have you put on the backburner? Start one of them now.
Stop and take a few minutes to think about your own mortality. This can lead to living the life you want to live.
Great things in life grow from scarcity and patience. “Patience to let something grow, and scarcity to admire what it grows into.”
Starter Mindset Tip: Just Start.
This mirrors the slogan from Nike—“Just Do It”— and maintains simplicity in the messaging. We all have goals, we all have dreams, we all have desires, and the easiest part about them is having them, the hardest part is following through with them. We often wait for that perfect moment to start something, when all the stars align, and this ends up never happening. The dreams, goals, and desires that we have end up being put away at the back of the pantry right next to those spices that you used one time in a recipe, never to be seen again. One day you reach into the back of the cupboard only to find those spices have been expired for 6 years. What about those dreams, goals, and desires? They have been sitting there for 6 years as well, waiting to be worked on, but never meeting the requirements of perfection to get started. What do you need in order to get started? Absolutely nothing, just get started—now. Pick one goal, one habit, one dream, one desire, and just start working towards it right now. That is the only way you are actually going to accomplish it. Be okay with small steps, just get some skin in the game, and get ready for the momentum to carry you forward. Once you start, maintain consistency, do one small thing towards it every day. Then in a week, a month, a year, you can look back to see all that you have accomplished toward your goal and be proud of yourself for all that you have accomplished. All thanks to just starting something. What is a goal, a habit, a dream, or desire you have put on the backburner waiting for that perfect moment to achieve? Get out there and start it today.
Health Recipe: Think About Your Own Mortality
Timing: 10-30 minutes
Level of Difficulty: The process is easy, can be hard to think about
Serving Size: Start with one session, and check in every now and then with progress
Spiciness: Can get spicy thinking about death
INGREDIENTS
Just yourself, some free time to think, and a pen and paper to write down your thoughts
REASONING AND BENEFITS
Some of the most common regrets on one's deathbed are not living in the moment, working too often, and living a life the person thinks they should rather than the one they truly want to. Thinking about this now while you are healthy is incredibly important. It forces you to look at your life and think about what you would say to yourself if death all of a sudden came knocking at your door. What would you regret? How do you wish you had been living your life? What would you want to change right now if death was coming to you in the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years? If you can learn to face the thought of death head on, think about how you truly want to be living, you may just be able to live a life true to yourself now and for the rest of your life. And don’t just think about death one time, this practice is optimized when you think about death often, and are constantly analyzing your life to see if you are living the way you want to live. “The country of Bhutan often turns up second to Disneyland as the happiest places on earth, and has made it a national curriculum to think about death anywhere from 1 to 3 times daily.” The thinking of Bhutan says, “You see yourself as not always a living person, but also a dying person, is a very important pedagogy of life. Death is a part of culture and communication.” (Easter, p. 186/191) Death is a common part in life, and we are often too scared to think about it, and too busy to consider it until all of a sudden one day it is knocking at our door. Follow the lead of the country of Bhutan and start thinking about your own mortality, think about the things that you want to do in your life, and get out there and do them.
INSTRUCTIONS
Start small and set aside 10-30 minutes of your time to sit down and ask yourself some heavy hitting questions.
If death came knocking at your door right now, what would you regret not having done in your life?
Would you be able to say that you have been living a life true to yourself?
Have you been spending your time with the people you love, and doing things that you want to be doing?
What if you were told that you only had 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years left to live? How would you spend your time?
This is an exercise that only you can do. Be honest with yourself. Write down your answers and check in with them every now and then.
During your check ins, see if your answers have caused you to make small changes in your life. Are your answers still the same or have they changed?
** This can also be a great time to be proud of the bomb diggity things you have accomplished during your life so far. This exercise doesn’t have to be about changing what you do in your life, it can be a time when you confirm you are on the right path and are doing what you want to do.
PRO TIP: As an emergency room doctor and a firefighter, death is a common thing that we see during our work. Take it from us, seeing death around you is always a reminder to live a healthy life, it is always a reminder to live the life you want to live, it is always a reminder to spend time doing the things that you want to be doing because you never know what life will bring.
* The Dalai Lama said “Those who have prepared for death do not have those regrets because they have lived in the moment.”
** This is a great time to nurture the relationships with the people around you. Who do you want to be spending your time with?
*** This can feel like a strange exercise, but power through the uncomfortableness of the idea and you might just make a discovery about yourself that could change the course of your life for the better.
Dessert Quote:
“An important thing about this topic is that most great things in life—from love to careers to investing—gain their value from two things: patience and scarcity. Patience to let something grow, and scarcity to admire what it grows into.” — Morgan Housel, “Same as Ever.” p. 95.
Now we want to hear from YOU! Please let us know what you think of today’s newsletter, and send us an example of how you applied the health recipe to your life! We would love to share how you introduced this week’s recipe into your life’s unique menu. Thanks and have a great Sunday!
Sources:
Learn more about the importance of thinking about death:
Easter, M. (2021). The comfort crisis: Embrace Discomfort To Reclaim Your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self. Rodale Books.
Learn some more life lessons based on trends throughout time:
Housel, M. (2023). Same as ever: Timeless Lessons on Risk, Opportunity and Living a Good Life. Harriman House Limited.
