Live today as if the end is tommorow

In the wake of terrorism attack at London, I was quickly reminded how precious every moment we have. No one knows what would happen the next day, the next hour, the next minute, or even the next second. So, instead of worrying whatever the future brings, why not just live our life to the fullest now itself.

Live today as if the end is tomorrow.

In the book Tuesdays With Morrie, there is a chapter where the author and Morrie talked about death. Morrie explained how every one of us knows that our death is inevitable, yet, we don’t believe in it. In fact, we even kid about our death. Despite sounding somber, he advised that that we should learn to accept our death. By knowing for sure that we will eventually die, our outlook of life will differ tremendously.

It’s true how we kid about our death, and not take it seriously. Our life decisions are almost always taken as if we are immortal. We always think that there is time in the future to do the things that are important. It’s always tomorrow or the day after.

When are you going back to visit your parents? Next month.

How about giving them a call? I’m busy now. I’ll call them tomorrow.

Have you said how much your kids mean to you? I don’t have time for that now. They know it themselves.

But when something does happen, most of us always regret not doing these little things much earlier ago. Sons and daughters regret not calling their mum or dad the day before the passing. And friends regretting not visiting their buddies on a recent outing. Isn’t all this so common? I’m sure every one of us has had such an experience or shares it with close relatives or friends. Yet, we still fail to learn from these experiences. If someone is to suggest that we all should meet up for a gathering just in case something happens in the near future, there will definitely be one or two that will shrug it off and say that nothing bad will happen.

But who knows what will happen in the future? Who knows what will happen in the next day, next hour, next minute, or even the next second? Just take the example of the London terror attack. Who knew that would have happened on that instance and at that location? Only God knows.

Thus, if we begin to life our lives today as if tomorrow is the end; we will always be striving to do as much as we can today, and not tomorrow. If we reflect back at the end of everyday and tell ourselves that we have done all we can and even if we cease to exist tomorrow, it will be fine; wouldn’t we be able to pass on with a peaceful soul? I know some of you would have started to touch wood by now. But do take a short moment and think about this thought. If I had the chance and time to call up my mum today or to spend some quality time with my family, then I wouldn’t need to regret not doing it the next day if something do happened, would I?

And if we always regard tomorrow as if it’s the end, the things that we perceive as important and dear to us will most definitely change. For instance, when we think how important it is that our mobile phones have a top-end camera feature, we aren’t really prioritizing our lives as well as we could. Instead, if tomorrow is the end, would the feature of our mobile phone be as important as using it to call a family or friend? If tomorrow is the end, would visiting our parents be less important as compared to booking a 1st class airline ticket to Madrid for a fancy vacation?

Of course, this is easier said than done. But I believe that as long as we try, it’s better than not at all.