“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” ~ Steve Jobs, (2005)
“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. … The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.” ~ Seneca, (approximately 2000 years ago)
I have written here before about Presence, Resilience, Ikigai, Silence, Innsae and more. All are supported by and linked to the wisdom of Memento Mori.
{Note : instead of always linking to past posts, do use the search bar on the right. Even I use it to find past posts now I’ve well over 100 daily posts here !}
At the moment I am, thanks to Tim Ferris, reading a lot about the Roman Stoics and also the Daily Stoic website by Ryan Holiday. On this I came across a great post on Memento Mori, reminders of which can be used for humility, and they can also be used to inspire, to fire us up with zest for life, to live right now, today, each day !
My overarching theme on this site is #OpenLeadership, which starts with self-knowledge and then moves on to leading from a space of presence and humility.
Memento Mori.
What a tool for leaders !. After all, it worked for the great Marcus Aurelius !
I’ve posted this speech before, along with two other commencement/graduation speeches that gave me goosebumps. However, one cannot watch this speech enough, so today I leave you again with :
How to live before you die – Steve Jobs (2005)
“you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”