Steve Jobs once said: “Live each day as if it was your last.”
I remember reading this quote for the very first time. Even though it felt very inspiring and powerful, I could never fully understand what he was really trying to say.
Today I am in a state of mind where I see what “the last day of life” means. Every day is the last day of your life. How?
We are all unable to know if we are going to be alive next minute or even next second. A lot of people argue asking, “Does it mean we will die next instant?” or “Does it mean we must fear death all the time?”
The answer is simple: we don’t know if we will die next moment but there is no guarantee if we will live. It definitely does not mean we have the only future, which is full of fear. There is absolutely nothing to fear.
Life was given to you without you making a choice to enter this World; it can be also taken without your choice. The only decision you make is how to live between the entry gate called birth and the exit gate called death. But there is an interesting catch: nobody knows how much time there is between the entry and the exit. This unknown causes life and all the fun and fear we experience living it.
Let’s pretend for a second that we are aware of how many years or days we are going to live. The matter of fact, that’s how we live every day.
To help you understand what I mean, l will use my conversation with my friend Tim as an ultimate example of life.
Tim is 32 years old and he works as a Project Manager in San Francisco based software company. Tim is married and has a beautiful, sweet and very loving daughter Alya. I asked Tim a few questions. Here is a part of my conversation with him:
Me: Tim, do you know how long are you going to live?
Tim: No, I don’t. No one knows.
Me: What if you knew the exact duration of your life? Have you ever thought about that?
Tim: No, I’ve never thought about that. But it would be very interesting to know.
Me: When was the last time you were unhappy with your wife about something? If you tell me, I’m able to tell you how long you will live.
Tim: There is no way you can tell me that, but I will answer your question. Last week when I shared with my wife my plans to quit my job and start working on my product idea, we had a long argument. She thinks I don’t care about my family’s financial stability. I only want to make myself happy even if my family will be in trouble with my decision.