A reminder, in case it slipped your mind: one day you will be dead.
If you're lucky, your friends and family will gather around your grave and shed a few tears. Then they'll head back to the house, have some lunch, and eventually get on with their lives.
That's if you're lucky.
Death comes for us all. The reaper spares no one.
What will you do with your time?
So the question becomes: what will you do with the brief time you have before your number comes up?
Will you spend it getting wrecked every weekend, drinking, partying and acting like an idiot?
Or will you build something? Will you leave a legacy, something the people at your funeral can talk about, something your children and grandchildren will benefit from?
The Dork Age wants you selfish
We live in an age that is deeply nihilistic and individualistic. It celebrates selfishness as a virtue. It prizes looking wealthy over anything that might bring real meaning to your life.
We can't change that paradigm on our own. But we can work on ourselves, and build something meaningful in our own lives.
Memento mori
You've probably heard the Latin phrase memento mori: remember that you will die.
People used to carry small reminders of it: a brooch, a locket or a pendant engraved with a skull or a portrait of a lost loved one. A constant reminder that one day they would join the dead. Our equivalent is the Reap T-shirt from our Reap collection.
You have no say in whether the reaper comes for you. What you do get to choose is how you live until then, and how you greet him when he arrives.
Train like you're going to die
Here's where strength comes in.
Every session in the gym is a small act of memento mori. Strength and muscle are closely linked to how long you live and how well you live in your final years. The body you'll have at 70 is being built right now, one workout at a time. Every rep, every drop of sweat, every cold early morning you drag yourself to the gym is a deposit in that bank account.
Training is a legacy in itself, too. Your kids learn more from watching you show up, day in, day out, than from anything you just tell them. A strong father, a strong friend: that's someone your loved ones can lean on, long after they've forgotten your PRs.
One day you will make that last withdrawal and hand that last coin to Charon. Until then, be mindful about who you are how you’re showing up in the world. Train like you're going to die. Because you are.
Don't fear the reaper
Someone who has wasted their life will fear the reaper.
Someone who has lived to the hilt and built a legacy has nothing to fear.
Start building your legacy now, because the reaper may come sooner than you think.
What legacy are you building? Let me know, and share this with someone who needs the reminder.