This morning I was told one of the students in a storytelling course I ran passed away. She died of a heart attack while on holiday.
Now I did not know her very well, I only trained her for a few hours, but it still got to me. She was nice and outgoing with a bubbly personality. Someone you take an instant liking to. And more importantly she was about my age. Somewhere in her thirties probably.
Most people do not like contemplating their mortality. It is unsettling to think about it. But I also think it is the best way to inspire us to be our best. It is a painful lesson I learned at age eighteen, when my six year old nephew died.
Every now and then I wonder if my life will ever be as good as his. In the few years he had he lived more than most people do in decades and he has put a smile on the face of everyone he met.
And it can all be over at any time. You might be planning to do something in a future that will never happen.
So this morning I started thinking about my ultimate KPI again: Who will be present and what will they say at my funeral.
And for the first time I am starting to like the picture. I am marrying the love of my life, someone who gets me. I am doing meaningful work with and on the Stoos movement. Facilitating the required paradigm shift in management thinking is something that is sorely needed and I am passionate about. I have met quite a few extremely interesting and talented people over the years.
The one area that needs more work is friends. They have not had enough of my attention over the past year or two. And that is something I am going to focus on this year.
So a year from now I’ll have an amazing bunch of people together who can say we had a lot of fun and achieved our first steps toward a better world.
So what would your funeral look like if it happened one year from now? Yes it does feel uncomfortable, but it is the best inspiration I know to do truly meaningful work and to spend enough time with the people you care about. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a nephew to catch up on.
Hello Erwin,
It’s moments like these, brushes with mortality, that make us appreciate life and what we can mean for others.
Well put, your “ultimate KPI.”
Leo
Thanks for the comment Leo.
One of the things that surprised me is that not many people use these moments to appreciate and celebrate life. Let alone to use the emotion and energy for something positive.
Hope this helps some people see the brushes with mortality a bit different now
I like the sense of the funeral as an ultimate-KPI. Historically people thought more about “Who will be present and what will they say at my funeral.” during their lifetime. This was much more common before globalization hit the earth. I am not against it, but its mechanic wheels damaged a lot of the long term thinking of people about their lifetime on earth. However, i must add here my another suitable title for this post. “Dead-line: The funeral”
A lot of people speak about deadlines, which they have to catch. I must always ask myself, if they really understand the first noun in this word.