Death is a tool for a good life
I regularly think about dying.
Not in a morbid sense, but to evaluate how closely I'm living to my ideal. I read an article recently about a guy who wrote a "pre-mortem" once a year. The idea is to write your own obituary, and plan the next five years of your life according to what you want it to say.
Sometimes I conclude I'm doing the right things. Other times I conclude I need to make major changes. And always I walk away feeling better about my life now, and my future.
Our time is limited. Rationally we all admit that we'll die one day, but most of us don't think about it. The illusion of unlimited time stops us from living a good life. It makes us too willing to waste time, and not prioritize the right people and the right things.
The goal at death is to die without regrets. To live a life that you're proud of, and to know that fear, apathy, and blindness didn't hold you back from the life you wanted. To know that you lived a good life, however you define it.
I often ask myself I'll be remembered as a good father, the kind of father I strove to be. It's like looking into a mirror. It forces me to be honest with myself.
So I urge you to ponder your death as a means to evaluate how you're living. If you died today, what regrets would you have? If none, you're living the life you should be. But if you would have regrets, it's time to make changes.
Thinking about our deaths can remind us of how we should be living in the limited time we have left. Make the most of it.