Weekly Musing IV - Think About Your Life, Not Your Career

I don’t want to waste time anymore on things that aren’t life-giving, things used merely as veils to hide the human condition.

In Latin, there’s a sobering phrase, Memento mori, which literally translates to, “Remember that you must die".”

What all humans share and are confronted by is the harsh truth that we all must die. There is no way around this, no cure, no cream, no way to escape that there is a time and date and place where you will die.

Clearly, I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately, which is why I’m writing about it. Lately, I’ve been thinking about my own life, both big and small moments and it’s powerfully shaped how I approach all the decisions I’m making. Whether it’s my next job, or what I’m prioritizing in my day, I think about the fact that my time is finite and I will never get this precise moment back.

Heavy, I know. But also sobering.

It influences what I want to spend my time on, the quality of conversations I have, and the people I let into my life. By no means is it meant to sound pretentious - but what I’m trying to illustrate is that I’ve become much more aware of how I live my life.

I don’t want to waste time anymore on things that aren’t life-giving, things used merely as veils to hide the human condition. Idols that can consume your entire life and yet leave you empty at the end of it.

This is where the career portion comes in. I’ve become exhausted with this rhetoric of, “What is your ideal career?”, when the question I think we should be asking is, “What is your ideal life?”. I have theories around why I think as humans it’s almost always easier to choose the prior, but we’ve done humanity a disservice by mixing the two up.

And look, I know I am in a position of privilege. I recognize that. Having the ability to choose is a privilege when your entire life isn’t consumed by survival - but I still think for all humans it’s a worthwhile thought to meditate on - to remember we must die. Because no matter what our own circumstances may be, I hope it can push all of us to love more freely, be patient in times of angry, and build longer tables wherever we find ourselves in this crazy ride called life.