The Lessons We Learn Before Death

Life. It's a pretty interesting thing. It might be the same word and based off the same concept of existing, living, breathing, etc., but it has millions (if not billions) of variations. Your life will never be the exact same as someone else's on planet earth. You may find a person whose life is similar to yours in certain ways, but unless you are clones of one another raised with the exact same conscience in the exact same environment going through the same circumstances down to a T, we are all unique little snowflakes. We will go through an enormous number of situations, experience a huge variety of circumstances, and learn a whole slew of lessons in one's lifetime. 

Some lessons are drilled into our heads just about from the moment we're born, but some of those lessons aren't learned until the final moments before passing. Going hand in hand with that thought are the lessons that people pass on to others during their final moments. I stumbled across a blog post detailing the lessons the author of the post had learned from the dying, and I do have to say: the lessons the dying sometimes have to offer are quite profound. The author of the post discussed 7 of the lessons that had made a lasting impression:

1)    Never forget how blessed you are.

It’s extremely easy to forget how blessed you are sometimes. You may have a shitty morning, day, or go through some horrendous circumstances. It’ll feel like you’re the unluckiest person in the world and life is just trying to make everything harder for you. But as bad as it may get sometimes, I can almost guarantee that it could be worse. You live in a country with clean running water and an abundance of food. That's already more than a large portion of the population can say.

Take it from me: As terrible as the accident I went through was and how injured I was, having an entire year of my life stolen away from me, I can’t help but feel blessed in the sense that things could have gone worse. I could be paralyzed, crazy, or dead.

2)    Don't lose focus of the fact that your greatest investment will be in people.

In the hustle and bustle of life and trying to make money and move up in society, make sure you don’t forget to develop and cherish your relationships with people, be it friends, your significant other, your kids, etc. Investments in other people are the investments that will have a greater impact in the larger scheme of things.

                                                                                         

3)    Be a collector of moments, not a collector of things.

Sometimes people get way too caught up in the material goods in the world, always fretting about how much money they have and what they own. But money and physical possessions don’t usually do you much good once you’re 6 feet under. Stop spending every waking moment obsessing over trying to get that new phone, game, or other material object. Instead, go out for more experiences and moments you can fondly remember in the future.

4)    Do not stress about approval.

This reminds me of a quote (who nobody seems to know said originally) I’ve always loved and really stuck with me: “Be who you are and say what you feel because people who mind don’t matter and people who matter don’t mind.” You were not put on this world to gain the approval of some other person; at the end of the day, it’s your life. If you enjoy being able to please that person, go for it, but it doesn’t have to be your purpose in life.

5)    When you have a choice between time and money... pick time.

There’s the saying that “Time is Money.” It has its points, but I’d have to disagree. Time provides the opportunity to make money, but it’s so much more than that. Time offers life, with happiness and experiences that money can't actually buy. Sure, money may assist you on that venture, but time is also one of those things that money can’t truly buy and is more valuable in that sense. You can have more time to make money, but you can't really have more money to make time.

6)    Never judge another person's struggle.

We as people are often too quick to make judgements about another person’s situation and struggles. But we often don’t truly take the time to consider the circumstances that person has been forced into and gone through. This lesson reminded me of the song “What Would You Do?” by Bastille, which talks about an experience he had seeing a former classmate as a stripper at a party he attended. Bastille asks his classmate why she’s doing this, and she responds with the question “What would you do?” She explains her situation as an unemployed single mother struggling to provide for her child, and how she and her sister had run away from home as teenagers so their father wouldn’t rape them. We all go through our own struggles, so don’t hastily make assumptions and judgements about other people's.

7)    Life is too short not to pursue the dreams that are in your heart.

Sometimes people spend their entire lives just going through the motions. They do what they have to do to earn money and please everybody else in their life. But we have to remember to take time to please ourselves, too! Life is a pretty fragile thing, I of all people should know after almost having mine suddenly taken away. You honestly never know when your last day on this little ball in the middle of space we call “Earth” is, so don’t take the time you have now for granted.

If you really want to be able to do something or go somewhere, go for it as soon as you can while you’re still able to. I love roller coasters and amusement parks but had been putting off asking my parents to go because we always had something else to do (usually clean the house or do chores). After the accident though, I apparently may never be able to ride any kind of amusement park ride for the rest of my life. The point of that sob story is that you should do what you want and follow your dreams while you’re still capable of doing so!

The original post is right here if you’d like to read it: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/seven-lessons-i-have-lear_b_5489210