How to improve your performance by thinking about death.
You will be surprised by how effective it is.
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How do you use death to make you perform better?
Well, by thinking about Memento Mori.
Essentially, you do more because you know you will die.
But, wait, what is Memento Mori.
Well, it is a large part of Stoic philosophy…
Memento Mori is the practice of contemplating your mortality and remembering that death comes to all
In English, it translates to "remember you must die"
Sounds kind of morbid and not fun?
I know, but you need this concept in your life; it pushes you to take the right actions.
To get a philosophical viewpoint, we can look to the Stoic masters.
In his letters, Seneca explains the benefit of meditating on death…
"Let us prepare our minds as if we'd come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life's books each day…The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time. "
This idea can seem strange to many people in many cultures.
As we have developed a habit of ignoring death in modern society and thinking time is abundant.
While death is one of the only things you have in common with everyone else, few openly discuss it.
Thinking about death makes you grateful for every moment with loved ones and friends.
Memento Mori takes something painful or scary like death and turns it into a beautiful part of our daily lives, even something to embrace and not fear.
But how does it improve your performance?
Memento Mori helps you prioritize what matters while reminding you that time is finite.
Each day you know that sitting on the sidelines of life is not the right thing to do.
You start to see time differently...
You want to do more with your time.
You see less value in things that don't serve you.
You see less value in wasting months and years drifting.
It gives you the courage to take on bigger challenges as you know time is not on your side.
Many people say they need the motivation to be more productive.
When I 1st start thinking about this concept daily, I can tell you it certainly puts things into perspective.
What is more motivating than understanding that your own personal clock is constantly ticking down?
Use Memento Mori each day to help you improve.
Take time to realize that everyone around you will die, and your time is finite.
Then take action to use your time well today and every day.
You won't regret it.
If you're a busy professional or entrepreneur looking to get clear on your opportunities and improve your performance.
Without spending weeks wasting time going from idea to idea or book to book looking for answers.
How to avoid the dark side of success and win for the right reasons.
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Ask yourself:
Do you feel like you are constantly chasing the dopamine hit of a win?
Do you feel like you do things because of other's expectations?
Do you do things just to beat people?
If you answered yes to any of those, you could be in the Success Trap
Let’s take a look...
Behind every victory is the desire for the next one, and that can be a good thing if you have good goals linked to a purpose.
But maybe for you, every success just makes you want more.
In reality, there is no peak to success; the climb towards the next one can become addictive.
You love to make things complicated, and it's not your fault.
But you need to stop; let's find out how.
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We are the cause of most of our complicated issues in life.
When faced with two competing options, we are more likely to choose the more complex option even if there is a simple choice available.
Welcome to complexity bias...
To beat it, you 1st need to understand why you do it
Complexity bias is our tendency to look at something easy to understand and then see it as having many difficult parts, or, we may view it as more complex while in a confused or stressed state