Recently, I felt I needed to infuse some energy into my daily routine so I tried the carpe diem approach and told myself, “This is my last week on Earth. What am I going to do?” I thought about calling it my last day but then I’d probably just finish Season 3 of Mozart in the Jungle and fall asleep. I needed a little more time to give myself a chance to make real changes. A week would do.
I wasn’t sure where this would lead but just rolled with the idea. At every decision I had to make during the day I told reminded myself, “This is my last week on Earth. What am I going to do?”
I am at the taco truck, “Guac or no guac?”
It is my last week on earth, not a hard choice. And so it began.
The first thing I did was clean my room. How you die is how people think you lived. If I went out with a messy room they are not going to think, “Oh, he passed away on Thursday, his messy room day. Usually a clean guy though.” No, they’ll just think, “This guy was messy: like Beethoven messy but without the music.” It is important for me to go out clean. I mention that because I think it is true about other things in life also. Make the effort to end things well: relationships, jobs….Don’t grill an amazing steak dinner with a second rate soufflé.
Next, I paid off my Visa bill. It gets paid off regularly but I had to do it now because I didn’t want to be that guy who dies with a Visa bill and causes the housing market to crash. I want to be responsible. I do not want to owe the bank or people anything.
Finally, I walked into my business and organized my projects and got everything in order for my successor. The restructuring actually helped things run more efficiently. I didn’t tell people it was my last week on Earth. They may not get it.
It is day three. I made a phone call and asked someone on a date. I had been on the fence about that for about a month but never hit send because I wasn’t sure if we would be compatible. However, time was running out, 4 days left to live. I stopped worrying about the future and if we were a perfect match or not. Now, I just needed her to be compatible for one date, which took the pressure off and allowed me pick up the phone.
This “last week on earth approach” has worked out fairly well. My room is clean, my bills are paid, I went on a date, and my business is in better shape. I am not totally sure but I think God is fairly impressed as well.
New Years is just a few days away and excited about adapting this approach to a “last YEAR on Earth” philosophy. This is not morbid, it is just Gospel: “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour” Mt 25:13.
What will happen? Will it be an amazing year as it has been an amazing week? I’ll let you know at the end of 2017.
