Dying

When you reach my age, the idea of the “end” becomes less and less abstract and more and more an approaching reality. Death doesn’t discriminate between rich or poor, young or old, male, female, or whatever. We’re all, someday, going to die. This is why we need a good perspective on death.

Every morning, Steve Jobs of Apple says he looks in the mirror and asks himself,

“If today were the last day of your life, would you still be doing what you plan to do?”

Jobs’ morning question, for ordinary mortals like me, is a kilo of espressos poured into my throat. His day, unlike mine, begins with a bit more drama.

Pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant last year sidelined the founder of modern marvels iPhone, iPod and Pixar (Toy Story) for  while. His doctors had given him up. But he proved them wrong. He survived. He has gone on to launch newer wonders iPad, iPhone 4, the best Toy Story ever, (TS3), and is now reported to to be tweaking iTunes to give Google serious competition.

Remembering you are going to die, Jobs adds, is the only way to know you have something to lose.    

When we begin our day as if it were the last, we tend to think of more sublime things
than, I wonder what’s for breakfast?

T.S. Eliot was not thinking of bacon and eggs when he wrote:

     “Do I dare
     Disturb the universe?
     In a minute there is time
     For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
     For I have known them all already, known them all –
     Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
     I have measured out my life with coffee spoons….”

For this is the essence of a life of excellence: to “set our hearts on things above, not on
earthly things.”

As I ask myself Steve Jobs’ question and continue to measure my life with coffee spoons, I hope I can finally join thousands of people  who daily dare disturb the universe, and live,
unlike me, lives of Leadership, Integrity, Faith, and Excellence.