The problem with the 'final hour of life' mentality.

The problem with the 'final hour of life' mentality.

“Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”

― Jonathan Edwards

I don’t think I agree with Mr. Edwards here, granted he is far more skilled and versed in all kinds of wisdom and knowledge than I am but I am beginning to realise that it is not what we do, but rather how we do it. If we all lived with the thought that I will do nothing I wouldn't do if it were the final hour of my life nothing would get done, sure we would have fun and stop to think about what and who really matter in this life but what about the boring mundane stuff that cant be separated from life like standing in a long queue at the Pick n Pay, paying your TV license, pulling the weeds out of your garden, vacuuming the lounge, or washing the car. What a sorry sight our lives would be! Would anyone in their right mind go to work if they knew they had 1 hour left to live? No! Without an economy no one would be able to do anything ‘worth’ doing in their final hour. Lets be realistic here!

Instead of approaching life with the thought that I should do nothing I wouldn’t want to do if this hour were my last , we should be saying “how would I want my heart to be in this if it were my final hour”. If we realised that our life is filled with a lot of those ‘I wouldn’t do this in my last hour’ vibes then how depressing would our life be? Not fun!! I would hate to live like that, always thinking ‘I shouldn’t be doing this at all’ when in fact I should be saying ‘I shouldn’t be doing this with such a lame attitude’. I think life will be a lot more happy, don’t you?

The attitude of your heart will determine the joy and satisfaction that you will find in that place. I would rather us resolve to do everything with all excellence and passion as if it were our last hour, even the mundane stuff. You never know who you might meet in those mundane tasks, a single mom needing a hand with carrying the groceries to her car, a homeless man needing a meal, or even an old friend who you haven’t seen for ages. The issue is not doing the mundane, it is how we do it that will determine how much we are able to get out of this life.

This all might sound rather cliché, you know like the whole ‘be the change you wanna see thing’ but think about it, is life really about sky diving all the time, diving with sharks, driving a Ferrari on the French Riviera, seeing the Pyramids, or the Grand Canyon, or the Niagra Falls and whatever else finds it’s way onto a ‘Bucket List’? (You know… that list of all the things we want to do before we ‘Kick the bucket’ so to speak) If those things were all that we did I reckon they would lose their novelty pretty quickly, the mundane stuff help us enjoy the fun stuff cause the fun stuff wouldn’t be fun if there wasn’t anything that wasn’t fun.

There is joy and meaning to be found anywhere, if we take the time to look for it.

#justathought