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Deathbed Wisdom To Improve Your Life Today
I scratched out my will in one of those spiral-bound, blue-lined notebooks we used in high school. I realized I didn’t have much to give to anyone at age 26 — maybe a nice TV to one of my buddies and a baseball card collection to my brother. So I folded up the lined page and shoved it into an envelope to send to my best friend back home to open if I didn’t come home.
It was early March, 2003. We were in Northern Kuwait waiting for what we knew was an imminent order to proceed north across the border into Iraq.
Thinking about my death at that age was a gift. It changed how I looked at the life I had left. At that time I didn’t know if that was five days or five decades — I guess none of us do.
Nearness to my own possible death and seeing the death of others changed my perspective on life. It made life more valuable to me — something to seize and cherish instead of just trudge through. It made every day feel more like a possibility instead of an obstacle.
This got me thinking. What do people who have lived long and full lives think about when they are near death? What do they wish they would have done in their lives? What do they think we should know while we’re still healthy and…
