30 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Die
How much have you loved? Count the people. Add it up. When it comes to love, Iâve always felt in red numbers. Iâve been so focused on the minuses â all of them based on the not-enoughness, the virus most of us suffer from, the glass half-empty, the âbutâ â the âwonâtâ â the âcanâtâ â the âdonâtâ â the âwhat if.â
So if youâre in red numbers too, letâs put the ball back in our court. How much have you loved? Have you loved even when it hurts, when you canât, when you shouldnât, when you wouldnât, when you didnât â just because love is a verb, not a noun, and itâs the hardest, most beautiful gift of life? If so, youâre richer than you feel.
What do you love doing that you arenât doing? Furthermore, how could you get paid for doing what you love? Letâs brainstorm. Itâs your right to be alive every second of the day. Youâre not supposed to spend 8 hours a day in chains and the remaining 4 getting high on mental and physical distraction in order to cope with the depression of not doing what you should, what you really want, what you need to be doing.
What person or type of person would you choose as a life companion? A witness to your life? Forget the shoulds / the canâts / the wonâts / the impossibles. Who would you love and who would love you back if you could have a say in it? Because see, your say in this makes all the difference. When you say your dreams out loud, you turn on the engine. Itâs like this whole unlived, abundant life is waiting to come rushing out of you and in wishing it â out loud â you open the gates and give it permission to happen.
Where do you want to live? Are you happy with your life where you are? Could you be happier somewhere else? Itâs true that you can be home wherever you are. But itâs also true that some places are more in tune with the kind of life that comes bursting out of you. Thereâs nothing more inspiring and motivating than good company and an environment that reflect and support your mission.
What do you want to accomplish? And most importantly, why â whatâs your motivation? Be unrealistic. Life itself is unrealistic. Your very existence is as random, impossible and unrealistic as it gets. Only unrealistic people accomplish extraordinary things.
What do you want to be remembered by? Write it down. This is the man / the woman who _______________. Take your time.
What kind of life would make you jealous? And why? If you could start over, what would your life look like, right now? (psstâŠyou can â but shh, donât let your doubts in on this yet â theyâre gonnaâ ruin everything).
What adventures do you want to have? Can you list five? Adventures arenât just for children â or maybe the 10-year old in us never dies. And itâs that inner child that really loves and lives life for what it is: the greatest adventure in the universe.
If you had to add something to humanity, what would your contribution be? List at least one. The world doesnât owe you. You owe the world. The good news is that whatever the answer to this question, youâll enjoy doing it. Your mission is encrypted in your blueprint.
What are your ghosts? Your unspoken demons? The stuff you keep in your closet under a lock? What are you most deeply afraid of? Say it out loud. Get real with yourself. Itâs how you conquer them.
What are your favorite memories? Can you picture four or five instances in your childhood you are fond of? Do you see a river running through them? Whatâs that river, that common denominator, the deepest statement about you and life that lies at the core of them? There is usually only one â or two life-altering statements that come up when you dig.
Get to the bottom of it. How can you live from that same belief now? How can you transform your current experiences so they begin with that same idea â that fueled your most cherished childhood memories?
Who do you love the most? What 10 people would you put on a lifeboat in case of a universal tsunami / asteroid / zombie attack or any other realistic end of the world? Make a list. You can have a million friends on Facebook, but at the end of the day, youâre lucky if you can find 10 people you would die for and who would die for you. Email them as soon as you can. Remind them that if the world ends tomorrow, theyâd be on your lifeboat.
Truth isâŠyou never know if the world will end tomorrow. At least for you. And human beings are the most forgetful animals. Do you eat, drink and sleep every day? Then love everyday too.
What worries you the most? Why? Worry comes from fear. And most fear is imaginary. Fear of the Thing is not the Thing itself. Learn to distinguish one from the other. Itâs as simple as asking Why.
So what are you worried about? List even the most trivial worries, theyâre a projection of a deeper fear. And if any of these worries came true, do you think you could survive? And if the answer is No, then all the more reason to enjoy the world before it ends (and not worry about dead or dying ends).
What type of people inspire you and make you come alive? What people â at this point in your life â add to the truest equation of YOU? Reach out to them, get closer, âtouchâ them, spend time with them, be around them, aliveness is the one virus you always need to catch.
What type of people bring you down and make you hate yourself? Break up with them. Today. Itâs not rejection, itâs just selection. Life is short. You canât invest your love in people who donât want it and who use it to deplete you.
Love is the most elevated, beautiful transaction between two creatures. But itâs still a transaction. The whole of nature is transaction: a give and take. When one is missing, the cycle is interrupted, the fire swallows all the oxygen and you burn out. We each have a choice â to give and to take love â and whether we are aware of it or not, we choose the people we give to and take from. You are responsible for your heartâs investments.
Who are your mentors? What have they taught you? Can you make a list? If you know them personally, thank them? Writers, thinkers, teachers, people whoâve shown you the way at some point, and the beautiful mystery of life made sense in their hands. Inspiration is contagious. It fuels you up. You owe them a mention on your lips and in your heart; and you must pay it forward and become a way-shower to someone else.
What is your cosmic elevator pitch? Not your job description, not your professional bio, not your resume, not your About page. But if you got in an elevator on a spaceship that tours the galaxy and you could say anything you wanted about yourself, what would you tell your elevator mates?
In short, who are you â raw, unedited, wild, ordinary and extraordinary you? What does it come down to? And why?Â
What issues can you help with? Weâre in trouble as a planet, as a species, as a global community, and as individuals. Itâs not a choice, actually. If you want to live here, you need to pay the toll of helping out, or your so-called-living wonât be more than a selfish idea of living.
Interdependence is the new Independence. In order to make it real, you have to help clean up the mess others have made. Donât worry, so will others help clean yours. Itâs how it goes with humans. They mirror each other, for better or worse.
How can you express yourself creatively? Starting with the belief that we are all creative animals by nature, whatâs your medium? Donât think about profit, think only of how you can recycle your demons and become a channel for truth.
Art (any kind) speaks directly to the heart. It doesnât go through reason. They are two parallel languages. You need to speak Art if you want to understand Heart. So pick a medium and start practicing.
How do you manage your time? What works for you? If youâre a mess, how can you get it together? Here are some creative tips on productivity. Can you make a schedule, write down your routine (to help you stick to it), come up with a productivity manifesto of some sort?
If you were to leave the world today, whatâs your manifesto? What would you tell your children if you were forced to abandon them unexpectedly? Tell them now (even if you donât have children). You do actually, weâre all inextricably interconnected to each other â in ways beyond our wildest imagination, and every child born on this planet is also a bit yours.
What makes you come alive? What ignites you? What makes you forget time, and space, and love, and food and water and even why â if taken to extreme? As Bukowski put it, âFind out what you love and let it kill you.â (Or resurrect you.)
What are your most painful memories? Are you still replaying them in your mind and using them as an excuse to fuel your fear of getting hurt again? Do you think they might be keeping you from trusting your heart again?
Why do you eat the way you eat and the things you eat? What do you think you should you eat that youâre not eating â and why? What can you put in your body that gives you pleasure and also respects and nourish it? If you donât know, can you find out? Google it, read books, take a nutrition course, a cooking class, an online support program, hire a health counselor, do whatever it takes to get to know your bodyâs needs and then give it what itâs really asking for.
Your cells are made from the very food you eat. What you eat is the most important physiological aspect of your aliveness. You canât honor life through your work, mission, relationships (you name it), if you donât eat what gives you life.
What ignites your brain? What turns your light bulb on? Can you add more of that to your everyday? Get smarter? Train your brain? Evolve? Donât waste your precious time on meaningless entertainment that numbs your mind and makes you smaller. Itâs later than you think.
What physical exercise makes you sweat it like you mean it and enjoy both, the process and the afterward feeling? If youâre not currently practicing it, can you read more about it, surround yourself with people who practice it, sign up for a class, do whatever will motivate you to practice it?
What does your body need in order to function at its best? Can you make a list of what makes you feel healthiest and function optimally and try to practice it every day? If youâre not sure, start experimenting. Your 100% is just a little higher than your 80% but it makes a lifetime impact.
What feeds your spirit? What gives you goosebumps? What makes you fall down to your knees in awe (and weep)? Is it god? Religion? The universe? Science? Starry nights? Philosophy? Nature? Music? Art? It has to be higher than a person (than you), and surpass your understanding. There is no awe without mystery.
What are you proud of so far? What have you accomplished? Donât compare yourself to others. There will always be someone whoâs done âmoreâ and some whoâs done âless.â But what can you, at this point in your life (your circumstances, your reality), give yourself a hug for? Do it.
Fast-forward to your epitaph. What does it say? As a place-holder, letâs paraphrase Jack Kerouac: âThey lived and loved and asked, blessed and adventuredâŠand they werenât sorry.â