How often do we take the time to ask how ourselves the way we’d want to be remembered?
Too often it seems, people only take the time to make such an audacious inquiry when our mortality finally feels tangible. When the pique of our superpowers and feelings of immortality gradually fade.
Suddenly, death no longer feels like a theory but an impending reality or inconvenience.
Why not instead extend an olive branch to our gradual extinction and even cultivate a healthy relationship to it? By appreciating death we subsequently do the same for life.
Sometimes it helps to work backwards to bring greater clarity to the steps we need to take in order to live a life in harmony with the core principles we so desperately long to represent.
Admittedly, I have a LONG way to go before the eulogy below would be read on my own behalf but my hope is that it’ll inspire you to think critically, allow for generous introspection, and help you generate ideas on how you want to be remembered someday.
More importantly, I hope it inspires you to take some form of action sooner rather than later.
Life is after all unapologetically fickle and definitively finite.
Nick was a devoted son, brother, and friend. He worked tirelessly on becoming the best version of himself every single day of his life.
He woke up each day with a profound sense of gratitude and optimism about the world and his capacity to influence it in some small way.
Nick never wavered in his commitment to emotional, spiritual, mental, and professional development nor in cultivating rich relationships with the people around him.
As he got older, Nick honored his gifts, embraced his ignorance, recognized his shortcomings, and even grew to appreciate how deeply flawed he was. He also valued the importance of redefining success on his own terms.
He refused to buckle under times of unpopularity or blindly accept widely accepted norms as arbitrarily right.
He defined a fully lived life by taking risks, committing completely to everything he did, always trying to demonstrate kindness, gratitude and integrity. Especially when it was hard.
Nick believed in being bold but not reckless and in protecting his dreams and curiosity at all costs.
He grew to fall in love with ambiguity and appreciate that most of life is lived in the middle.
In the end, Nick understood some questions are not meant to be answered and that wisdom is cultivated in the space between doubt and knowing.
When Nick finally departed he had nothing left to give. He devoted himself completely to the craft of creating, contributing, and living.
Most notably, he chose to see people as opportunities rather than problems. It was his friends that allowed him to see another point of view, to look at the big picture, and to know the act of carrying out tasks together provided opportunity for growth, inquiry, and a heightened sense of community.
He was a man who invented the future through creating art. And when he died, he wanted people to say, “Man did that guy know how to live!”
But mostly, he wanted to be remembered as a man who made the world a better place through a redeemed social condition. He wanted people to say, “His accomplishments were significant but far more important was the character with which he lived his life.”
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