I have long been hyper-aware of my own mortality and extremely, extremely terrified by it. I remember the first extreme rush of fear came after watching Patch Adams (1998) and, for some reason, being overcome with emotion when Patch’s girlfriend is killed by her patient. After the movie, I turned to my mom and said, while holding back tears, “I don’t want to die!”. She did her motherly best to assure me to the idea that that’s a long time away and is not something to be afraid of and how it’s part of life and …..
It did little to help.
However, I have started to accept this fact of life and use it more as a motivator than a detractor. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius certainly set the stage for my transformation in thought. But my personal mantra has now evolved thanks greatly to Gary Vaynerchuk and the video below and which he talks about in most of his talks.
the counterfactual 