Memento mori, what about that?

Memento mori, or Remember you must die, is a profound philosophical phrase. It may help one identify what is truly important. Or prepare us for an inevitable end by acceptance or apatheia.

But hey, I’m right before my twenties. Isn’t it a “little bit early” for me to practice memento mori?

I don’t think so.

Not only because I will never know when I leave this lobby. But also because it showed me how something scary can be transformed into something empowering.

Let me tell you an example of a pattern I spot in my behavior.

Let’s say I want to do something. And it is something I never did before. It is not surprising that I feel a little bit of anxiety, maybe also fear of failure. After all, doing nothing is always a safer alternative (is it?).

So I decided to postpone any actions. I feel safe, no negative feelings from potentially uncomfortable actions.

But there is almost always a point in which…

I tell myself: Memento mori.

(It was surprising at first.) I don’t feel apatheia about life from that, but rather about the cons of taking action. That’s why the cons of taking action fade away. It is not the meaning of life that is damaged, but anything else that blocks me from doing what I feel inner motivation about.

Where memento mori is said, there is a change in the ratio between gains and losses. Memento mori makes the inevitable fleeting and the feared achievable.