Why Do Death & Tragedy Make Us Want to Transform Our Lives?

When faced with death, we often contemplate our own existence and the meaning behind it.

What exactly are we living for?

What is most important to us?

What happens if we die tomorrow?

What if we lose our parents, our children, or our spouse? Are we living life to the fullest, or just merely living?

These questions are rooted in the innate search for our unique passions and purpose in life.

A recent study suggests that only about 50% of our aging adult population are in tune with their purpose in life. As a result, these senior citizens need less medical care and have a higher overall quality of life.

But why is that number so low, and how can we become part of the statistic?

Unless you are born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you most likely have to deal with the mundane tasks that consume us. Daily duties and weekly obligations eat up most of our energy.

Family time, social events and information overload are vying for the rest of our attention.

At the end of the month, most of us don’t have much to say about how we spent our time.

Then we get the phone call. Someone died.

Through our grief and sadness, we question how the deceased felt about their mortality.

Did they have a bucket list?

Was there something they never got a chance to do?

This may vary depending on the cause that resulted in their death- whether sudden or expected. Either way, it is the shift from our feelings of them to our feelings of us that hold the most gravity.

Out of the peripheral comes our own thoughts and fears about death. Or, most likely, our worries about not living a full life before death.

A 2019 survey found that 42% of Americans are somewhat or very afraid of death. If you dig deeper, I don’t think its the fear of death itself that people are caught up on.

The true fear is of not doing or becoming what we could have before the final curtain call.

The last thing you should do is wait for tragedy to strike to follow your dreams or realize all the beauty in life.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Open the bottle of wine you have been saving for a special occasion. Today is special.

There is always more time to work and make money and clean the garage.

Do what matters most.