I keep a crystal skull on my desk in plain sight. It reminds me to ask every single day:
If you knew you only had a year left, what’s the most urgent thing you’d need to do?
Going to your grave, what would you want to look back on - with the deepest satisfaction - and say, “THANK GOD I did that!”
In early winter 2020, I started thinking about this more intentionally. Although the magnitude of the pandemic and the extent to which it would change everything was still to be revealed, the new decade invited a closer look at how I spend my time.
I had to be honest with myself. If I was grave-ward bound anytime soon, things weren’t looking great.
Perhaps it was the new decade – or reports of the virus creeping closer – or just seeing more wrinkles in the mirror. But last winter something shifted in me, and I started acting more like my time is limited. Because it is – even if I live to 100, as I plan!
What I want to share with you is how it feels to actually DO THE THING you know you need to do before taking the long dirt nap.
It. Is. INCREDIBLE.
It’s joy, exhilaration, freedom, deep and total satisfaction. Sorry to “should” on you, but you should definitely go do that thing. ASAP. I promise you won’t regret it.
It’s so easy to lose sight of it in the midst of our daily routine, but we really never know how much time we have left in our short stint on this planet.
And have you ever noticed how something you identify as most important to your soul can also be the most easily pushed to the side?
For my part, over the last 10 years I’ve watched myself scratch out lovely daily to-do lists, always including music in some shape or form – but inevitably at the end of any given week, I’d have made zero progress on a new song. My guitar would actually be gathering dust. What was most important to me was always first to take a back seat, and last to be crossed off on my paper pad.
In my opinion, solid life maintenance is a necessary foundation for sustainable creativity of any form. Financial security, a healthy body, maintaining relationships, having fun – these all add up to a balanced existence that supports a person to make art or any other expression of the human spirit. I don’t sing well if I’m stressing about paying my rent.
Taking care of these matters takes time. And if you have a family, it can take a lot of time. When you plan to live to 100 (books to read! songs to write! trails to walk!), then your days need to reflect that you’re playing the long game.
But we ain’t gettin’ any younger. It’s not morbid to remember that each day could be your last, it’s just the truth! Keeping death in view is a great way to get on with what matters.
And that’s how my new EP “What’s Begun” started – with my inevitable end in mind.
More than anything, upon my last breath, I wanted to know that I made the music that was in my heart. That I didn’t waste my time and my gifts. That I really tried, as best I could, to bring these songs to life as I imagined.
So I took action. I made time for making music even when I felt like I should be doing something else. I got up early and sometimes stayed up late – as if I had a real “dead” line (har har).
The beautiful thing was this. It didn’t take long before I realized that whatever happened with the music in the end – even if I got hit by a bus before finishing the album, even if only 10 people heard it and none of them liked it – that it actually didn’t matter.
What mattered was that I was DOING THE THING. Simply being in the act of doing what’s most important to my soul was enough. It was so much fun – the most delicious of challenges – so rewarding, even on the days when I wanted to throw my computer against the wall – that I felt more alive, and more like myself, than I had in a really long time.
So what’s in your heart as important, but still undone?
What do you need to begin, so that you’re ready for the end?
What would make you feel most alive, most like yourself – if you did it even for 15 short minutes today?
Love,
Kate