If You Only Have Six Months To Live

I don't want to sound morbid, nor anything in particular, it's just that I was reading Paulo Coehlo's Veronica Wants To Die and I just had this thought. You see, the story is about a young woman who committed suicide by swallowing a handful of sleeping pills thinking that her life is so normal with no excitement and sense and ending it is the best thing to do. Only to wake up after in a mental institution, and finding out that the result of her act was a heart malfunction that she only has a few days to live. Ironic, however, this made her rethink about her life and realized that there are more reasons to live, (read the book and find out what happens, it's not what you think!)

Anyway, so there, I had this thought, what if we only have six months to live our lives? What do we do with the time we have?


Who would wespend our time with? Are we spending our time with them now? Are there ways we can plan to spend more time with them? Can we more fully experience and treasure the time we spend with them now?

What would we want to do more of? Would we travel? Is there somewhere we’ve always dreamed of going but for some reason have never put the plan into action? Would we spend more time outdoors, or expressing our creativity, or listening to music? Would we wake up earlier? Would we eat differently? Are there things we would want to learn more about? Are there activities and hobbies we would want to try?

What would we let go of and do less of? Would we still want to go to our workplace (maybe not all day everyday) or would we quit immediately and never look back? Would we watch the same amount of TV or are there more meaningful things we’d want to do with our time? Would gossip and drama still interest us in our everyday conversations? Would we spend as much time playing computer games and surfing the net? Would we still enjoy the company of the people we spend most time with now?

If we wouldn’t continue to do what we’re doing now if we found out we only had six months left to live, then why are we doing it now?

Sure we might need to work in order to plan for a hopefully long and healthy future, but do we have to do the work we are currently doing if we don’t find it rewarding?

If we don’t start to make changes now, then when will we? If we acknowledge that the quality of our lives doesn’t reflect our vision of what it could be, then when do we suppose we will achieve an improved quality of life?

Don’t wait for a tragedy to be forced into rethinking our lives.

Today, do less of one of those things that isn’t included in the overall vision of your life, and do more of one of those things that is included. I know I will.