Living a life that matters

Ready or not, I know that it will all someday come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things I've collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. If I had wealth, fame or temporal power it will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what I owned or what I were owed. My grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear. So too will my hopes, ambitions, plans, to-do lists and dreams expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important to me will fade away. It won’t matter where I came from, or on what side of the tracks I lived at the end. It won’t matter whether I were beautiful or brilliant. Even my gender, sexuality and skin colour will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of my days be measured?

What will matter is not what I bought, but what I built; not what I got, but what I gave. What will matter is not my success, but my significance. What will matter is not what I learned, but what I taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate my example. What will matter is not my competence, but my character. What will matter is not how many people I knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when I'm gone. What will matter is not my memories, but the memories that live in those who loved me. What will matter is how long I will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that will matter doesn’t happen by accident; it’s not a matter of circumstance. It's a choice. It's my choice!