Once I Thought About My Own End, I Could No Longer Live Today Carelessly—Turning the Past into Meaning, Choosing the 'Future I Want to Live' from the End, and Building Up Today—

The other day, while listening to a lecture by Hiroshi Tasaka, this topic came up.

It is so obvious that we usually don't think about it, but
when confronted with it again,
I felt the weight of today change just a little.

I was about to give up after three days again

To be honest, I am a person who has repeated the same thing many times before.

“Alright, I’ll start exercising tomorrow.”
“This time, I’ll keep it up.”

I’m always serious the moment I decide,
but before I know it, it naturally fades away in a week, or a month at most.

It’s the same feeling as books I’ve bought but haven’t read lining up on my bookshelf.

But,
the morning walks I started at the end of last July have continued for a year now without me realizing it.

Cutting back on alcohol,
eating until I’m 80% full,
and strength training,
they have all continued in the same way.

I wondered what was different from before.

When I imagined my 100th birthday, I realized, 'It’s impossible if I stay as I am'

I have been imagining my 100th birthday a lot lately.

When I imagined that, a question came to mind.

“No, it’s impossible.”

Honestly, that was my immediate answer.

As if to answer that question, I started continuing my morning walks and strength training.
The reason is probably not just 'because I want to be healthy'.

I don't think health is an end goal for me.

A day only has 24 hours, and life will eventually come to an end.

That is precisely why,
I want to have as much time as possible
to face what I truly want to do.

I call this 'healthy time' on my own. I see health as a means to spend time smiling with loved ones and to continue doing the things I want to do.

It didn't change dramatically all at once.

Walking for 30 minutes in the morning.
Limiting myself to one drink.
Putting down my chopsticks when I'm 80% full.

I just repeated these modest choices every day.

Even so, after continuing for a year,
it has become more of a part of me than just a 'habit'.

When there is a goal, the meaning of taking a break also changes.

This isn't a story about 'everyone should aim for 100 years old'.
It's natural for everyone to have their own thoughts, and I don't think there is a single right answer.

What is important is that, precisely because we don't know when it will end,

I believe it is about picturing that for yourself.

Alcohol, games, and taking breaks are by no means bad things.
In fact, I think they are necessary for life.

Just like a water station in a marathon, it is precisely because there is a finish line that
taking a breather becomes 'time to start running again'.

Even in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare,
it wasn't the fact that the hare took a nap that was the problem.
Perhaps the issue was that he only looked at the tortoise's position instead of his own goal,
and lost sight of the finish line.

The end is not just about the moment of death

I've recently come to think that the end of life
is not just about the moment you die.

What kind of words would I want to hear at my own funeral?
As a couple, how do we want to be until the very end?
When I finish my work, what will I have left for the next generation?
Perhaps it is more important to consider why we earn money and
what we use it for, rather than just how much we leave behind.

I have been working in education for nearly 25 years,
and even now,I often think about 'what I have left behind after I am gone'.

More than the content I taught,
whether the people I interacted with have started walking their own lives on their own feet.
For me, this is far more important.

And when you look back from the end of your life, the way you see the past changes a little.

I don't think you need to force yourself to believe that
the failures and detours of the past were 'good'.

Even so, as I take the time to look back,

Moments where I can think that have finally started to emerge for me as well.

Two books that deepened my thoughts this time

What sparked me to write this article was a lecture by Hiroshi Tasaka.

This week, I also read Tasaka's book'Polishing Your Luck: Three Techniques to Purify the Heart', so please let me introduce it.

How do we accept the events that happen in life?
How do we turn past failures and detours into the meaning of life?

This is a book that gave me the opportunity to look even more deeply into the idea I wrote about this time:
'It is precisely because of that experience that I am able to connect with people like this now.'

And the other book is
Darren Hardy's "The Compound Effect".

Big changes do not happen suddenly one day,
but are born from the accumulation of small daily choices.

Walk for 30 minutes in the morning.
Limit yourself to one drink.
Put down your chopsticks when you are 80% full.

It is a book that gave me many insights into translating the idea of
"choosing a future from the end and stacking up days worthy of that future"
, which I wrote about in this article, into concrete habits.

Both are books that made me think, rather than just reading them for knowledge,

that is what they made me consider.

*This article contains Amazon Associate links.

I could no longer live today carelessly

Choose the "future you want to live" from the end, and
stack up days worthy of that future, one by one.

That alone won't change your life dramatically.

But,
walk for 30 minutes today.
Go to bed a little earlier today.
Express gratitude to someone important to you today.

I believe the future you envision only exists beyond such small, accumulated days.

If you'd like, please let me know in the comments.