If Today Were Your Last Day, Would You Be Satisfied With The Life You Lived?

I’ve been sitting with a question lately.

A big one.

Not because I want to be morbid.

Because I want to be awake.

Gay Hendricks tells a story in Five Wishes about an interaction that changed the direction of his life. He was asked to imagine that his life was ending and to consider whether he would be completely satisfied with the way he had lived it.

That question has stayed with me.

Because the truth is, none of us knows how much time we have.

We assume tomorrow.

We plan for next year.

We tell ourselves we’ll get to the thing eventually.

We’ll make the change.

Have the conversation.

Take better care of ourselves.

Start the business.

Write the book.

Travel.

Love more deeply.

Say what we really mean.

Do the thing that has been quietly pressing on our hearts for years.

But what if today were the last day?

Not in a frightening way.

In a clarifying way.

If you were laying your head on your pillow tonight for the very last time, would you feel completely satisfied with the life you lived?

Would you be satisfied with the way you loved?

With the relationships you nurtured?

With the way you cared for and inhabited this human body you were given?

With how fully you expressed your gifts and talents?

With the work you chose to give your life force to?

With what you did with your time?

With the impact you made?

With the experiences you allowed yourself to have?

With how often you listened to that quiet voice inside you saying, There is something more for me?

Or would there be something unfinished?

Something you would wish you had been brave enough to begin?

Something you would wish you had said?

Someone you would wish you had loved differently?

A dream you would wish you had stopped postponing?

The Question Is Not Meant to Scare Us

I don’t think this question is asking us to panic.

I think it is asking us to tell the truth.

Because there is such a difference between being grateful for the life we have and settling for a life that is asking to become more.

We can deeply appreciate what is here and still feel the longing for greater life.

That longing does not mean we are ungrateful.

It may be Life itself getting our attention.

The DreamBuilder Program teaches us to notice our longing and discontent because they are incredibly powerful signals from our soul

that some part of our life is asking for expansion.

And once we notice it, we can ask one of the most powerful questions I know:

What would I love?

Not what should I do?

Not what would other people approve of?

Not what seems realistic based on my current circumstances?

What would I love?

Look at Your Whole Life

Maybe this question becomes even more powerful when we look at the four major areas of life.

Health & Well-Being

If this were it, would you feel satisfied with the way you cared for your body?

Not whether your body looked a certain way.

But did you honor it?

Did you nourish it?

Move it?

Rest it?

Enjoy being alive inside it?

Did you experience the vitality, strength, freedom, and aliveness you wanted?

Love & Relationships

Would the people you love know that you loved them?

Did you let yourself be known?

Did you say the things that mattered?

Did you invest your presence in the people who mattered most?

Are there relationships calling for healing, deeper connection, forgiveness, boundaries, or simply more time?

Vocation & Calling

Did you use what was placed inside you?

The gifts.

The ideas.

The creativity.

The experiences.

The things only you could bring to the world in your particular way.

Or did you keep checking your soul at the door because it felt safer to stay where you were?

Did the work you gave your life to feel like an expression of who you are?

Did it matter to you?

Time & Money Freedom

Did you spend your days the way you wanted to spend your life?

Because that is what our lives are ultimately made of.

Days.

Hours.

Moments.

Did money support your life, or did your life revolve around fear of money?

Did you give yourself experiences?

Freedom?

Adventure?

Rest?

Generosity?

Choice?

While We Have Time

This is the part that feels important to me.

If there is an area where your answer is no, that does not mean you have failed.

It means you have become aware.

And awareness gives us something incredibly valuable:

choice.

If we are still breathing, we still have the opportunity to choose differently.

To make the phone call.

To take the walk.

To say I love you.

To ask for help.

To begin the dream.

To change direction.

To forgive.

To enroll.

To leave.

To stay and show up differently.

To create.

To serve.

To become.

We may not control how much time we have.

But while we have it, we can decide how we want to live it.

So perhaps the question is not:

“Am I done?”

Perhaps it is:

“While I am still here, what would I love?”

And then listen.

Because somewhere inside you, I believe you already know.