Can you really live like it's the last day of your life?

New Zealand

I was recently reminded of a quote from Steve Jobs' classic 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech:

"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

While on the surface it seems like an inspiring quote and a laudable goal to ask yourself if you're living like it's the last day of your life, the more that I pondered this goal, the more problems I found with it.

Problem #1

For starters, how many "no" days in a row is too many? Is 5 in a row too many? Is it 2, or 20? And then how many "yes" days do you have to have between the "no" days in order to cancel them out?

Furthermore, it also seems apparent that many people answer "no" for many, if not most, of their days. Oftentimes, that "no" can be attributed to the bondage of employment, and many people simply don't have the autonomy to change something major in their working life in the same way that a massively wealthy and powerful CEO might be able to make a change. In this instance, a sense of victimhood arises, as we might feel like making a change to move that "no" to a "yes" is entirely outside of our control. We might want to create our ideal lives right now, but we might feel like it's hopeless.

Initially, as I mulled over this quotation, I was about to shrug my shoulders and say, "Well, that's nice that Steve Jobs was able to live like that. The average person, however, probably can't just 'change something' all the time."

But thinking that way does not embody active participation in our lives. Simply shrugging our shoulders and giving up reflects a passive acceptance of circumstances rather than an active role in shaping our future.

Problem #2

So I dove a bit deeper in my analysis and realized that there's yet another glaring problem with this quotation: how much of "what I'm about to do today" would you do if it was the last day of your life?

At the risk of stating the obvious, almost never do we spend all of our time doing exactly what we would do if our life was about to end at midnight. We wouldn't wash the dishes, take out the trash, worry about our investment accounts, post on social media, sit in traffic, spend any time with casual acquaintances, cross-train in the gym, spend half an hour on the foam roller, or do much of anything related to work.

But we need to do all of these things and more on a daily basis. So how much time, exactly, needs to be allocated to the type of "last day of our lives" stuff—to living fully in alignment with our values?

Sorry, but I don't have a clear answer to this question, aside from realizing that my conclusion way back in 2016, which was the genesis for my Outside 365 idea, is still the most correct way to approach this problem.

As I wrote in 2016, "I’ve committed to doing what I love, every single day, no matter what. As part of this commitment, I’m committing to getting out and being active every single day that I am physically able!" That vision evolved into covering one human-powered mile outside every single day, with no excuses (dropping the caveat "that I am physically able" by realizing that I am always physically able if I tell my excuses to fuck off).

I went on to say,

While this may seem extremely basic to some people, I didn’t use to live my life with this mindset. Sure, I would try to ride as much as possible, but there were so many times when I’d just call a day a loss. I’d resign myself to having to work 12+ hours in a day and not doing anything active. I’d commit to going shopping, or watching TV, or sitting on the couch sick. I’d phone it in, and not do any physical activity whatsoever.

But I’m no longer satisfied with that way of living life! If I’ve learned one thing through my recent injuries (the ACL hasn’t been the only one), it’s that I need to embrace my health when I have it and take advantage of a (mostly) healthy and competent body by getting out and being active.

I summed it up more eloquently in April of 2023 when I said,

Living in alignment with your values every day is critical for achieving happiness and well-being. . . .This project was born from a growing unwillingness to let even a single day slip by without acting on my most important core values. I didn't want to waste a single day of my one and only life by living out somebody else's idea of how I should be spending my time, my energy, and my money... so I decided that I just WOULDN'T put up with the mediocrity and compromise anymore.

I decided that even if it was a small action—even if it was just 20-30 minutes of walking outside—I was going to stop caving to the many excuses that I concocted for why I couldn't live a more active life.

How does this relate to Steve Jobs?

On the surface, I think that asking the question, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" is a good way to illuminate if we aren't living in alignment with our values. But if the answer to that question is "no," instead of just throwing out everything in our lives, I think one way to make a positive change is to ask ourselves, "How can I do one thing today to which I'd answer 'yes" to that question?"

This is Outside 365 in a nutshell. Outside 365 is my answer to that question. By going outside and moving my body in nature, I know that even on the most difficult of days, I'm going to do at least ONE Thing that I would do on the last day of my life. I know that even on the most difficult of days, I'm taking responsibility for my life by prioritizing my most important value. I know that, at least in this one way, I'm living each day as if it were the last day of my life.

It is by taking this responsibility, by moving from victimhood to active participation in our lives, that we can live beautiful, vibrant, and meaningful lives—right here and right now, without waiting for some future mythical moment to arrive in which all will be perfect in our lives.

Because that moment will never arrive. All we have is right now.