{"id":1145,"date":"2023-12-01T16:38:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-02T00:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/?p=1145"},"modified":"2023-12-01T16:38:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-02T00:38:04","slug":"as-if-it-were-your-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/the-daily-stoic\/12\/01\/as-if-it-were-your-last\/","title":{"rendered":"As If It Were Your Last"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Let us prepare our minds as if we&#8217;d come to the very end of life.  Let us postpone nothing.  Let us balance life&#8217;s books each day&#8230; The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.&#8221;<\/p><cite>SENECA, <em>MORAL LETTERS<\/em>, 101.7b-8a<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The theme for December in The Daily Stoic book is all about mortality, and it seems fitting as it&#8217;s the last month of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first entry for this month starts off with a doozy of a quote from Seneca.  It immediately brings to mind a familiar saying which has become almost trite, which author Ryan Holiday recites: &#8220;Live each day as if it were your last.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prepare your mind as though today was the end.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/the-daily-stoic\/11\/22\/expect-the-unexpected\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"1097\">Expect the unexpected<\/a>.  Don&#8217;t put anything off.  Balance up the books and make a full accounting of everything.  Forgive everyone, and mend fences and re-build bridges as though you only have this one remaining chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tell your family and friends that you love them.  Let bygones be bygones.  Be ready \u2014 for anything, even the end.  <strong>As if it were your last<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We should do this every day, not just when we&#8217;re at death&#8217;s door.  These are good and valid tasks; they shouldn&#8217;t wait until the last minute.  Put &#8220;the finishing touches&#8221; on your life each day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do we wait until we have no time left to settle old scores and mend fences?  Forgive now, love now.  Prepare your mind for the end, every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[202,179,63,523,200,201,609,399],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meditationsbybilly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}