Deadline Farming

Meditations on Time and Legacy

When I was a teenager, I had a stack of nudie mags stashed in our basement’s ductwork (sorry, Ma).

I wasn’t concerned about anybody finding the dirties while I was alive, or I probably wouldn’t have collected the stash in the first place.

What worried me more was what would happen if I died and somebody discovered my Playboy pile, forever cementing my legacy as the family pervert.

Most of us want to have a good reputation and be remembered as good people.

But what is a good person?

Is it being a thirteen-year-old boy who doesn’t look at nudie mags?

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If you died tomorrow, would it make a difference if your mother found that stack of porn in the ceiling? Do you think your dirty little secret is what she would remember about you?

Probably not.

She’d probably be thinking about the stuff that did matter, the things that reminded her of what is so great about becoming a parent.

The first time she held you.

Your first steps.

That time, you got sick and vomited on her sweater, and she got so mad at you, but now she’d give anything to experience that moment just one more time.

She’d likely remember everything but the porn.

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Nothing means as much as we think it does.

That article you published that only four people read.

Missing the game-winning shot.

That sale you worked on for months that fell apart.

Sure, these disappointments suck. They hurt. But are they that big a deal?

No.

They don’t matter.

This isn’t some twisted call for you to take up nihilism.

I’m not saying you should quit giving a shit and move to a cabin in Wyoming while listening to Mein Kampf and assembling explosives.

I am saying we shouldn’t place so much pressure on ourselves. Our worries only matter as much as we let them. But if we allow them to count too much, it makes us uptight and unpleasant.

If we let it go far enough, it can drive us to madness.

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Here’s the deal.

You’re going to die.

I’m going to die.

We’re all going to die. It might not be for seven decades, but it could happen tomorrow. Successful business builder and book writer Alex Hormozi always reminds his followers of this.

We’re not trying to be morbid or depressing, but the fact is that life could end before the dog finishes his bowl of food.

It’s not easy to think about. Most of us avoid thinking about our inevitable deaths because not only is it uncomfortable, it scares the hell out of us.

Stoic philosopher Epicurus said we should rehearse for death.

Seneca elaborated further by saying,

“Let us prepare our minds as if we’d come to the very end of life. Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s books each day. The one who puts the finishing touches on their life each day is never short of time.”

Balance life’s books each day. How many of us take the time to do that?

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The things we think matter don’t, while the stuff that does, we often take for granted or forget altogether.

We put so many things off because we worry too much about the outcome and not enough about the process. The process is what matters. It’s about the work and doing what is important to you and brings you happiness.

Instead, we procrastinate.

We don’t publish that article because we worry about what others might think about it or that it’s not good enough.

We don’t edit and print that photo because we wonder, who am I to think this picture is worth anything when just about anybody could have captured the same image?

But could they?

Nobody sees the world the way you do. That’s what makes us so unique. That’s what makes our work worth doing. It doesn’t matter how the work will be received if we get it out of our system and into the world. What counts is overcoming those obstacles and finishing the job.

We’re all going to die someday, might be in five minutes or fifty years.

After a couple-three-four generations, most will have forgotten we ever existed.

Would you rather die with that stuff stuck inside of you because you were afraid of the outcome or die knowing that you fought through the resistance and did your best to complete the work?

Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius said:

“Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. What’s fated hangs over you. As long you live and while you can, become good now.”

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Will you let go of the fear before death knocks?

Publish that essay.

Frame that photograph.

Pick up the phone and do your best to make the sale.

None of this matters as much as you think, so try to find your way past that fear because that’s where you’ll discover the real you.

We all have an expiration date.

Best act accordingly.