Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.

--- Tim Urban, in Religion for the Nonreligious, Wait But Why 2014

In context:

Nothing clears fog like a deathbed, which is why it’s then that people can always see with more clarity what they should have done differently—I wish I had spent less time working; I wish I had communicated with my wife more; I wish I had traveled more; etc. The goal of personal growth should be to gain that deathbed clarity while your life is still happening so you can actually do something about it.
An interesting resonance with S.N. Goenka's book, The Art of Dying.