Momento Mori Through the Eyes of Steve Jobs

Momento Mori is a Latin phrase which translates to “remember your mortality”. I first heard this phrase several years ago shortly after I joined the Freemason fraternity, and it is a phrase that has profoundly shaped my life ever since. It is a phrase that has both motivated me to achieve my goals, as well as caused me to enjoy life to the fullest, to truly live in the now, because tomorrow, or even the next minute, is not guaranteed.

Death is generally a taboo subject in Western culture, and as such it is rarely discussed, and most people earnestly try to not even think about it. Most people may think about the concept death when they learn of the passing of someone, but most generally quickly file the subject away, in order to avoid thinking about it too much. The subject of death can be an uncomfortable subject, because the death of our physical body represents the end of life as we know it, it is the end of everything we are certain about. As Shakespeare so eloquently stated in his Hamlet “To Be or Not to Be?” soliloquy, death is that, “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns”.

Death is something that we each will face, and instead of being something negative, it can be a powerfully motivating force in ones life. I know for a fact that I am not immortal, and because of this I will someday die, perhaps sooner than later. By being aware of this, I am motivated to live life to the fullest, to achieve my goals, and to accomplish as much as I can in whatever time I have left on this earth. As one of my favorite historical figures, Thomas Jefferson, once said, “Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do today”.