Confronting Death – The Sure Way to Assess Your Life

Death – it is confronting to us all. And there is a big focus on a prominent death at the moment.

 

By now, I am sure you are aware of Queen Elizabeth II’s death.

And whether you agree with the Monarchy or not, carrying out a role like that for 70 years is an amazing achievement. It is a service that deserves to be acknowledged and respected. And it is one that is unlikely to be repeated in our lifetimes.

Personally, I always find the death of someone, whether they are famous, or close to us, or even an acquaintance, makes me pause to reflect. To assess whether I would be happy with my life if I died today too.

I am sure it is very common to take this moment of reflection when faced with death.

 

As busy Parent Bosses, (both you and I), we are quite often just trying to ‘keep up’ with everything, every day, and time can VERY easily slip past us.

 

 

When we do stop every now and then, and look around, we can realise that years have gone by.

 

We are so focused on running our businesses, raising our kidlets, going through life together in our marriages/relationships, and it can be astounding just how quickly time has passed.

With such a full life, it can, at times, seem overwhelming. And in that moment of reflection, we can sometimes recognize that we want something different.

Though to get something different, that means we have to put in effort to change.

And sometimes, the thought of adding another thing to our list that requires our effort, just seems like too hard a task.

 

But then, someone dies. And it makes us stop.

 

And we realise that if we just continue on like we are, then quite possibly, we will mindlessly get to somewhere we hadn’t planned on going.

It might hit you in the face, as it could be the end of our time with our kidlets at home and they are about to move out.

Or we may have grown apart from our spouse, as we haven’t really been connected in a long while, purely because you were both just dealing with life.

Or you could be stuck running a business that isn’t giving you joy, or a good return, or work life flexibility anymore.

And you’ve just kept going along with things, most likely, because it was the easiest thing to do.

But time kept marching on, and now, we can find ourselves miles from where we thought we’d be.

 

So Parent Bosses, is the Queen’s death a wake up call for you?

 

Are you living the life you thought that you would be, or are you off course?

If you died tomorrow, would you look back on your life and be happy with what you saw?

 

A recent wake up call for me.

 

My aunt died recently and my cousins asked me to read a poem aloud at the funeral.

It was a poem called “The Dash” by Linda Ellis. The same poem was read aloud at my Mum’s funeral. Click here to go to many free PDFs of the poem.

It talks about the Dash on our tombstones – the line between our birth date and our date of death, and how that tiny dash represents our time here on Earth.

 

Did we live, spend our ‘dash’, in a way that made us happy? Made us feel loved? Made us feel alive?

 

One lady, younger than me, came up to me after the reading and said that she loved the poem and it really made her think. And it does.

The question is: Do we translate that thinking into action? Or do we slip back into the more comfortable day to day?

Today is also my father-in-law’s one year anniversary of his passing. It is a tough day for my husband and his family. We will light a candle for him tonight and tell “Gramps” stories, while having a glass of red to remember him by.

If you’d asked me if it had been a year, I would have replied “No way! 8 months at the MOST. More like 6.”

But the year is gone. And it serves as a reminder.

What did we achieve in that year? How are our relationships with each other and our kidlets? How is our health? If we died tomorrow, would we be happy with how we have lived our Parent Boss Life?

If not, what would we change?

 

 

What would I change so that I can get more in line with what I really want?

 

 

I want to do more to help Parent Bosses live an amazing Parent Boss Life and to do that I have to put myself out there more.

On social media and video. And it is not a natural thing for me to do.

But if I continue to shy away from that, then I am not living my potential in this life. I am not helping the people I want to help.

And if I died tomorrow, it would be with regret that I let my fear of being ‘seen’, stop me from achieving that.

So I am going to have to make a conscious effort to change. To put in the effort. To put myself out there.

If I don’t, and I die tomorrow, then I won’t be happy with this part of my life.

 

What do you say Parent Bosses? If you died tomorrow, what are you happy with and what do you want to change?

 

Is this moment of reflection the one where you will make a change if you need to?

Where you will commit to truly living your ‘dash’ and living the heck out of life?

If living your Parent Boss Life to it’s fullest potential is what you want to do, then come join our Facebook Group – The PB Network.

It is a place to connect to other Parent Bosses. Where you can share the ups and downs of your Parent Boss Life and learn about theirs.

And it’s a place where you can safely say, “I want to make this change” and have a supportive cheer squad at your back, while you go ahead and do that. Come join us today.