Memento Mori: Why Thinking About Death Makes Life Better

Learn how accepting death can transform your daily life, help you make better choices, and lead to a more meaningful existence.

Two years ago, my old friend Tom died in a car accident. He was 25 years old. One moment he was driving home from work, probably thinking about his weekend plans, and the next moment he was gone. No warning. No goodbye. Just like that.

As I sat at his funeral, surrounded by people who couldn't believe this was real, something hit me hard: At 25, we all think we're invincible. We scroll through social media, waste time on random YouTube videos, and put off our dreams because we believe we have all the time in the world. We think death is something that happens to old people, not to us, not to our friends.

But Tom's death shattered that illusion. Just days before, we were texting about meeting up soon—something we'd been "planning" to do for months but kept putting off because we thought there would always be time later. Now there would be no later.

This brings us to today's topic: Memento Mori - the ancient Stoic practice of remembering death. Before you click away thinking this is too da…