This chapter explores how balancing the inevitability of death with the urgency of living well ensures that your actions leave a lasting impact.
Remember You Will Die... Remember to Live
They Expect You to Live in Fear—Instead, Live With Intention.
They assume that fear of death will keep you compliant. That the threat of loss will make you hesitate. That if they make survival uncertain enough, you will choose safety over everything else.
But fear of death is not the same as valuing life. They don’t want you to truly live—they want you to merely exist, to endure, to stay within the lines they have drawn. They want you clinging to a hollow version of life, one ruled by caution, limitation, and quiet obedience.
You cannot let them define your existence. Remember that you will die (memento mori). This is not a threat. It is a call to action. It is a reminder that your time is finite, that what you do matters, that fear should never dictate how you live. Remember to live (Memento vivere). This is the second half of the truth. It is not enough to avoid death. You must also choose life. Not the life they want for you, but the one you carve for yourself.
Why This Matters More Than Anything Else
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Survival is not enough. You were not meant to merely endure—you were meant to shape, to create, to be.
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They want you reactive, not intentional. If you live with purpose, you become uncontrollable.
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Fear is a tool they use against you. But once you accept mortality, fear loses its grip.
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A life lived in caution is a life half-lived. There is no victory in reaching the end of your days unscarred but unfulfilled.
How to Live With Power, Not Fear
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Decide What You Will Not Waste Time On - Petty fights. Meaningless obligations. The expectations of people who don’t matter. If your time is limited, and it is, spend it where it counts.
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Define Your Purpose, Even If It Is Only for Yourself - Not every purpose has to be grand. It does not have to change the world. It only has to change your world. Decide what matters to you and live accordingly.
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Don’t Postpone What You Know You Must Do - Waiting for the right moment is how most people die with their work unfinished, their words unsaid, their courage untested. If it is worth doing, do it now.
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Leave Something Behind That Outlives You - A lesson, a creation, a movement, a memory. If you live only for yourself, you will be forgotten. If you pass something forward, you remain.
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Don’t Let Fear of Loss Keep You From Joy - Everything you love is at risk. That is the price of being alive. The answer is not to love less—but to love fully, knowing that loss is not a reason to withhold yourself.
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Be Impossible to Forget - They can erase names, rewrite history, remove evidence. But what you do, how you impact the people around you—that is harder to bury. Live in a way that ensures you will not disappear.
First Task: Live Like It Matters
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Identify one thing you have been waiting for “the right time” to do—and start.
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Cut out something meaningless that drains your energy.
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Do something today that aligns with what truly matters to you.
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Accept that death is inevitable—but make sure your life is intentional.
"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
— Pericles
Historical Reflection
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo did not fear death. She embraced it, stared it down, and refused to let it define her. Instead, she turned her pain into art, her suffering into expression, and her life into a defiant celebration of existence. Born in 1907, she endured relentless physical agony, yet she never let it stop her from fully experiencing life. Her art, her style, and her unrelenting spirit made her an icon of resilience.
Frida’s life was shadowed by constant reminders of mortality. At six, polio left her with a weakened leg, setting the stage for a lifetime of health struggles. At 18, a near-fatal bus accident shattered her body, breaking her spine, pelvis, and ribs. Doctors doubted she would survive—let alone walk again. She underwent more than 30 surgeries, spent months in hospital beds, and lived with excruciating pain every day. But Frida did not shrink from death—she painted it. Skeletons, wounded bodies, and surreal symbols of decay appeared in her work, not as expressions of fear, but as acts of acknowledgment. She understood that death was inevitable. That’s why she refused to waste life.
If Frida’s body betrayed her, her spirit never did. She embraced passion, color, and chaos in everything she did. She painted from her bed, using a mirror to capture her own suffering in unflinching detail. She threw legendary parties, drank tequila, and danced despite the pain. She loved unapologetically, taking lovers of all genders, refusing to conform to societal expectations. Her famous words—"Viva la vida" (Long live life)—were not just a sentiment. They were a command. She lived vibrantly because she knew how easily it could all be taken away.
Pain is inevitable. Living is a choice. You cannot always escape suffering, but you can transform it. Acknowledging death is not morbid—it is what makes life urgent and meaningful. Frida Kahlo did not live easily, but she lived completely.
She carried the awareness of death but never let it steal her fire. She turned her suffering into beauty, proving that pain and joy can coexist. She reminds us that life is short—and that is exactly why it must be lived fully. Frida Kahlo’s body may have been fragile, but her spirit was untouchable. She painted her pain, laughed through tears, and lived as if tomorrow was never promised—because she knew it wasn’t.