There is a scene in The Simpsons where Homer is told that he only has one day to live.

He promptly sits down on the side of the road and starts sobbing his heart out.

I’m fairly confident that’s what most people would do.

Yet when you hear this question posed in interviews or on Social Media it’s amazing how many people would do all these things they have yearned to do all their lives.

They would have a love-filled action-packed 24 hours and go out with a big smile on their face.

How likely is that?

Not very.

What Would Really Happen?

I feel sure there would be a lot of reconciliations, a lot of ‘I love you’s’ and a lot of tears and hugging, but I suspect not much else.

When death is that imminent hope has been removed and without hope we struggle mightily.

The fact is, you are going to die, but it’s tricky to use that as motivation to do epic shit when you don’t know when it will be.

It could be tomorrow, it could be in half a century.

I don’t know, you don’t know, nobody knows.

The Fake Buddha Quote

There’s a fake Buddha quote that is very popular on Social Media that says, ‘The trouble is you think you have time.’

Even though The Buddha never said it, it’s still a great quote, because until we know differently we do have a tendency to think we are always going to have more time.

Me asking a client a question, “If you had one day to live, what would you do?” is next to useless.

The brain cannot take the question seriously.

It creates severe cognitive dissonance because the belief that it’s not going to happen is way too strong and powerful.

Unless they are really, really sick, or languishing on death row, nobody thinks they’re going to die in the next few hours.

Therefore, I’m going to get a lot of pie in the sky answers or a blubbering mess – neither of which is helpful.

However, asking a client, “If you had 5 years to live, what would you want to achieve?” is far more likely to reveal hidden desires and motivations.

I’m hoping you have a fair few decades to go yet as I need as many readers as possible, but if you actually only had 5 years, what would you do that you may now be putting off?

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Image Courtesy Of Scott McLeod