Death is very likely the single best invention of life.

– Steve Jobs

Death. I hate it. The finality of it. The lack of opportunity to negotiate another take. Like most, I am death agnostic. I ignore the possibility of it happening to me. My girlfriend and I once discussed what age we would like to die; I think we settled on 92.

Steve Jobs is known for using the certainty of death as a motivation. I tried it and all it did was send shivers down my spine. I have my hands deep in so much now. I can’t even imagine dying. Everything. Ended. No. That’s not for me, I tell myself. What a joke.

I am presently studying time management. I spent about an hour of today reading through Laura Vanderkam’s blog. I’ve been reading her book and it has been quite enlightening. I did an analysis on what I spend my time on today and took detailed notes on the activities I spent my 10-hour work day on. It was just as she predicted, I spend far less time on work than I assumed. I’m not gonna say the exact amount of ‘non-work’ I did during work hours, I’m still ashamed of myself.

Death paints a very accurate picture of time, albeit a cruel one. I know what I can spend $20 on (revolution slider :P), but there’s less certitude with time. Death makes time an uncertain limited resource, sort of like the epileptic power supply in Nigeria right now. As I type this, I’m thinking of doing laundry while there’s power cos I know it could be out in the next minute. And I wonder, why don’t I treat life this way. Why don’t I seize opportunities as they come and make the most of every single moment, cos, in the end, life is as unpredictable as the Nigerian power supply, the only difference is, PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) may decide to give you a second chance. Death is a stingy bastard. It doesn’t.

As I ponder on the possibility of dying tonight (even though I’ll pray for life before I go to bed), I mourn my possibly never-to-be-completed bucket list. I pray in earnest that I see tomorrow. My heart pounds in excitement in anticipation of the things I intend to cross off that bucket list.

You don’t need motivation or inspiration. You’ve got one already lingering over you: Death.