To Live Fully
There’s a fragility to life that we rarely talk about. We ponder life’s questions, life’s moments, life’s wonders and challenges with the curiosity of a newborn, and yet many of us so often turn a blind eye to the eventuality of our own path’s conclusion. Though we don’t remember it, we know when our journey began, and while we know where we are now, we have no idea where the story goes or where it will end.
Through it all, we ride the ups and downs with both tribulation and trepidation as our companions. At our best, we live with gratitude and intention, pursuing our interests with curiosity and grace, aspiring for abundance. At our worst, we spend our days in the dark, in an isolated seclusion-of-self, feeling helpless and hopeless, allowing fears and insecurities to color our minds and fill the mental space and time that is our life’s only fiat currency.
The space between these two endpoints found on the same circle of a life’s journey is where the magic happens, where living happens. How we choose to direct our mind’s focus is both the process, and the result. Through this active (or inactive) direction and orchestration, we move through life, impacting those in our circle as well as the world around us.
“What impact do you want to have?”
“What legacy do you want to leave?”
“How do you want to be remembered?”
These questions were pondered by Kobe, although in perhaps a more public, present, prevalent, and salient sense than most.
Why?
Because his life was one of both celebrity-status and high-achievement. One where his legacy was spoken about, considered, and contrasted, in the public zeitgeist, with countless intrigue. Which makes sense. If you were the preordained saviour of a famous sports franchise when you were just a teenager, you too would publicly opine on the topic of legacy more-so than your average Jane or John Doe. There was an air of invincibility about him, an indomitable will, so clearly evident in the athletic arena, but also in the courtroom and the court of public appeal...
After all, how many celebrities are able to earn back the public’s trust after they make an err as egregious as Kobe’s Colorado incident?
But, while Kobe was indeed a public figure and an inspiration to a generation, he too, like all of us, shared in the common bond of humanity that connects each of us with each other, and with the world around us, and with the famed heroes and legends of yore: the fact that this ride we’re on, called ‘life’, will come to an end.
To live fully, what does that mean?
Does it mean to love with our whole hearts? Does it mean to live in accordance with the universe? To pursue our goals and dreams with the reckless abandon of our youth? Does it mean to accomplish, to impact, to persevere? Does it mean to leave a legacy, to be remembered (and hopefully fondly), for the moments and memories that we created and shared during our days? Does it mean that we soaked up every minute and squeezed out every moment of joy? Does it mean living in such a way that our parents and grandparents, if watching, would be proud of our actions and choices?
I reflect on these questions because I too have grappled with the existential realities of life. I too have, at my best, tasted the triumph of high achievement. And I too, at my worst, have tasted the bitter despair of the cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
I too, am human.
I reflect on these questions because, at the end, whenever that point arrives, when our (my) time runs out and we’re (I’m) left staring forward into life’s greatest mystery while also looking back over the path that wound up and down and around the many twists and turns of our (my) life’s journey, I truly believe the only thing we’ll (I’ll) be left wondering and considering at that moment is,
“Whether we (I) lived life fully?”
I believe this thought to be both the question and the answer to life, both the problem and the solution, the yin and the yang.
Living fully is something that only we as individuals can define for ourselves. Only we can know if we gave our best effort, only we can know if we left no rock unturned. While others can support or scathe, laud or lambast, only we, inside our hearts, can truly express whether our efforts, energies and intentions were made and fulfilled with the passion and purpose that is innate and universal within all of us. It’s something both primal and primordial. It’s something both ephemeral and eternal. It’s something known in an instant, and yet sought after throughout a lifetime.
I believe each person has an opportunity to define for themselves what a ‘full life’ means. I believe each person has an opportunity with every day and every moment spent living to discover that meaning and pursue its realization during our short time here on Earth. And I believe that the acknowledgment and awareness of our impending fate is the single-greatest motivator there is.
So, where do we go from here? Every day, every moment, people are born, people are lost. Time goes on, life goes on, and the world turns.
What lesson can we glean from the loss of one of our heroes? What lesson can we take from the loss of any of our loved ones, for that matter?
A few things come to mind.
Firstly, the value of hard work. Kobe was preternaturally gifted, but it was his work ethic that was so famed and so adored by his fans around the world. His willingness to play through pain and injury. The stories of waking up at 3am to workout at 4. The type of stuff that inspires the pursuit of greatness within all of us.
Secondly, the value of motivation. Kobe often spoke about seeking out the negative in life and channeling it to fuel him. Using whatever he could find, whatever was at hand, to inspire him towards his singular pursuit of greatness. Of seeking out the doubt and the dismissals. Of relishing in the criticisms and the critiques and the condemnations.
And lastly, as well as most tragically, the value and necessity of beginning with the end in mind; knowing this ride will end, and living life in such a way as to acknowledge and embrace the fact.
We won’t all have the impact or become the generational inspiration that Kobe was. But we all have the opportunity to live our lives as if we did, as if we were.
Though our time here on earth is limited, what we are capable of achieving is limitless.
So, live life. Live it fully. Find what it is that makes you happy, and then go for it.
All we have is the day, the present moment. Use it. Appreciate it.
Make the most of it.
Life’s too short to not. And like the ole’ chicken and egg riddle, it just might be the pursuit and perseverance of our life’s dreams, that makes life so special.
