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Lord Jade Cross

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EmotionalAndroid

I've always found this "helpful" phrase decidedly unhelpful and confusing as well. If today were my last day, I sure as heck wouldn't be going to work. I'd go out and do fun things, but you can't live your whole life like that. You wouldn't have the means to do it.

 

Perhaps they mean it more on an emotional level, meaning just to take notice of everything during the day and be more present, regardless of what you are doing or have to do.

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You seem to be interpreting it as "live recklessly" which I don't think was the intent, certainly not to the point where you're a danger to yourself, or others.  That'd be a quick way to just wear yourself out (assuming you didn't end up getting yourself killed, thereby making it a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts).  Most people can't (feasibly) maintain that kind of lifestyle without wearing themselves out.

 

It's really just more of a generic "appreciate the things in your life, even the small stuff you ordinarily take for granted, because you never know when it's all gonna be over" sort of statement.

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NerotheReaper

It isn't about living recklessly, it is about enjoying the day itself, telling your loved ones you love them and to try new things. Stuff along those lines. We never know when our last day will be, it might be today or might be in fifty years. People seem to get caught up in the daily flow of life, and can forget how short and fragile life is. There is no way to know when one's final day might be. So, to live life as if you might not get another chance is what this saying means. At least that is how I have always read it as.

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Grumpy Alien

I hate that phrase. It’s depressing and doesn’t make any sense to me.

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Depressing as it might sound, it very much has basis in reality.  If life didn't have the potential to be suddenly, often unfairly (but then, life IS unfair) cut short, and people dying with regrets was disregarded instead of being treated as a tragic thing, sayings like these wouldn't have gained any traction.

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52 minutes ago, Jade Cross said:

Often psycological or ambigous phrases such this one become all the rage because they seem so radical, out of the norm, rebelious and humans love to go againts the norm (secretly) despite their social obedience pattern. 

 

However, if you were to take it to heart, what exactly would such a phrase entitle? Do you go out and drink till you expire, do you gamble away your possesions, do you street race with death being the only excuse for not winning, do you mix drugs to have one hell of a trip OR do you quietly live a boring life, paying bills and fanboying over the next TV show which is just going to be old news a few years down the road and you will even deny ever having watched it because its no longer cool? 

 

Share your thoughts.

 

 

I’d be as kind to other people as possible, try to take care of all my responsibilities, and use my freetime to try to help others.

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The potential dangers of engrossing yourself in work are well known (and probably merit a whole different thread altogether)

 

Generally speaking though, if you want something in life bad enough, you'll make the time for it somehow.

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6 hours ago, NerotheReaper said:

It isn't about living recklessly, it is about enjoying the day itself, telling your loved ones you love them and to try new things. Stuff along those lines. We never know when our last day will be, it might be today or might be in fifty years. People seem to get caught up in the daily flow of life, and can forget how short and fragile life is. There is no way to know when one's final day might be. So, to live life as if you might not get another chance is what this saying means. At least that is how I have always read it as.

This is helpful. My brain doesn't pick up on ambiguity, so the statement actually being explained is great.

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I don't think it's the best phrasing (still better than the flash in a pan "YOLO" thing that seemed to be popular for a while and some people seemed to take as an excuse to do stupid stuff :P ) and can certainly be interpreted (or misinterpreted as the case may be) in many ways. Most people should still plan for the future, and not live as if today is literally their last day. But you can also dig a little deeper into the idea and think of it like some of the other said. I take it more along the lines of enjoying life, doing things you like to do, appreciating things and people, and that sort of thing; which can still be done while being responsible about things like bills, and also planning for the future (whether it's saving up money to buy something or do something or planning for retirement or whatever). 

 

Another saying I find a bit problematic is "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger". I think people often use that as a way to reassure themselves or others when going through some bad times. So I don't usually say much in those cases. But if you really look at it, some things may not kill you, but may leave you weaker in some ways.

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I think it is better to say "Do not waste your free time doing nothing". Because then you at least have an idea where to start.

 

I believe having a full schedual, is the key to happiness. Even with the stress, you have a sense of purpose.

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banoffeepie

It's just another glib narrow-context saying that looks good on a sign in your kitchen.

It has a valid message, about appreciating things as @NerotheReaper and others said. But they are only to be used within a certain context and not as general statements.

 

You can normally find a contradictory expression .... Speculate to accumulate   ... Good things come to those who wait....  Rome wasn't built in a day  ..  and these are equally valid if you're talking to someone facing a different set of circumstances.

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RoseGoesToYale

"Live each day as if it were your last"

 

To me, this sounds like I should drive to the funeral home everyday, get clown makeup put on my face, dressed in black, take a nap in a coffin, get a ride in a hearse, and sneak out before they can put you in the ground. No thanks, I'll just go back to work...

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24 minutes ago, Jade Cross said:

Repeat this for a good 40-50 years and youre left with the population we have now in retirement age; sick, tired of life but somehow not wanting to die, in fact terrorized of the very thought, facing the reality that was always there yet they got bambozzled into thinking was not. And all the while regret far and wide. 

This is why "work hard, play hard" is a far better mantra, in my humble opinion. :lol: Do both while you can! 

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I follow this guideline because I know that it's reality. I've had friends come and go in death like you'd snap a lightswitch. I own a restaurant in a rural town and have been here for 8 years. I know all the faces and names. I've known a lot of faces and names who were there just days or hours ago, and then gone. I have a congenital heart defect that may at one time simply kill me dead on the spot from sudden heart failure.

 

I don't live my life recklessly. I live it with care. I make judgement calls for the long term in case I ever get that far, but remain open enough not to be constricted by personal barriers so that I live life when it's there to be lived. I live every day like it's my last because I've had close calls where it could have been. I try to embody the opposite of all the horrible things I've seen or experienced so that whenever my time arrives, at least I made a positive difference for somebody.

 

Any statement can be butchered and misused, used as an excuse to neccessitate foolishness, which has nothing to do with the statement itself, just the intelligence of the wielder of said words. Not by coincidence, you'll find that most simply don't have the intelligence or imaginativeness to begin with.

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banoffeepie
3 hours ago, daveb said:

what doesn't kill you makes you stronger

I totally agree .. this one is weird. I can think of a few things that don't kill me ... blancmange, dressing up as a tomatoe and Beyonce. To my mind I can't see how any of these has made me stronger over the years ... and there are simply loads more!  :blink::D

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It can be interpreted a lot of different ways. The (probably) least destructive way -- not to sound too morbid -- would be to consider if you'd died and were in limbo: what would you regret? Did you not say enough to some people, or too much to others? Is there something you really wanted to do, but never got the chance, or rationalized that you could put it off for later? I guess the most sensible advice attached to the phrase "live each day as if it were your last" would be to do the things you want without hesitation/procrastination, because you never know exactly when a time will come where you won't have the chance to do those things. 

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Grumpy Alien
3 hours ago, Chimeric said:

This is why "work hard, play hard" is a far better mantra, in my humble opinion. :lol: Do both while you can! 

To me, that sounds like a miserable life. Where is the time to actually relax and enjoy life if you’re so focused on work and partying?

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My take on it: Don't take life for granted and to find significance in each day as if it's the last.

 

Seriously, though. It's super easy to fall into a mindset of "just getting through the day" and that's exactly where mental pain starts and fulfillment dies. It all becomes the next day, the next cycle. What will be worth anything, then?

 

Not every day will be extraordinary, but if all I focus on is getting through responsibilities, then I'll never do anything extraordinary. If I die soon, I'd like to have my last memories be of the most memorable things I've done.

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1 hour ago, Graceful said:

Where is the time to actually relax and enjoy life if you’re so focused on work and partying?

That's the "playing" bit, innit?

 

Work hard, free time hard. =)

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paperbackreader

I remember the exact moment I first saw a phrase of this nature as a young kid.

 

It was a sweltering 3-ish-pm, and I was watching cartoons on TV alone (probably Duck Tales), just passing the time after school, waiting for dinner and BAM! Some cheesy marketeer for insurance or supplements or some other shit, thought you know what's a GREAT IDEA...?! Let's make some 8 year olds experience an existential crisis and worry about their legacy - yeah - what harm can a simple corny phrase do!?  

 

.....To this day I still resent this phrase.

 

They should replace it with Just do your f***ing best to do your best everyday and try to be happy with the effort you've put in and improve but sometimes give yourself some slack OK and jeezus - try to relax if all that time in your life was for nothing and nobody will remember you!

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8 hours ago, Jade Cross said:

However, if you were to take it to heart, what exactly would such a phrase entitle?

I never got those who got drunk everyday or did drug, based on living each day like it was their last. That makes no sense to me.

 

Living each day like you could be gone tomorrow, to me is to appreciate every single moment you have in life. Not worrying about the small stuff. If you're about to die, the small stuff is irrelevant. Being reckless, is you taking your life for granted. You're missing the mark on what those words truly mean. In fact, you're wasting your life. I quite a few people who've died young, and in realizing they were about to die, their only focus was on living. There is a serene level of peace that comes with no longer worrying about anything other than appreciating the moment that you have.

 

To me, someone being reckless hasn't had their lives flash before their eyes. Once you do, or have life get real for a second, you tend to slow yourself down a little, and refocus your energies.

 

I find myself getting along best with seniors, as they understand this concept.

 

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14 minutes ago, Jade Cross said:

its just boring

I think that's more perception than fact.

 

Someone making the most of their moments, will be thrilled to do something most take for granted.

 

I've lost a lot of close relatives in my life, and lost friends as well who passed away some before even reaching 29. I have also had a couple near death experiences in life. Its changed my outlook dramatically. I'm a happy go lucky type of person, and strongly believe your outlook and energy put into life, will dictate what you get out of it.

 

Mind you, I'm the kind of guy who jumps out of bed in a great mood and sings all the way to work.

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27 minutes ago, Jade Cross said:

Im not being reckless in life. Dont smoke, do drugs or drink. Though life doest seem all that excithing, its just boring. You repeat a certain number of activities, most of which you are either condition or have your arm twisted to do but thats about it.

 

 

That's only if you let your brain fall into the environmental adaptation trap. Do you know what gives people boring lives? Settling. Settling into something routine provides a sense of security. Settling is what creates an old man who's an expert in his field but knows nothing else beyond it because he chose to stop. Life is dull because you've been conditioned from day one to see it from only one lense, with one track to follow. You can pin the blame for that on modern western society.

 

Just imagine. A single library will carry more books filled with new information than you'll ever be capable of reading in your lifespan. And that's just reading about a subject. What about practicing a subject? With our lifespans, our options for learning and pursuing new things is infinite. We only ever find something boring because our brain has settled on the present, put up a wall and said, "okay, I stop here."

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9 minutes ago, E is for E said:

We only ever find something boring because our brain has settled on the present, put up a wall and said, "okay, I stop here."

I see this like that person who never traveled outside their city, yet have the loudest opinion on how f-ed up our world is.

 

Like they say, the diameter of your knowledge is the circumference of your activity.

 

Being stuck in ones environment will cause a person to be unable to see beyond it.

 

I was that person. Once out of my environment, my outlook dramatically changed.

 

For me, it was working and residing in a different continent that sparked that change.

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