The Mindset Mentor - Death Brings Urgency to Your Life

Episode Date: March 6, 2020

Most people are afraid of death but what if I told you that contemplating death could bring so much urgency in your life that you would never procrastinate again? In this episode, we are going to chat about it!Follow me on Instagram @RobDialJr https://www.instagram.com/robdialjr/ Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast. I am your host Rob Dial and if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another podcast episode. Today we're going to be talking about everybody's favorite subject and that is death. Yes, I mean it's your favorite subject. I understand you talk about it at dinner when you have your friends over. You talk about it at family events. You talk about it with the teacher when you drop your children off at school. Everybody talks about death, right? Everybody loves it. It's our favorite subject to talk about. No, we act like it's never going to actually happen. And we try to run from it mentally as if we run from it mentally, it means it won't

actually physically happen. And I want to talk about death. And there's really a reason why it's because there's a lesson in death. And there's a lesson that I'm going to give you in this episode. So there's a quick story I want to tell you. And the story is this, there's a monk, you know, a teacher monk, and he's got all the student monks that are around him. And he's been carrying around the past couple days a beautiful crystal glass, like a beautiful, clear crystal glass. And he's carrying his water around in it, and he's talking about how beautiful it is and how amazing it is. And if you know anything about Buddhists, one of the main things that Buddhists teach is to not be attached to anything because everything is impermanent. Anicca is what they say. When I went and did the 10 day Vipassana, which is 10 day silent meditation retreat, and they teach Buddhism there in Buddhist practices, the main thing they

talk about is Anicca, which basically is the impermanence. The impermanence of, you know, the pain that's inside of your back when you're sitting for an hour to two hours meditating will eventually be gone. It will eventually disappear. The pain that, you know, that you feel whenever your hip ends up, you know, you've been sitting in the exact same place for a while, it'll eventually disappear. All of the pain will eventually disappear. But then also everybody else in the world that you know will eventually disappear. Everything is impermanent. The building that you're in is impermanent. Everything is impermanent. And the monk is sitting there and he's drinking out of this glass and he seems like he's very attached to it. So one of his students says, you know,

it seems like you're very attached to that glass. I thought that we were supposed to, you know, not be attached to anything. And he says, no, no, no, you don't understand. I can really love and appreciate the glass because in my mind, it's already broken. And so let me talk about the lesson that comes inside of that. And what you have to realize is that he loves and appreciates it, knowing that it will one day, someday be shattered and broken. And what does this have to do with death? If you don't think about your own death at some point in time and really come to terms with it and understand it, you won't truly live your life, love your life and see the beauty in your life. Just like

the reason why he can truly appreciate the glass is because in his mind, it's already broken. He knows one day it will be broken and you can't truly love and appreciate and see the beauty in your life and take full 100 ownership of it until you know that one day you're going to be dead and for some people you're like oh my god this is a very morbid episode this isn't morbid at all this is just stating the facts and you know it's like alan watts says, I love listening to Alan Watts. And he says, you know, at some point in time, everybody should take a day and really think about their own death. And the reason why is because the more that you think about death, the more that you appreciate your life. And this all came from a conversation that I really had with my mom. I don't know,

a month, two months ago. If you don't notice, a lot of my episodes come from conversations with my mom, right? I am almost completely, it's almost impossible for me to have a surface level conversation. It always has to go really deep. And I just asked her one day, about a month ago, two months ago, and I said, you know, how often do you think of death? She's like, oh, I don't know, maybe, maybe every week, two weeks, something like that. She's like, how often do you think of death? And I was like, oh, I don't know, multiple times a day. And she's like, really? And I was like, yeah, not in a weird way, but in a way of me knowing like my death, I am going to die one day. And that gives me the reason to get up and do something each day.

And it reminds me of, I remember seeing Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is being interviewed by Larry King. And Larry King asked him the question, they're talking about technology and people living longer. And Larry King asked him the question, if you could live forever, would you? And he says, no. And he says, wait, why not? Because if I could live forever, I would. And he goes, the reason why I wouldn't want to live to forever is because death gives urgency to my life. Let me say that again. His death gives urgency to his life. It gives the meaning behind his life. He said, if I never had to die, then when I woke up each morning, I didn't have to do anything because there'd always be tomorrow where I could eventually do something. And I think that this is what most people don't think about.

They don't, they don't think about the fact and they, not even that they don't think about, they actually try to run from the fact that one day they will die. They try to run from the fact that everything will eventually, every single thing that they've ever seen will eventually disappear. Every person, every building, every piece of machinery, every car, every mountain, everything will eventually, if you fast forward a billion, 2 billion, 5 billion, 20 billion years, because the universe says 13.5 billion years, everything that you've ever seen, gone. Just dust. And you just got to turn the terms of it. You can't run from it. But I love watching videos of how long, you know, there's a video, an incredible video on YouTube about how time will end, like the end of the

universe. And it goes like, it will blow your mind if you want your mind blown. It's about a 20, 30 minute video, whatever it is. And it's on YouTube and it's, it fast forwards. So like 10 trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion years from now, then you're like, whoa, that number, I can't even like comprehend in my mind. And it's a massive number, considering that the universe itself is only 13.5 billion years. And everything will eventually be dust. And I love watching those videos because it puts my life into perspective.

And I go, okay, so this is 10 trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion years from now. And I only live 70 to a hundred years on average. Maybe if technology continues to get better, maybe 120 years, maybe 150. And that's like a tiny little, almost nothing. If you really think about it right now. And I was listening to an episode of Ram Dass not too long ago, and he said that if you were to take a 108 story building and the bottom of the building was the beginning of time and the top of the building, the very, very top, if you were to get on the roof of it is present day. And that's 13.5 billion years. The amount of recorded history that

humans have would be basically equivalent out of that 108 story building. It would be equivalent to how thin it would be to put a sheet of paint on the roof. So just think about that for a second. 108 story building is the beginning of time. And humans have been around for as thin as it would be if you painted the roof. That's how humans have recorded history the past two, three to 5,000 years, however long recorded history is for us,

you know, a few thousand years, would be just the thin layer of paint on the roof. That means all 108 stories is before humans had any recorded history. And that's mind blowing. And I like to watch these types of things and hear those types of things because it really makes you realize that there should be urgency in our life. And we should contemplate the broken glass. We should contemplate the broken glass because the broken crystal makes the glass beautiful because it's still together in its form. But it will eventually be broken,

whether the monk breaks it or someone else breaks it or even after the monk dies or whatever is gonna happen, there's no attachment to it. Just like there's no attachment to your life, but death brings urgency to your life. And you know, I have a new truck I got last year and I love my truck, but I thought about it today as I was walking back, I forgot to completely roll up the windows. And I thought to myself, you know, what if somebody would have came and stolen my truck? And the immediate thought that came to my head would be, well,

I guess I'll just get another one. Right. And that has nothing to do with, with how much money is in my bank account or any of those types of things. It's just like, whatever, it's just a truck. And I don't, I don't know where it's going to be in, you know, 10 trillion years. It's not going to be here anymore. You know, I have, I have a watch that, you know, one of my, my dream, you guys may have heard me talk about force by Rolex. And for 10 years, I wanted this. And that, you know, one of my dream, you guys may have heard me talk about before, is to buy a Rolex. And for 10 years, I wanted this. And it was my 10-year goal.

And I got it the last month of the 10 years in that goal. And to me, even though I'm looking at it, it's on my watch right now, it's already gone. It's already possibly stolen. And it allows me to appreciate it because I can look down and see it and see that it's telling time and it's 10 to 10 right now. I can see that. But in my mind, it's like, well, whatever. If it gets stolen, I'm not going to be... I don't want it to be stolen. But if it gets stolen one day, it's like, ah, whatever. It's just a watch. And I've been attached to so many things in my life.

And you think about those things, the things that you're so attached to, and how can you break the attachment to, you know, your cars, your clothes, your items, your jewelry, the people that you love. Now, here's the thing. I'm not saying that you're, you to, to, this is where people don't really understand the attachment of somebody. They think if I'm not attached to somebody, that means I don't truly love them. No, no, no. What it means is that because of the fact that you know that maybe your relationship will be gone one day, maybe you will be gone one day, maybe they will be gone one day. You can love them and appreciate them even more because they are in front of you. Just like the glass will be broken, but the monk can appreciate it because it is in a beautiful crystal form,

a glass at this point in time, everything will be gone. You know, everything I'm in Sedona right now, we're here for a month and I was hiking all day long and I'm looking, I'm like, Oh my, I can't understand. I can't fathom the beauty that's here. And when you realize that all of that stuff will one day be gone, it makes it even more beautiful. And it makes you appreciate it so much more because all too often we think, well, if I think about death or if I think about this being gone or stolen or this house burning down or the possibility of my loved ones dying, then I'm not truly loving them or appreciating them as they are. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no.

You're missing it completely. Knowing that they will die, knowing that you will die makes you appreciate your time with them so much more. Because maybe if you contemplate your loved one's death, that it will come one day because it will, as much as you don't want to think about it, it will happen. I'm sorry. There's, there's nothing, you can't run from it. Maybe because of that, you might stop looking on Instagram when you're spending time with them today. Why? Because you appreciate the fact that, Hey, everybody will be gone. Death does happen. The

crystal glass will break. And as one of my favorite things that's ever been said is exactly like I told you, Neil deGrasse Tyson says that he would not want to live forever because death brings urgency to his life. And so I think that every person needs to appreciate and understand that one day they will be gone and they need to really contemplate it. Like take some time and think about it. Don't let it scare you, but come to terms with the fact that it is what it is and there's nothing you can do about it. And that will bring more urgency to your life. There's a lot of people listening to us that procrastinate. If There's one thing out of coaching tens of thousands of people that I've learned is that people talk about how they can't deal enough with procrastinate. Like they procrastinate too much. They don't know how to

get past it. I know one good way to get past it. Think about how one day you will be dead and it will bring more urgency to every moment of your life. So death makes your life beautiful. Death brings urgency to your life and death of you and everyone else around you makes life, this life, so much more beautiful and so much more important. So if you like this episode, please share it with someone that you know and love. Please share it on your Instagram stories as you guys all tend to do, which I love flipping through and seeing you guys do that. And also if you want motivational text messages from me, I send them a few times throughout the week. And the cool thing about the text message platform is that literally I'm sitting on my couch or I'm driving in the car, I'm in the passenger seat. I'm like, you know what? I just had this idea. I want to send this out to a text message. Boom.

I send it out and you know, all of you guys get it. And when you text me back, I can literally see every individual text message. So you can text me at 512-580-9305. You don't have to text me anything like, hey, opt me in or motivation or send me this. Just text me. You can say, hey, Rob, you can say, what's up, dog? You can say, what's happening? You can say whatever it is that you want to say. Just text me and we'll have your number saved. So it's 512-580-9305. And I'm going to leave you the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better.

I appreciate you and I hope that you have an amazing, amazing day.