Mortality is a bizarre concept to wrap your mind around.
When I was 10 years old, my Grandfather suddenly passed away from a heart attack. I was faced with my first encounter with death. It led me to start addressing questions I had about mortality. At one point, I began to cry as the thought of death and eternity became too overwhelming in my young mind. That thought chain of: “forever and ever and ever and ever… I will be no longer” soon became too much so I decided never ever to revisit it. It was too confusing and upsetting.
It took me years to understand and accept my own mortality and I arrived at this acceptance by starting to explore my Purpose. If life was finite, but death was infinite (potentially??), there must be an awfully specific reason for my existence.
I am no expert, but I believe that even though we each have our own set of unique gifts, our common purpose is to create a better future for the next generation. That can include educating our children, teaching them civic responsibility, ownership, kindness and respect for one another as well as the beautiful planet we live on. It can also include giving back to our communities, friends, family members, and striving to leave the world a better place after you’re gone.
Not everyone will want to explore this ‘reason for being’ and some will be like the 10-year-old me that chooses to rather avoid the mere thought of life and death.
Sadly, by not addressing our mortality and worse, by ignoring it completely, we may fall short of a human responsibility: to pave the way for those we leave behind.
On almost a weekly, sometimes daily occurrence, our Nevada probate attorney Chris Phillips takes a call from a grieving family member who, on top of the loss of a loved one, suddenly has to deal with piecing together a tattered estate… all because that family member did not fully handle the administration of their own mortality.
By avoiding the subject of death, we procrastinate and even put off things like creating and or updating our estate planning, never mind addressing ways to protect the assets we spend our entire lives building up.
Estate planning is no longer a luxury reserved for the elite – it is a necessity to ensure we protect our Purpose and our Legacy, and to protect and support all those we leave behind.
I would encourage everyone to take a look at your own Purpose… and to prioritize planning for your future, and your mortality.
- By Jodie Sacco, © 2019, Phillips Ballenger, PLLC
Photo by Michael Heuser on Unsplash