What WILL Matter?

By Erik Jon Larson

What is it that truly matters in your life? Have you ever asked yourself this question?

Too often we forget to stop and really tap in and ask ourselves this important question.

We live in a world of material things and are bombarded by the media in all forms whether television, magazines or social media to name a few and the power of these influences is incredible and we don’t often realize the effect they can have on us.

I went without television for almost 8 years and added one of those new fancy flat screens to my place in a remodel and I can honestly say I liked life better without it. Whenever I turn it on, I scroll through hundreds of programs and don’t have a clue what most of them are.

Kokoro graduates have a 95% success rate going to BUDS and Special Forces training

Quite honestly most of them are total garbage and yet I have found on occasion that I get sucked into watching one and a couple of hours will go by and I wonder how I had time to sit and watch.

Anyways, what I want to focus on is the question of what matters most to you. Stop and ask yourself this question and see what comes up for you.

What is deep and meaningful in your life? Is it family? Friends? Health? Leaving a legacy? Get something to write on and spend some time writing down the things that come to mind and focus on them.

My father is a retired Lutheran Pastor and he used a piece by Michael Josephson from the Josephson Institute that pretty much sums it up and it goes as follows:

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, days.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.
So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won’t matter where you came from,
or on what side of the tracks you lived.
At the end, whether you were beautiful or brilliant, male or female,
even your skin colour won’t matter.
So what will matter?
How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built;
not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone.
What will matter is not your memories,
but the memories that live in those who loved you.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.
Choose to live a life that matters.

by Erik Jon Larsen CrossFit Aspen