There’s a moment that creeps up on you. It might not announce itself loudly. It doesn’t always arrive with tragedy or fanfare. But when it hits, it changes everything. It’s the moment you realise you’re not going to live forever.
We all know we’re mortal, of course. We all know we’re going to die someday. But there’s a big difference between knowing and feeling it. The shift comes when you go from intellectually understanding the concept of mortality to feeling it in your bones. When “someday” stops being abstract, and starts being real.
For many of us, that moment arrives with age. Maybe it’s when you turn 40, or 50, or 60. Maybe it’s when your parents die. Maybe it’s after a health scare that leaves you staring at the ceiling at 3am, wondering what really matters. Maybe it’s watching your kids grow up and leave the house, and suddenly the pace of time hits you like a freight train.
Whatever triggers it, the realisation is the same: You’re on the clock… And the second half goes faster.
The Myth of ‘One Day’
We’ve been taught to believe in the myth of ‘one day’.
One day we’ll have time.
One day we’ll be ready.
One day the kids will be grown, the job will be easier, the finances will be sorted, the planets will align.
One day we’ll finally do that thing.
The big thing. The important thing. The thing that matters. But here’s the brutal truth. For many people, one day never comes. Not because they were lazy. Not because they didn’t care. But because they waited. And life, as it does, filled the space with distractions. We wait for permission. We wait for certainty. We wait for signs. But signs don’t come. And neither does permission. Eventually, if we’re lucky, we stop waiting.
When the Wake-Up Comes
For me, it was a quiet moment. Nothing dramatic. Just a morning like any other. I saw a post on social media that a school friend had died. No warning, no time to prepare, just the cold hard shock that one of my closest school friends was gone. That shook me.
I wasn’t 20 anymore. My hair was greying. My body didn’t bounce back the way it used to. And somewhere between all the routines and responsibilities, I had stopped asking myself the big questions…
What am I really here for?
What legacy am I leaving behind?
What have I not done yet because I’ve been telling myself I’ll get around to it?
That morning, something clicked. It wasn’t a breakdown. It was more of a reckoning.
I realised I had fewer years ahead of me than behind me.
And with that realisation came another.
If not now, when?
Facing the Fear
Let’s be honest. The reason we push things into the “one day” pile is because they scare us.
Change scares us. Failure scares us. Success scares us. Being seen, being vulnerable, being honest… all of it scares us. So we bury the dreams. We call them silly. We tell ourselves they’re for other people. We focus on the to-do list, because it’s easier to tick boxes than to face our soul.
But when that mortality realisation hits, something shifts. The fear doesn’t go away, but it gets overshadowed by a bigger fear:
The fear of not having really lived.
Not just existing. Not just surviving. But living. That’s what the moment is. That’s what the wake-up is. It’s the confrontation with the fact that you could die with your best still in you.
The Power of the Present
The real gift of realising your mortality isn’t panic. It’s clarity. Suddenly, you stop caring so much about what people think. You stop waiting for the perfect time. You start noticing things. The way the light looks on the trees. The sound of your friend’s laugh. The feeling in your chest when you do something that aligns with who you are. You start pruning your life. You get clear on what matters, and what doesn’t. The gossip, the grudges, the goals that were never yours in the first place, they all fall away. In their place, something simpler grows…
Honesty.
Focus.
Presence.
You stop chasing, and you start choosing.
It’s Not Too Late
One of the biggest lies the world tells us is that there’s a deadline on reinvention. That once you hit a certain age, your story is set. But some of the most incredible people didn’t bloom until the second half. Colonel Sanders franchised KFC at 62. Vera Wang entered fashion at 40. Grandma Moses started painting in her late 70s. The list goes on.
The second half of your life can be the richest, most real, most meaningful part of the journey. Not in spite of your age. Because of it. You have perspective now. You’ve been through storms. You know what matters. And maybe for the first time, you’re not trying to impress anyone. You just want to be true to yourself. There’s power in that. There’s peace in that. And there’s potential in that.
The Question You Need to Ask
Here’s the question to ask yourself right now:
If I only had five years left, what would I do differently?
Would you change careers? End a relationship? Start a passion project? Book the trip? Say what needs saying? Don’t just ponder it. Write it down. Let it be real. Then ask this:
What’s stopping me from doing that now?
Really look at that answer. Is it fear? Guilt? Habit? A story you’ve been telling yourself that no longer serves you?
Strip it back. Because when you do, you’ll often find that what’s in the way… isn’t that big.
Today is the Only Guarantee
The idea that we’ll always have tomorrow is just that, an idea. None of us know how long we’ve got. But we do know this. We’ve got today. We’ve got this sunrise. This breath. This hour. This choice. That’s enough to start. Start the thing. Make the call. Book the course. Say the words. Take the leap. You don’t need a 10-year plan. You need one brave decision.
What Legacy Will You Leave?
When the curtain falls, it won’t be your titles or your bank balance that echo in the minds of those you leave behind. It will be how you made them feel. The risks you took. The way you lived your truth.
Your life is your message. You’re writing it every day, whether you realise it or not. So the question is not just “What do I want to do?”, it’s “What do I want to stand for?” Because when you start living from that place, when you start letting that guide your choices, everything changes.
You don’t wait for one day… You make today the day.
One day is today. What are you going to do with it?