Why We Should Focus on the Keystones of Life
[Applause]
have you truly realized
deep down that one day this life that
you have
is going to be over that you will have
nothing left
the response i might get from you may
very well be
yeah obviously but believe it or not i
actually forgot this
scientific fact two years ago when i was
stressed
upset and angry at myself i was really
stressed out about school
i was worried about being compared to
some of my friends
and i couldn’t solve a math problem
these are real first world problems i
know but at that time it seemed like
my whole world was collapsing that all
these terrible things were just
happening to me
and i wasn’t in control of anything
and then realization struck me and this
realization
made me say out loud we all will die
my mom stared at me like i was crazy
but i realized that at the end of my
life i will die
and all these things that i’m stressing
about won’t matter
they won’t have that long an impact
those were the very words i spoke when i
remembered
that death is what becomes of us all
after all the sadness frustration and
emotions we experience
and overcome in our lives
it was then that i realized
that death doesn’t lead to depression
but rather it takes you on a journey of
self-discovery
reflection and ultimately happiness
it leads to finding meaning in life it
leads to being fulfilled in life
and it leads to happiness
many people know death as a solemn topic
it is seen as an end to your agony
a finish line but i think death
reminds us of how precious life is as a
wise friend of mine once said
we all think about death once in a while
so let’s think about this
positively until a certain point in our
lives we all have this
blissfully ignorant period where we have
yet to realize our own
mortality that we are not invincible
or immortal usually this state of belief
continues
until someone we love is taken away from
us
or we have a health scare or we simply
grow up
experience life and realize oh wait
all this might not actually go on
forever
but i would argue that describing this
state as bliss
is an error because when we properly
realize that we will die we remember the
fundamental questions
of life questions that can literally
make all the difference between just
running through life
on autopilot mode and living a life that
you love
and that you are proud of am i doing
what i love
could be one of the questions that
surface in your mind
in our day our hours are mostly split
between work
and rest and as students study and rest
and to learn to love what you do and to
do what you love requires for a balance
but this balance is hard to fulfill
because both are equally important
as steve jobs once said i have looked in
the mirror every morning and asked
myself
if today was the last day of my life
would i want to do what i’m about to do
today
now of course the answer to this can’t
just be yes every single day because we
can’t just do what we want
and hence the second part of this quote
and whenever the answer has been no
for too many days in a row i know
i need to change something
when i think about this quote i realize
how important it is to having
an am i happy on my to-do list is
equally as important
as say math homework
it was then that i realized the
importance of focus
and about putting greater weight on the
keystones of life
keystone such as happiness family
faith and love math homework is nowhere
near that list
so perhaps it deserves less weight
i’m not telling you that homework is
unimportant but maybe
just maybe it isn’t worth stressing
about and crying over
because there are so many greater things
in life that one should have
and seeks to have okay now this analogy
on homework is only an example of an
aspect of your life
that is important for you to focus on
your happiness
but it goes to show just how important
it is to have focus in your life
and to focus on the right things
focus is the gateway to thinking
focus is living and thinking in the
present
focus in the sense where you concentrate
while doing a math problem is important
so you don’t make careless mistakes
but it’s also important to focus on the
right things
and only you know what is truly
important to you
so i am here standing before you to
remind you
that you will die so while you live
focus on the keystones of your life
thank you
you