If Today Were Your Last Day, What Would You Do? Write About It— and LIVE IT for the Rest of Your Life!
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IF YOU ONLY HAD 24 HOURS TO LIVE, WHAT SPECIAL THING WOULD YOU DO EVERY HOUR?
This question exploded in my mind as I savored some of the last summer sunshine of the season.
I just laid there on my lounge chair, loving the hot sun on my bare skin, feeling clean breeze over my body as it whooshed through the trees above, and enjoying the present moment as a beautiful gift from Mother Nature.
I didn’t want this late September Sunday afternoon to end.
But like all time and experiences—especially the great ones—it was fleeting.
Plus, the forecast for the coming week was overcast, rainy and cool, so I felt like, This is it.
So in my mind, I slammed the door on the dark dungeon where worry, anxiety and any negative ruminations about the past, present or future were lurking, waiting to lurch up and steal my joy.
I also bolted the lock over the gateway to worries about all the work that awaited on my desk (including editing a giant book) and checking on a particular publishing issue that was causing panic.
Then I fiercely forced my mind to stay in the moment.
That helped maximize the joy and gratitude of the moment, thus creating one of my happiest memories of Summer 2023.
Then I realized, I’m savoring the last hours of sunshine today as if they were my last.
And it made the moment even sweeter. I focused on the tiniest details of the moment: the breeze rustling the leaves, the smell of earth, the chirping birds, the languid weight of my body on the cushion, the super blue sky, the gratitude that I and my family are healthy and safe, the relief after resolution of a tough situation, and again, my favorite summer indulgence—the hot sun on my bare skin.
It was like my mind was gripping every split-second to hold on for dear life, because time was ticking and the sun was inching across my patio, soon to cast cool shadows and bring this blissful experience to an end.
That urgency made me enjoy the moment even more!
And it prompted the question: What if we could live every hour of every day like this?
As if this were our last day on Earth, always aware that every moment is so precious, constantly maximizing the joy of it.
So I wondered, If I only had 24 hours to live, what special thing would I do every hour?
This is not morbid. I intend to live at least 44 more amazing years.
In fact, I’ve written my obituary for publication after my 100th birthday, when I peacefully go to heaven, happily surrounded by my family and dearest friends.
I learned this exercise while a student at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Writing my own obituary helped me list all the things I want to accomplish in this lifetime, and I wrote about them as if they had already occurred. This is an extremely inspiring and motivating exercise to quantify the totality of your life and acknowledge that we have a finite number of hours, days, weeks and years to live it up.
Sadly, we waste time on so many dumb things that don’t add or multiply our joy, but instead subtract, divide, distract, derail and sometimes destroy the beautiful potential for a great life that is the promise that births with every new baby.
Where does that magic, and all our time, go? And how can we make the rest of our years, the best of our years?
Well, my sun-sparked revelations provided an action plan for me that I’m sharing with you right now.
That’s why I wrote this for you, to take action today to love yourself and love your life as never before, starting now and continuing until your dying day.
Please take some time TODAY and write the answers to this question:
If you only had 24 hours to live, what special thing would you do every hour?
I started writing my 24 things the split-second this idea came to me while lying in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon. Oddly, I could only think of 18 things, and the remaining six came to me this morning, three days later.
So here’s what I would do if I know I’d be closing my eyes for the final time 24 hours from now, and very importantly, what I’ve actually been doing every day since Sunday:
1. Stare at my son, hold his hand, hug him, laugh with him, tell him he will rock this life and that I’m grateful for the amazing blessing that he has been since birth. Also remind him that he’s my life’s greatest accomplishment.
2. Hug my family members and tell them I love them and that I will be watching over them as an angel in heaven.
3. Thank God for this amazing lifetime, all the blessings, all the lessons learned, and all the miracles that were divine intervention saving me and my loved ones during scary moments.
4. Ask God to forgive me for not answering His call to do certain things that I didn’t make time to do.
5. Eat flourless chocolate cake—the whole piece and maybe two—with French vanilla ice cream. I usually reserve this indulgence for my birthday and Christmas.
6. Lay in the hot sun naked.
7. Have a lot of orgasms.
8. Drink my favorite red wine while savoring a beautiful cheese board.
9. Feel peaceful that Jesus and my father will come to get me for a joyous reunion and journey into the bliss of the divine.
10. Feel grateful for all the things I got to experience and the lessons I learned in this lifetime.
11. Stare up at the sky, marveling that I’m about to go up there.
12. Tell my family and friends to dwell on the joy we shared.
13. Forgive myself for wasting time and allowing self-criticism, shame, guilt and angst to rob me of precious minutes, hours, days, weeks and years.
14. Call a few special people to say I love you without telling them that it’s really goodbye for now.
15. Donate my hair to make a wig for a little girl with cancer.
16. Forgive anybody who ever hurt me and wish them well.
17. Sit quietly in front of a mirror and be conscious of what it feels like to be in my physical body—how I look, how I feel, how I breathe, how I move, how I experience sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell and intuition.
18. Take pictures and videos with my loved ones for them to cherish.
19. Swim in the ocean if I’m near one.
20. Be happy that I had the courage to create and host The Goddess Power Show with Elizabeth Ann Atkins®, my audio podcast and YouTube channel where I explore taboo topics to empower people, and where I post short Good Morning, Goddess videos with an inspirational message. The Goddess message came to me 21 years ago, and it took many years before I had the courage to share it.
21. Be happy that I had the courage to actually publish the many blog posts I’ve written over the years for my blog on TheGoddessPowerShow.com that were sitting in draft form until I finally had the guts to push the publish button.
22. Feel grateful that I wrote and published all the books inside me that are part of my divine life assignment, including: my best-selling romantic thriller Dark Secret, my spiritual memoir God’s Answer Is Know: Lessons From a Spiritual Life; and my women’s empowerment book, The Biss Tribe: Activating Your Goddess Power.
23. Do as much as I can right now to complete my unpublished books, then share the passwords with my sister so she can edit and publish them.
24. Write a blog post/social media post recounting the past 23 hours and encouraging every reader, listener, and viewer to live life like today is your last.
For many years, as a book coach and publisher, I’ve been telling any- and everyone to write their life story.
When you write a book, you and your story live on forever on those pages, for all the world to enjoy and use to change their lives for the better.
Besides creating an extraordinary human being and touching lives through friendships, romance and career experience, my life’s legacy includes the 40+ books I’ve written and published through major New York publishers, self-publishing, and the company I co-founded with my sister Catherine M. Greenspan, Two Sisters Writing & Publishing®.
Meanwhile, now that I have this revelation in the context of how I would spend my final hours on earth, I’ve created systems to finish writing, then promote and publish the 12+ books by Elizabeth Ann Atkins that are eagerly awaiting an escape from the digital files on my computers, to launch into the world and touch hearts, minds and lives to inspire people to learn and grow beyond their wildest dreams.
In these books, I’ve written out all my secrets for successful writing, empowering oneself, finding spiritual peace, learning to love yourself after years of self-loathing, and so much more. Stay tuned, because 2024 is going to be The Year of Elizabeth Launching Lots of Her Books.
My next proudest and most important accomplishment is healing and releasing a debilitating food addiction that kept me in a mental and physical prison of self-loathing, binging, purging, feeling fat and ugly, and hating the way I looked at felt.
I achieved this miracle that millions struggle with until their dying day thanks to the grace of God for instilling in me the faith and fortitude to change my mind so that my behavior would follow and my body and life would change as a result.
That mean getting into my best shape ever in my mid-50s and not looking like it at all, feeling better in mind, body and spirit than ever in my life, and becoming a certified fitness trainer to underscore my expertise and commitment to the healthiest lifestyle possible.
OK so, one fleeting thought on a late September Sunday afternoon in some of the final summer sunshine of the season inspired this profound exploration that I hope is helping YOU live today and the rest of your life with newfound vigor to embrace the infinite possibilities of yourself and your present, because it is a gift.
Open it, marvel at it, share it, and use it to take life and love to the happiest, healthiest heights beyond your wildest imagination.