The Eclectic Method is all about finding knowledge that is true and then practically applying that knowledge to obtain results. Without the transformation of the potential energy that knowledge provides into something kinetic, knowledge doesn’t serve you. You can read all the books you want, or you can watch all the videos available, but unless you can apply what you learn in a way that changes your behavior, then what is it really worth?

In the first Memento Mori article, which you can read here, we talked about what the maxim ‘Memento Mori’ means, and for those who haven’t read it, I’ll summarize it as: ‘remember you will die’. We remember that death is coming for us to inspire ourselves to live life to the fullest, but how do we practically apply this philosophy? Well, I’m going to arm you with three exercises that will help you apply this philosophy in a way that will change your behavior and lead to practical results.

Memento Mori Exercise #1: Three Part Eulogy

Get out three pieces of paper and sit somewhere you can think without being distracted. You are going to write your funeral eulogy in a three different ways.

On the first of those papers write your eulogy as it would be if you died today. What would people say about you? What would you say about yourself? The more honest you are, the more value you will receive from this exercise. What would your eulogy say about what you have accomplished? What would it say about your character and how you influenced the people around you? Take some time to write it all down and then come back to this. What do you feel after writing that down?

Now, on the second paper, write your eulogy as it would be if you died in 10 years and you kept on doing exactly what you are doing now. Same habits, same job and behavior. Still waiting for the “right time” to do those things you always wanted to do. If you think about your last year and just rinsed and repeated that year for the next ten, then what would be said of you at your funeral eulogy? Write that down, and remember, be as honest as you can even if it’s painful to read.

The final paper should be written to reflect how you wish your eulogy would be when you die. How would you want to be remembered? What did you do, if you could’ve lived your ideal life? What did you turn around? Who did you impact, and what would your loved ones say about you when you’re gone? Write down what you would’ve accomplished if you did follow your greatest ambitions.

Hopefully this exercise has made you think, and revealed things that you haven’t considered before. Most of all, I hope that this exercise has inspired you to act and make some decisions to correct your direction so that you start treading down the path that would lead to your ideal funeral eulogy.

Memento Mori Exercise #2: The Three Second Rule

This exercise will help you when you are making those coarse-correcting decisions. As you might have read in the first part, many of the regrets that old folks have near the end of their lives share a common theme of having a lack of courage as the basis of the regrets. “I didn’t do X,Y,Z because I was scared,” or they were worried about what other people thought, or they didn’t pursue that love interest or career because they lacked the bravery to do so.

Well, we don’t want to be that old person full of regret. There is a tool you can use when you are in those critical moments where you have to make that important decision, but you lack the courage to do what must be done. It’s called the Three Second Rule.

Whenever you are in that critical moment, and you find yourself hesitating to do what needs to be done, count to 3 and move. Count to three and start moving towards what you are supposed to do. Count to three and say what you need to say. No more thinking, no more debating, just count to three and go.

The point of the three second rule is that we don’t give ourselves the time to worry, or overthink, or engage in negative self-talk and fail to take action.

Fear often paralyzes us and prevents action. Getting the results out of life that we want is all about doing, and if we do nothing but think and worry, then nothing significant happens. The three second rule gets us going towards what we want or need to do and that is more than half the battle.

Memento Mori Exercise #3: Mindfulness and Living in the Now

If you’re constantly worrying or anxious, thinking about the past or the future, then you’re not really living. You’re going to spend your whole life with your mind somewhere else and then die. You’re not fully experiencing the present moment, and that’s really all there is. The past is gone and the future hasn’t come to pass. So if your mind is stuck in either one, then you’re not really living.

The practice of mindfulness is the practice of being present. If you’re walking, then be present. Be fully immersed in the experience. Take in the world around you and be on that walk. Don’t walk and worry about what happened in the past. Don’t walk and be anxious about the rest of your day or week. When you are fully immersed in an experience, then there’s no room for that sort of stuff and you’re actually experiencing your life.

So, whenever you find yourself lost in thought or worry or anxiety, bring your attention back to your immediate experience. That is what mindfulness is. The only real time is the present moment. To live knowing that you will die means to live fully and to live fully is to be in the present moment.

The best way I have found to practice mindfulness is to concentrate on my breath. When I find myself struggling to be present in the moment because my mind is racing, I focus my attention on my breathing. Deep, full breaths have a calming effect, and when I count my breaths and focus my attention on the act of breathing, then I prevent my attention from being stolen by random or anxious thoughts.

Counting the rhythm of your breaths helps even more. Practice box breathing by inhaling for 4 seconds, holding that inhalation for 4 seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds, and then holding that exhale for 4 seconds. Concentrating on the breaths and on the counting leaves little room for distraction, and if you do lose your focus, then simply return to your counting and breathing and continue.

I had a coworker that was really good at mindfulness. When he was at work, he was at work. He wasn’t thinking about how much it sucked, or about how badly he wanted to go home. No, his focus was on the present moment and what he was doing now, and ironically enough he was happier than most people there.

In The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, the tempters have a correspondence regarding this concept. The senior demon writes to his nephew stating that the present moment is where time touches eternity, and that is as close as humans will get to the experience of God. The present moment is where freedom and actuality are, and thus it is the job of demons and tempters to keep us distracted from the present moment because it robs us of our lives and of our closeness to God, and nothing makes a demon happier.

C.S. Lewis writes that the present moment is where we bear our cross, where we obey the voice of consciousness and where we experience grace. That is the moment in time that living is done. It makes perfect sense that Lewis had his demonic characters concerned with distracting their victims from the present. What could rob the beauty of life away from us quicker, or keep us further removed from our relationship with God?

You will die, and when you stand before God, will you be able to say you appreciated the experience He gave you, or will you have to confess that you spent most of your precious time in His creation always worried about something else, anxious, or ungrateful? Whether or not you believe in God, hopefully the thought experiment alone will inspire more mindfulness and presence.

You have been armed with the tools necessarily to turn philosophy into practice. Write your three-part euology, use the three second rule for times when you lack courage, and be mindful of the present moment.

Memento Mori, my friends.

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