If You Had 12 Months to Live, What Would You Do? Here's What I'd Do
22 May 2025 #miscI’ve heard life only guarantees two things: death and taxes.
One happens every year. The other? Just once.
As a thought experiment and writing exercise, if I only had 12 months to live, assuming I’m in good shape, mentally and physically, these are 7 actions I’d do:
#1. Transfer 50% of my retirement savings and net worth to my closest relatives. I want to make sure they don’t have to worry about covering their essential expenses for a while.
#2. Spend the other 50% of my net worth without any guilt. I’d backpack around Europe and South America. I definitely would walk El Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage route along Spain.
#3. Share my blog and social media credentials with a loved one so my online presence outlives me and keeps generating income for my relatives.
#4. Write a book. The other day, while watching Chandler Bolt’s TED talk, I learned that “the best way you can serve humanity is to write a book.” I don’t expect it to become a best-seller. I just want to make sure part of my story is written somewhere for my relatives to read. That’s a good motivation to write a book. Hey if we’re still reading diaries from ancient Greece, maybe someone will read my blog or book centuries in the future. Who knows?!
#5. And, in the same spirit of sharing my story, take a picture every day for the remaining 12 months. Like a photo blog or something. Especially while walking El Camino de Santiago. That’s a perfect idea for a visual memoir.
#6. Write a letter to every family member, scheduled to be delivered after those 12 months. Okay, I know that sounds like the plot of a romantic movie.
#7. Get an organ donor card. My organs will help somebody else more than me by the end of those 12 months.
I just realized I don’t need to wait to do most of these things.
Oh, this list reminded me of one House M.D. episode where Dr. Wilson, an oncologist and Dr. House’s best friend, made a mistake and gave the wrong prescription to a patient. He told the patient he only had a few months to live. And when the patient was told about the mistake, he got angry because his family had already scheduled trips and celebrations. His life had already changed because of the prescription.
Why does life have to change when the clock is close to running out of batteries? Why wait?! Ok, maybe I got too philosophical. And I already got more than my 200 words for the day.
PS: This was a writing prompt from Ron Markley on Medium.