What will matter?

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours or minutes. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance¹. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges², resentments³, frustrations⁴, and jealousies⁵ will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will all expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Your gender⁶, skin color, ethnicity will be irrelevant⁷.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success, but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion⁸, courage and sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate⁹ your example.

What will matter is not your competence¹⁰, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting¹¹ loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

不管你是不是已经准备好了，生命终将有走到终点的那一天。不再有旭日东升，不再有日日时时，也不再有一分一秒。你所有的一切，无论是所珍爱的还是已遗忘的，都将交到另一个人的手里。

你的财富、名望和凡世的权力都将变得卑微，成为无关紧要的东西。你欠了世人什么，世人又欠了你什么，所有这一切都不再重要。

希望、抱负、计划以及想要做的林林总总，和幽怨、愤恨、失败、妒忌一起，都归于灰飞烟灭。曾经是那么在意的成败得失也变得无足轻重。

你来自哪里，你住在路的那边，都不足挂齿。你是否拥有美貌和才气也不值一提。你的性别、肤色、民族亦变得无关紧要。

那么，什么才是生命中重要的东西呢？你生命的价值又是如何体现的？

生命中重要的不是你买到了什么，而是你创建了什么；不是你得到了什么，而是你给予了什么；不是你所取得的成功，而是你创造的价值；不是你学到了什么，而是你教会了别人什么。

生命中重要的是你正直、仁慈、勇敢、奉献的每一个行为。这些行为充实了别人、鼓舞着别人以你为榜样去为这世界的美好而努力。

生命中重要的不是你的能力，而是你的性格；不是你认识多少人，而是当你离去时会有多少人感到永远地失去了些什么；不是你的记忆，而是那些深爱着你的人的怀念。

生命中重要的是人们会怀念你多久，谁会怀念你，怀念你什么。

拥有一个有意义的人生不是偶然的事情，也不是环境所能决定的事情，而是你自己的选择。