What made you realize life is short?

I have attended quite a few funerals of my mates.

cancer, motorcycle accident, car accident, couple suicides, and lots of ODs

weirdly, mostly guys, not girls.

The movie: Nine Days 

Chastity, Francesca, Kitty-Anne, Charlene and many of their friends

Many things, but two come to mind:

1) when parent passed away before getting to 60 and realizing that 60 years old is closer to me than the day of my birth

2) getting in a bad accident, spending a few days in the ER and months of recovery. Realizing that it can all be gone in a minute, and being a bit sad about spending all this time at work (have since changed this and do a lot more in my life) 

Think there is some confusion in this post. There is a difference between "life is short", "can end suddenly", and the "realization of your own mortality". The realization that Kobe died isn't really about life being short but rather realizing that it can end suddenly for example or that it can be cut short.

I've always known that life can end at a blink of an eye and that I will eventually die and I need to start getting right with that.

However, on realizing that life is short, it took until my 30s. Age gives you a feel for time and you realize that things went pretty quick from 18 to 35 and they will go just as quick to 52 and then your death somewhere at 70 or so if not sooner.

really, Kobe made you come to this conclusion?

"Life is short but of everlasting value; it contains the seed of eternity" -St. Francis de Sales 

Whenever I see CEO/Partner obituaries on LinkedIn, and 99.7% of the text is about how hard they worked for their clients, blah blah blah.. and not a single blurb about who they are as a PERSON. 
 

FUCK THAT 

Hearing about friends / acquaintances in the same age group either die or develop deadly diseases  

From time to time you get frantic reminders like finding out in the middle of the night one of your old college roommates from just over a decade ago committed suicide 48 hours ago. Then your mind starts to get the better of you for a while.

Thinking of the regret of not staying in touch. Wondering how their life was up until something made them decide to go out like that. How are the rest of the old group taking it? Then you realize you're not even really that sad, but aggravated someone would be selfish enough to go that way. And are you selfish too because it didn't make you cry but instead locked you away in your own mind pondering these things mentioned and of course turning to "what if that were me?!" Then you fight yourself for a bit about how it's just as much their fault as yours that you didn't stay in touch because after all, telephones/texting/facebook/whatever work both directions. Then you get another poignant reminder that this topic is all too real when you read about it in your morning pre-work forums and news habit.

Today is definitely a Dominoe's day...

Edit to echo what Brofessor says above. Unfortunately this isn't rare or unique and definitely isn't a dick measuring contest (if you're measuring how tragic your experience is vs anyone else you should be the one anyone's worried about).

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. - Seneca

My brother dying when I was 10. Super sobering for a kid and changed how I viewed the world at a early age. I was jealous of classmates who lived their nerf life but also thought they were idiots bc of how reckless they were with their lives and in general. I was a dark mf from 10-17. Tried to take my life and failed at age 11. So happy I did fail. I love everything abt being alive. Waking up every day and having freedom of choice, the financial ability to do whatever the choice is and family/friends who love me and want to enjoy the choices with me. Can't wait to see what my 30's, 40's, 50's and etc are like. Even the thoughts of a second career at age 40 is exciting. I'm so happy to still occupy the physical being I am in today and was in at 11. 

I realized a few weeks ago that I was 18 half a decade ago, and that in another half decade I'll be 28. Know it's still pretty young in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason it hit me hard.

Life isn't short. The single longest thing that you will do in your life is be alive.

Managing Director of one of my previous companies. Worked his way up for 40 years. He ends up retiring with plenty of money saved. He was planning to travel the world with his wife and just chill. We held his going away party. Two weeks later, he's diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. They found it too late. Few months later he passed away. His few months of retirement were spent in the hospital. He earned all this money and couldnt even properly enjoy it.

Mine isn’t really that deep, but

I listened to basically one artist all throughout college. Copied his style of production, learned to DJ by watching some of his sets, bumped his whole discography when cranking during internships.

Then 4 months after I started my job in college, he passed away literally out of nowhere.

Call me sheltered that’s my come-to moment was so parasocial, but it definitely made me re-evaluate things. Dude was just over 30.

I think this is one of the critical lessons one needs to learn in order to live a full, meaningful life. Deep down I know I'm about 90-95% there, but not 100% yet. 

It's not some epiphany. I started reading productivity and time management books since 2016 or 2017. The first book was trash. The only thing I remembered from that one was "Check your email 3 times a day, and each time you saw an email, get it processed". 

I was still goofing off with my spare time. I think contrary to what people say, when you work in high-finance, you have a hard time spending your spare time on meaningful things, at least in the beginning, because you are stressed out and you don't want those spare time filled.

Then it was Cal Newport's Deep Work and some other not-so-good books. I honestly think Deep Work is his only book that's worth reading. 

Then it was Atomic Habits. Then it was some other books. I don't remember all their names. 

Fwiw, Daily Rituals (Artists) is not a book you should read. 

Gradually, as I became aware of the fact that I squandered 24 years of my life not really pursuing anything, exploring my passion, and seeking my calling, I started to think more about how I want to spend my time. Now I follow routines, follow my calendar rather strictly. Being an office worker, I don't have 100% control over my time. 

That line right there, "I don't have complete control over my time" is very, very scary if you think about it. You only live once, and if you cannot control your most precious resource, time, what the heck are you doing with your life?

That was THE moment, probably a few months ago (I'm 26 now, turning 27 soon), when I realized that time is very limited. 

Another thing I've come to know and follow is, work for myself before I work for others, no matter how dumb what I'm working on looks to the outside world or others. If that means waking up at 5:35am every day so I can have 1.5-2 hours of quiet time before eat and shower and go to work, then be it. 

Just the last year. Finished my time at university and my final year has fucking flown by. Literally, feels like it was yesterday that I started it.

So so so many good memories to last a lifetime and honestly I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Life is fucking awesome and I intend to live every day to its fullest.

One of my close friends dying in his early 20s. Shit hit me harder than a NYC subway.

Haven't viewed the world the same since it happened a couple months ago.

Looking at my parents and realizing that not only I grew up, but also did they. Also, seeing photos of 1 year ago and feeling that it was 1 week ago. Really puts in perspective how time flies.

While I understand the sentiment that "life is short", life is literally the longest thing you will ever experience

When my brother passed away at 23. Also every time I go home and visit my parents they look visibly older each time, more wrinkles, greyer hair, etc. Put it into perspective for me that you can literally die at any moment. You can walk outside which you have done a million times in your life with no issues and get hit my a car or something. You can get in a freak accident and die and there is nothing you could do to prevent it. If you live a long time you get to watch your parents and family get older until they also pass on.

Life is pretty crazy that way

Last yr. Had a few friends my age die (car accidents, covid) and my mom passing away really put the cherry on top. She wasn't even 50 yet and I'm 35 now.

Was recently in a car accident, rear-ended by some guy under the influence of drugs/alcohol going 60+ mph. I did nothing wrong on my part; I was slowing down on a busy highway, maybe going 3 mph tops, and all I remember is hearing the sound of a car accelerating, and next thing I know, my car has completely spun and I'm now facing the opposite direction of traffic. Car was completely totaled, and luckily I only got a couple bruises here and there, but I always think about what would've happened had I not had my seatbelt on or if I hadn't had both my hands gripping the steering wheel (which prevented my head or chest from slamming into the wheel/dashboard). So many things could've gone wrong, but it was a very sharp reminder that life is fleeting and a lot of stupid things I thought were important...actually aren't that big of a deal. Live every day to the fullest

I think “Life is Temporary” was engrained in me by my dad when I was growing up. Mainly because my mom died when I was 5 years old when she was 40.  But also he was older.

He would say things like “when I die…bury me at Punchbowl Cemetery next to mom…” like mortality was a part of life and accept it.  
 

He did die, but he was preparing me for that day.  When I was younger, I didn’t think too much of it.  After I moved away, he had a stroke and developed dementia.  Every time I’d visit he got more and more frail.  More and more forgetful.  Much like my kids now grow up fast, I saw him grow old fast.  Like Benjamin Button. 
 

So what do I do?  I tell my wife and kids that I won’t be here forever. Love me while I’m here. 

A combination of Claire De Lune by Debussy and Death Is Not Defeat by the Architects whilst watching my parents get older. 

Parent died when I was in late elementary school, and two years before that one of my grandmothers died

Now I'm well into my 30s and not that much younger than my dad was when he died totally unexpectedly, and I now appreciate just how young he was and how much more life he has. My grandmother was also only slightly older than my mom's current age, even though my mom doesn't seem that old (in fact since she retired 3 years ago she actually looks and sounds much younger and healthier).