when you’re on your deathbed, do you think you’ll care how much you’ve accomplished?

[ToddBonzalez]

This is sort of an open ended question, but success often requires sacrifice of some sort. Professional, academic, personal accomplishments cannot usually be achieved without significant time and effort. Does striving for something even matter when you'll just become dust in the end? Do you think you'll care about what you accomplished in this live when you reach the end? Or is it better just to try to float through life and take things as they come?

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

Take them as they come and enjoy yourself. All we know this is it, and might as well have fun with it.

 

[Pilgrimzero]

I'll probably have Alzheimer's and won't know up from down.

I'm not saying this as a joke.

 

[Van Bur3n]

I would. I'd at least like to have some sort of legacy or good impact on folk on a significant scale.

 

[Deleted member 22630]

Too late now!

 

[CloseTalker]

100%

I feel like when I know I'm about to go, I'll spend all my time thinking about what I've done and what I've left behind. It's all that matters in the end

 

[echoshifting]

As a younger man I would have said no, no way, it literally doesn't matter. But the older I get, the more convinced I am the answer is yes. I think it must be better to look back on one's life and be content with how you spent it, and there is more to that than indulging in uncomplicated pleasures.

 

[Addie]

I won't be satisfied with what I've accomplished either way.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Nope

I'll care more if I wasted my time not enjoying things.

 

[Deleted member 6173]

Depends on which drugs I'll be on

 

[Kraken3dfx]

The worst thing I can imagine is being on a death bed. I'm hoping when it comes, it's quick and when I don't expect it. I don't want to linger thinking about pulling back the curtain and it just being the blackness of non-existence.

Having said that, if people I've come in contact with over the course of my life believe I've been respectful and been worthy of respect as a person, that's good enough for me. I won't be remembered by many, but I want those people to remember me fondly if at all possible.

 

[Skid 4]

when i'm on my deathbed i'll just want to be dead already

 

[Deleted member 29691]

Yes and no. In 10 years I've gone from two suicide attempts to earning two degrees, traveling internationally due to my academic achievements, found a career I enjoy, came out of the closet, and found a community and friends through improv

I never want to stop growing, but I don't worry about what I'll "amount to" anymore. I just want to be at peace when it's my time to go

 

[Lobster Roll]

I was typing out a response to this but ended up having a mild existential crisis. Sorry gotta duck out of the thread.

 

[Lothar]

I guess but it probably matters least at that time than any other. You'll only be caring about it for a little amount of time.

 

[poklane]

My only 2 worries when I'm on my deathbed will be my death being painless and me hoping that my assumption that death is just eternal nothingness is correct.

 

[BabyShams]

I think I'll have a lot of regrets no matter what I do. But fuck it.

 

[Thisisme]

Yes. And this thought has significantly influenced my life and career decisions. I would like to leave a legacy, giving back and helping as many people as I can. And, as an atheist who doesn't believe there is an afterlife, you realize the true tragedy of those who suffer without redemption. I want to mitigate that suffering.

 

[Nemesis121]

Nope, i will be asking to hurry to shit up, end my suffering now..

 

[LifeIsKillingMe]

No, because if I'm going to think of the good i would need to also consider the bad. Considering my youth was less than stellar in regards to selflessness, making good choices and having good people around me, I'm just going to hope my latter years compensated for it and at most made it all a karmatic wash.

I'll probably binge watch some SciFi stuff and attempt to get all esoteric while on the morphine drip.

 

[Richietto]

As long as my daughter is alive and well I won't give a damn about anything else.

 

[Fleck0]

Nah, it's been a fuckin ride, and things are looking dire for the future. I'm glad how I spent my time, tribulations and all.

Less Dota maybe, I could have played less of that. but the only way to learn was overdoing it in the mid-2000s. Everything else I ever did I'm cool with.

edit: I went back to college in my 30s and got a degree in something I actually care about. I don't make a lot of money, but I love what I do / did pre-pandemic. Which was performing jazz and teaching people of all ages to make music.

 

[LukeOP]

Trust me, you won't be thinking about your past if you are on your deathbed. Good or bad.

 

[Incite]

My Grandfather sure did.

Me, no. I have a different outlook on life.

 

[Superpupperbabysassy]

I do believe there's are things that I want to accomplish before I pass away. I pray that I will accomplish them.

 

[pokeystaples]

I don't think I'll care about accomplishments (I don't now), but I strive for comfort in old age and death and that means striving for a certain level of wealth and not just floating through life.

My hope is that on my deathbed I'll be thinking of the love of my life and the great hereafter, but I think I'll just be scared more than anything. I'm not very good with the unknown.

 

[grang]

I figure IF I ever move past denial, I'll hold fast on bargaining and sadly never be able to relax and accept I'm dying. Just frantic anxiety until the end.

 

[iAmPossum]

Naw, beam me up Scotty 🙏🏼

 

[mbpm]

more like how little

 

[Eightguy]

Nah. Just hope my loved ones will be okay.

 

[yyr]

I think the answer to that question will depend entirely on my age.

If I'm 90+, and my body feels like a rusty old tin can by then, most likely not. If I'm under 60, I'll definitely have regrets, worries, and fears. If I'm in between, somewhere in between.

 

[Lothar]

Trust me, you won't be thinking about your past if you are on your deathbed. Good or bad.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, we'll be thinking of all the memes we've seen in our life time instead.

 

[Wally_Wall]

If I've loved many and been loved by just as many with minimal regrets I will be content with my life and accepting of my approaching death.

 

[Chance Hale]

 

[Kitsunebaby]

I doubt I'll care about much. Whether my life was fulfilling and joyful or woefully disappointing, I'm sure in that moment I'll be mostly just be in pain.

 

[Mona]

my death is only the end of the first 5% of my existence

 

[kamineko]

i just want to be good to the people i love

 

[FaceHugger]

I volunteered at both a hospice and a facility for elderly care when I was a kid. And I don't know. Each person was still different. Some spoke often of their kids, some of random places they'd been, the wars they lived through, and some were just all about what TV shows were big at the time. I don't think any of us really know how we'll be when the time comes.

Personally, I hope I don't care about whatever I did or did not accomplish at the end of my life, only that I lived and can find joy in that alone. It's amazing that life at all exists in the harsh universe, more amazing that it evolved into something as sophisticated as us, and then incredible that we formed societies with art and music and literature. To live at all is something exotically rare, perhaps even unique within the trillions of miles of empty space out there.

Anyways I smoked a joint I found earlier, it's been about a year, so yea. Maybe I am overthinking things.

 

[SavoyPrime]

Personally, I don't think I've accomplished anything worth reflecting back on except for the birth of my daughter and raising her. Aside from that, I just try to take in the moments as they happen.

 

[meowdi gras]

Sure. Pretty much guaranteed I'll be sorely disappointed. Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Nothing matters. Fuck accomplishments.

 

[Tater]

It's good to have goals and achieve them, but you'll also never accomplish every possible thing that you'll want to do.

Assuming I'm lucid on my deathbed, I think I'll be happy if I feel like I actually tried to live up to my potential. To feel like I tried to do something that was important to me instead of just existing. It's unlikely any of us will change the world, but we certainly won't if we don't even try.

I guess I could copy pasta the starfish parable here, but that's a little too cliche.

 

[blame space]

i think i'll probably just be like "oh shit i'm dying"

 

[Lost Lemurian]

Nah, one of the best days of my life was when I realized none of that stuff matters. Just try and do what you can for other people and stay sane yourself.

I've always found comfort in the quote, "Every corpse on Mount Everest was once a highly motivated individual."

 

[blame space]

i'm afraid of nothingness but i just want people to be chill about it. dying sucks but everybody does it.

 

[TheClaw7667]

I doubt I'd care much about career or education accomplishments but I do imagine I'll regret never forcing myself to even try going on a date. I'm convinced I'm incapable of forming a romantic connection as I just lack whatever it is other people have that drives them to seek out and meet new people and I am content with that right now but I imagine when my family is gone and I'm all alone I won't be so content with it.

 

[Normanski 2.0]

Yes, I think about it all the time. For someone of my age the pandemic has been akin to a half-time team talk (hopefully), and there's a lot that I feel like I should have done by this point.

 

[rickyson33]

in an aggregate sense? I doubt it

i'll probably care about specific things that I never got around to doing though, but that's more along the lines of stuff like "damn I never did get around to going skydiving" than accomplishments

 

[blame space]

what if you die in a skydiving accident

 

[Annubis]

I know I won't ever accomplish anything.