Data and Death. What Lives On?

I currently have more Safari tabs open than I can count. 4 unfinished Word documents are open, tons of notes, and emails to catch up on. Have you ever wondered what happens to all of this data when we die? I assume it collects dust unless your work and whatever else your working on lives on past you. Sometimes I wonder if someone in the future will read my journals – the secretive moments I record through my writing or the dreams that I record in my journal each morning. 

The question popped up for me as I was sifting through all of my ‘stuff’. The question that followed was: In reality, what does live on?

In the hustle of working X number of hours each day, it’s easy to forget to step back and take a look at what matters. 

I have a feeling this is why so much of this generation wants to do something that matters. We want purposeful work and we want to make an impact. I guess there can be a stark difference between what brought you joy in the moment versus the work that will make a difference in generations to come. The latter, no one can really know. The ripples are too great and have the potential to stretch too far. 

So, this is my two-part Friday afternoon question to you: Have you wondered what happens to all of this data when you die? And In reality, what does live on?

It’s a good way to wrap up the week and take “inventory” on our lives and how your actions are contributing to your moment to moment joys as well as what truly matters in the grand scheme of things. 

I do wonder how my data and the information I have right now will help grow my company to make a greater impact on our next generation. I do know this “data” stands for something much greater in my life – it is the conversations that have inspired my work and will continue to move it forward. The information is a product of intentional life decisions I have made so that my work continues to mirror the core values my parents instilled in me as a child. That’s just me, but through looking at all of it, even I still question What’s the point of all of this? Then I remember how all my work made me feel, and I’m reminded of why I do all of this in the first place. 

When we take a step back, we are all trying to feel the same things: joy, connection, abundance, freedom, love. At the end of the day, no matter how good the work, if you don’t feel that, then what’s the point?

Deep down, I think we know what truly matters to each and every one of us. To answer this individually and collectively as a society, we need to take a good, hard look in the mirror. What our deeper selves know is the truth is not being reflected in what we have made a priority as a society. Perhaps what we continue to do individually falls short of our internal strength and capacity as human beings. As a society, we know we can do better to serve the things in our lives that do matter. 

So, what gives you that feeling of joy and alignment? 

Chances are, your answer to that question may be the thing that lives on when you are long gone.