# The 6 Months Left to Live Question

An episode of [The Daily Mastery Podcast by Robin Sharma](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1521068608), 24 Sep 2026, 9:36.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1182776/episodes/19838234-the-6-months-left-to-live-question.mp3

I wanted to share a chapter from The Everyday Hero Manifesto with you. The chapter is called The 6 Months Left to Live Question. And here it is... Just imagine. For only a second. That you had merely six months left to live. ...6 short months to do all those things you’d promised yourself you’d do. ...6 months to visit the Taj Mahal and listen to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and see the Mona Lisa and walk along The Great Wall of China. ...6 months to write letters of forgiveness to those who wronged you and letters of love to those who cherished you. And only saw the light within you. If you had just six months left to live, what things would you simply stop doing? And what things would you have the boldness and wisdom and strength of heart to begin doing? What is it that you would do? With only 6 months of life left to live. This is the question I ask of you. So you live all that remains of your precious and soaring and lovely life well. FOLLOW ROBIN SHARMA: Instagram Facebook YouTube

## Transcript

So many of us live our lives as if we have all the time in the world. We postpone that
master project that would allow us to dominate our domain and bring beauty into the
world. We postpone being the kind of people we know in our hearts we want to be. We
postpone forgiving people who might have hurt us in repairing broken relationships. We
postpone taking travels to Mauritius to swim with the dolphins, or going to Wednesdays, or going to the Tate Modern in London or wherever it is. We postpone living our promise
and doing the study and exercising the training that would allow us to live more of our
potential. We postpone having more fun. We are hustling, grinding, working most of the
time to meet our responsibilities and to fulfill the cultural norm of working hard as a
badge of honor. So we postpone watching the sunset, or spending a few hours in a
garden, or reading the great works of literature to some imaginary time in the distance,
when the busyness will dissolve and we'll have much more free time, and everything will
be okay, and we'll have all this freedom. Yet there will never be a better time to be the
person and to live the life of your highest ethical ambitions than now. And what I often
do is, at this stage of my life, I ask myself a question. I say, would I do this? Given that I
only have 25 Christmases left and I don't know how long I'm going to get to live, it might
be much shorter, it might be much longer. But roughly I have about 23, 20, or 25
Christmases left. And so when there's an adventure I want to take or when there's a
project, that idea I ask myself, or I might say it to my loved ones. Well, you know what? I
only have 20 Christmases left, and that really brings the shortness of life into focus. And
that brings me to a chapter in The Everyday Hero Manifesto that I would love to walk you
through as your mentor and it's The 6 Months Left to Live Question. It's chapter 87. A fire
blazes as I work. The crackling of logs fills the room I'm writing in, standing outside a
broken phone booth with money in my hand by the primitive radio gods plays. I know it's
an ancient song, yet it lifts my vibe and it makes me feel a little sad. Which makes me
wonder. Just imagine for only a second that you had merely six months left to live. I just
want to put the book down. And I want to challenge you with great love and respect.
What project would you release into your field if you only had six months left to live?
What would you say to your loved ones? If you have only six months left to live, what
books would you read if you had only six months to live? What art galleries would you
visit with travels would you take? What things would you do? Who would you become?
What would you say? What would you think? How would you feel if you had only six
months left to live? Let's continue. Just imagine for only a second that you had merely six
months left to live, six short months to do all the things you promised yourself. You do
six months to visit the Taj Mahal and listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and see the
Mona Lisa and explore the Great Pyramid of Giza. Six months to write letters of
forgiveness to those who wronged you, or letters of apology to those whom you've heard,
and letters of unembarrassed and unconditional love to those who cherished you and only
saw the light within you. If you had only if you had just six months left to live, what
would you stop doing? Because here's a bonus point it's not your to do list that is most
important. It's your not to do list that really allows you to focus in on those priorities,
those projects, those personal life activities that will bring you the greatest joy and the
highest impact. Maybe you list items on your stop doing list, like refusing to override
yourself with your work, being busy, being busy with digital distractions, spending too
much time with entertainment, and not enough time on your education, getting angry
over needless things and irritated by trifling matters like noisy neighbors, terrible drivers,
and frustrating family members. And then I'll just continue. And what things would you
have the way to your wisdom and charismatic strength to begin doing? Like like writing
off and thereby re-experiencing the most spectacular meals you've ever had, and
reflecting on the majestic moments you've been blessed to enjoy. And that's the beauty of
writing in a journal every morning while the rest of the world is asleep. You can not only
record your intentions and your HVS, your high value targets. Not only write about the
person you want to be, you can not only list gratitude and the blessings that are in your
life, you can only not only process through pain. If you're going through a difficult time,
writing in a journal allows you to recuperate great meals and great travels and great
victories, and recording the small wins that will give you the confidence and energy to
make each day even more productive, more creative, and more fun. What things would
you be begin doing? Like bellowing aloud, I love you to all the people whom you've
never felt safe enough to say this to, but who need to hear the extent of your love for
them before you return to the great wide open space from which you came, like taking
the trip of a lifetime, or planting a special rose garden that your friends will remember
you by. Like eating more pizza, gulping more pasta. I don't know if you love pasta as
much as I do, and savoring more ice cream like dancing naked under a full moon, reading
poetry you were too busy to read or going to art galleries you promised you'd visit
someday when you said you had more time and less to do. I could go on like. Like
returning to your child at home, walking the streets you walked at as a kid with a pure
heart and unmarked history. Radiating good cheer, high hope and an innocence. I wish
we all enjoyed. Maura, I really want you to think as a thought exercise. What would you
do if you only had six months left live? And that will actually remind you of how you
wish to live. So that when you are on the last hour of your last day and you're surveying
how you've lived, you will say, I lived my life. In the short story of Leo Tolstoy called
The Death of Ivan Illich, the character got to the end of his life and asked himself a
fundamentally heartbreaking question what if my whole life was wrong? What if my
whole life was a lie? And too many good souls on the planet today are living someone
else's life. They're living societies like they're living their neighbors life. And a huge part
of being an everyday hero is being true to you, living your life and not only living your
life in terms of your values and doing the projects that make your heart sing, and
releasing beauty in the world and being being true to yourself. Telling people how you
truly feel. For example, part of being an everyday hero is also not postponing living Your
Majesty and your promise until sometime in the future. That never really comes. It's
really about getting in the game now and being the person we both know you can be
starting today.

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