You’re Closer to Losing Everything Than You Think

How close are you to losing everything?

Closer than you think.

That’s not meant to scare you…
but it might wake you up.

This last weekend I attended a men’s event themed Memento Mori —
remember you will die.

And one exercise forced me to confront a question I didn’t expect:

If the next five years went completely wrong… what would hell actually look like?

⚡️ F5 Fast Files - Short Summary

📣 Shoutout to Hayden and Justin for putting on an amazing weekend. The work at ‘Dads Need Friends’ has been so impactful for tons of guys! Grateful to have high quality people like them part of our brotherhood.

📝 Future Authoring

One exercise from the retreat was called ‘Future Authoring’ (Awesome phrase)

The prompt was simple:

“Over the next 5 years, what would hell look like?
What would heaven look like?”

And honestly?

It was surprisingly easy for me to write about hell.

In this season of life where I’m pushing hard, building a house, raising young kids, working, trying to grow businesses and F5, it’s not hard to catastrophize.

I could lose the house.
I could lose my job.
I could lose my health.
I could lose my family.
I could enter a crisis of faith.

That door feels closer than I’d like to admit! Anybody else feel that way?

🚪 The Door to Hell

I heard a lot of the guys describe the feeling…

Living a good life,
but knowing the door to hell is wide open and only a few steps away.

That’s why it’s so easy to imagine.

We can practically see it.

Have you seen the channels with interviews of homeless people? Many of them described living normal lives like yours and mine not long before everything changed.

One injury.
One bad choice.
One addiction.
One broken relationship.
One unexpected wrench in the plan.

And suddenly life looked completely different.

They’re not so different from you and me.

Sometimes we’re only separated by one life-changing moment.

🌎 Life Is Fragile

Is that really all it takes?

One moment?

Yes.

Life is delicate.

There are a MILLION ways things could go wrong on this rock spinning through space.

But then this thought hit me:

The list of things I could lose is long because the list of things I currently have is long.

Think about that for a minute.

I’m afraid of losing my house because I have one.
I’m afraid of losing my job because I have income.
I’m afraid of losing my health because I have strength.
I’m afraid of losing my family because I have people I love.
I’m afraid of losing faith because I have known God.

That realization changes the exercise.

🕯️ Memento Mori. Memento Vivere.

This is the beauty of the phrase:

Memento Mori
Remember death.

But there is a counterpart:

Memento Vivere
Remember life.

Remember that you must die.
And because of that…

Remember that you must live.

The awareness of death is not meant to make us gloomy.

It’s meant to wake us up.

🏡 What If This Is Already Heaven?

I described hell as losing the things I love.

But if I already have those things…

does that mean I’m already standing in some version of heaven?

Maybe heaven on earth isn’t always something we arrive at later.

Maybe sometimes it’s something we finally become present enough to notice.

Gratitude can take you there.

🔥 Heaven Over the Next 5 Years

Now, of course, there are ways I want the next five years to become even more heavenly.

A stronger marriage.
A joyful home.
A healthier body.
More financial freedom.
Deeper faith.
More brotherhood.
More fun.

That’s part of why F5 exists. To become something beyond today’s reality.

But in pursuit of that future, we cannot abandon the life right in front of us.

You can’t live your life in the future.

You only get to live the one happening right now.

🎯 The Reminder

So yes — build the vision.

Write the goals.

Pursue heaven across your Faith, Family, Fitness, Finance, and Fun.

But remember:

Memento Mori.
You must die.

And just as importantly:

Memento Vivere.
You must live.

Come back. Be present.

You may realize you’re already standing in more heaven than you thought.

Justin

F5 Brotherhood

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