Addictions come in many forms. Some people get addicted to working to earn money. Some get addicted to alcohol. Some…get addicted to zombies.
Zombies and the end of the world go hand in hand. For some reason, the popularity of the zombie apocalypse has been growing exponentially over the last decade. Unlike most trends, which die off as time goes on, the idea of decaying, flesh-eating monsters with brain-breath continues to captivate audiences around the world. Some blame it on the generally deteriorating state of hope across the face of humanity. Whatever the cause of our interest in the armies of the undead, or the ridiculousness of a zombie apocalypse to begin with, there is something we can learn by playing with the idea in our imagination.
Picture, if you can, the end of the world. Government world-wide has been crippled. Chaos rips through cities and once-peaceful country landscapes. Power goes out everywhere, eliminating our beloved Facebook and the YouTube machine. The number of humans is quickly overtaken by the number of murderous zombies until there is only one hero remaining. One last savior of the human race. You. Don’t get your hopes up, though. If the zombies munched on the other 7 billion people on the planet with no challenge, you’re not going to be much different. Imagine being the last person alive on the planet. Imagine knowing, despite how only a month ago you were working your happy job and living in candy land, that you were soon going to be the next tasty snack for that guy who lived down the street and always complained about how you didn’t cut your grass often enough.
Are you there? Have you placed yourself in that moment? Have you come to terms with your impending doom? Good, because this is the fun part…
Would you have lived your life any differently? If you knew about this newest and inevitable mass-extinction on our planet, how differently might you have lived? No, I’m not asking about your ability to dig a bunker and catch up on your favorite episodes of Doomsday Preppers. I want to know if you would have lived differently. Were the things you cared about important in the grand scheme? Did you love as deeply as you should have? Was the person you embodied the person you dreamed of being when you were younger?
We’re all as good as zombie food when the zombie apocalypse hits. When it comes, we’ll be forced to ask ourselves if we lived our lives as we should have. In our last moments we won’t care about the expensive things we bought or the latest episode of The Walking Dead. The jewelry choice of Kim Kardashian will finally be irrelevant to us. What will matter — what we will care about with our last thoughts — is the way we led our lives and the ways in which we impacted the lives of others.
I can’t say when the zombies will strike. But I can say that when everything about the world we know gets torn to shreds, I want to know that I cared about the important things. Simply put, I want to be ready, not just in preparation of fighting hordes of brain-eaters, but in preparation of the day I lose that fight.
– Dakota (and the LifeSuccess.com Team)
