The power of now (and death)

In Fight Club there’s a scene that made a big impact on me when I first saw it as a teenager. I still think about it today.

In the scene, Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, pulls a young convenience store clerk out into a dark alley, pushes him to his knees and holds a gun to his head.

Tyler grabs the man’s wallet and finds his driver’s license. The man’s name is Raymond. Immediately, Tyler gets serious.

“Raymond, you’re going to die.”

The man whimpers, shaking on his knees while holding his hands in the air.

Tyler flips through the rest of the wallet. Pics of Raymond’s mum and dad….other cards. He notices one in particular.

“An expired community college ID,” Tyler says. “What did you study Raymond?”

Raymond, scared out of his mind, struggles but eventually gets it out: “Biology.”

“Why? What did you want to be, Raymond K Hessel?”

After some heavy breathing, panicked and stuttering, Raymond answers “Veterinarian”

Tyler softens a little.

“That means you need to get more schooling.”

“Too much school,” Raymond responds. 

“Would you rather be dead? Would you rather die? Here? On your knees at the back of a convenience store?”

“No.”

There is a pause. Tyler considers what to do next, and then we realize that he’s known how this was going to play out. He let’s Raymond go, but not before he gives him a final warning.

“I’m keeping your license….if you’re not on your way to becoming a veterinarian in six weeks, you’ll be dead.”

And then Raymond scurries off into the night. Tyler turns to Edward Norton’s character and says something I’ve never forgotten:

“Tomorrow will be the most beautiful day of Raymond K. Hessel’s life. His breakfast will taste better than any meal you or I have ever tasted.”

It’s an intense scene. A little unhinged. But it struck me like a bolt of lightning.

At the time, I was fresh out of high-school, full of ambition, and convinced I had just stared down my own version of that alleyway. I walked out of the theatre fired up, no bullets needed. I wasn’t trying to be a vet, but I was going to be a writer. That was my Raymond moment.

And then…

Life happened.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want it. It’s just that I didn’t believe I might actually die tomorrow.

Mortality sharpens the mind

That’s the power of the scene. It only works because Raymond truly believed his life was about to end. When death feels real, we move. We act. We let go of excuses.

But in our day-to-day lives, death feels far away. Something for “later.” Something for 40, 50 or 60 years from now.

So we stall. We wait. We tell ourselves we’ll start that thing… soon.

The Stoics understood the power of death.

In fact, Marcus Aurelius wrote:

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

It’s worth noting that Marcus was the emperor of Rome at the time. The most powerful man in the world. And he still needed to remind himself of this. Not for Instagram. Not for a LinkedIn post. Just in his journal. For himself.

Marcus knew something important. He knew that clarity comes when we face our own impermanence.

So what does this mean for us working professionals?

It means we stop waiting for the perfect moment.
It means we choose action over avoidance.
It means we say the thing, try the idea, take the leap, or write the page.

Would we really spend our last day scrolling or watching reality TV? Or would we start the conversation we've been putting off, perhaps take a step toward something that lights us up?

The truth is: we don’t need a gun to our heads to make a move. We just need the presence of mind to remember that we’re not guaranteed later. And that’s not meant to be heavy - it’s actually intended to be freeing.

So how do we actually live like we could leave life right now, without abandoning our jobs, families, and deadlines? One way is to start the day with a presence practice. This is just 90 seconds before we grab our phone, before the inbox, before the rush. Maybe we sit with our coffee and ask, If today were my last, what would really matter? Or we jot down one sentence about what we want to feel proud of by the end of the day. These tiny rituals help shift us from reactive mode to intentional mode. And that’s where meaning starts to build.

Another tool is to set a 10-minute timer and do the thing we’ve been avoiding. Whether it’s opening the page, sending the message, or getting outside for a walk. Time scarcity is real, especially for business minds juggling deadlines. But momentum can be magic and ten minutes is small enough for us to get started…. and almost always leads to more.

Even if it doesn’t, we’ve still shown up, and that’s powerful.

Resilience at work is about choosing to show up with purpose, even when it would be easier to coast. It’s asking hard questions, speaking up, trying something bold, or finally starting that project. Because we're not waiting for perfect timing. We're choosing now.

Until next time friends, stay resilient. And please don’t wait.

Carre @ Resilient Minds

P.S. I’ve just launched a FREE Resilience Scorecard to measure our resilience at work. If you’re interested in seeing how resilient you are, please check it out here. And, of course, feel free to send me any feedback about the scorecard by replying to this email.