Definition
Mortality is the simple, unavoidable fact that life is finite. Robert Greene treats it not as a morbid subject to be avoided but as a powerful instrument of perspective — a truth that, when consciously held, reorders priorities and intensifies engagement with life.
Most people, he observes, push awareness of mortality away. The cost of that avoidance is a kind of drift, in which time is treated as unlimited and therefore spent carelessly.
Why it matters
How it works
Greene draws on a long philosophical tradition — particularly Stoic thought — that recommends keeping mortality in view rather than denying it. The practice is to periodically remember that time is finite and to ask whether one's current use of it reflects that fact.
Held this way, mortality becomes a guide. It encourages a person to pursue meaningful work, repair what matters, and stop postponing a real life to some imagined later date. Rather than producing despair, an honest relationship with mortality tends to produce focus, gratitude, and a stronger sense of purpose.