What the Buzzword "The Last Summer of Heisei" Teaches Us About Finding What You Truly Should Do

This year, mainly in social media hashtags, the disappointing keyword "the last summer of Heisei" popped up in huge numbers.

Why do I call it disappointing? Because the photos and videos tagged "the last summer of Heisei" had no sense of being the last of Heisei at all.

Going to the beach, having a BBQ, and fireworks festivals won't be discontinued just because Heisei ends, right?

It's easy to imagine a hashtag like "the first summer of ○○" (○○ = the new era name) appearing next year.

And the way "last summer of Heisei" people spend their summers probably won't change much next year or after.

That said, I too uploaded a photo to Instagram with a hashtag that was a play on "the last summer of Heisei."

"The last Yasukuni visit of Heisei." Partly because my grandfather died in the war, I visit Yasukuni Shrine every August 15 and send a bottle of sake to my family home.

That I can live like this now is thanks to the heroic spirits who gave their lives for the homeland in the mid-Showa era.

Even though it was the last Yasukuni visit of Heisei, I didn't make a special visit, so in that sense I'm no different from the "last summer of Heisei" people.

However, facing the fact that we are about to see the second change of era name since Showa—the era that saw the end of the Greater East Asia War, one of the biggest events in history—(which means the world is going to change again), I felt a strong sense of resolve.

That was a long preamble, but the word "last" is very effective for bracing yourself.

How about listing what you're putting off right now, what you should do, and what you want to do, and then putting "because my life will soon be over" in front of each one and thinking it over?

They will split into ones that fill you with energy and ones that don't click, so cross out the ones that don't click.

For the ones that fill you with energy, it's good to flesh out the images and stories even more concretely.

As a result, what you truly should do and truly want to do will surely come into sharper focus.

By the way, I did this exercise in 2017 and decided to start my own business. I was 39 (the last year of my thirties).

Please give it a try if you like.