Last weekend I went to the Bone Church in Kutná Hora. A little town about 50 minutes outside of Prague.
Now, if you’ve never been, picture this.
You walk in, and there are chandeliers made of skulls.
Walls lined with bones.
Stacks of femurs like someone’s been playing architectural Jenga with the dead.
Don’t get me wrong, we have enough skulls at the Den, but this has given me a whole fresh batch of ideas.
I’m not going to lie, it was probably the only church I’ve been in and felt at home, and didn’t start to sizzle and smoke.
Now, you’re not allowed to take pictures whilst you’re in there, and I get it because you know people are dicks and would be taking selfies with Skulls and not really give the place the respect it needs. The pictures on here were lifted from the web.
However, it’s one of those places where you don’t quite know how to feel.
Part of you is fascinated. I know I was….a lot.
Part of you is thinking, “bloody hell…”
And part of you is just trying to take it all in.
But here’s the thing.
You don’t walk out of there thinking about death.
You walk out thinking about time.
The Bit That Hits You
Every single person whose bones are in that place once had a life.
They had:
- plans
- goals
- things they wanted to do
- things they said they’d get around to
Ok, it was a few hundred years ago, but let’s just say they probably said things like:
- “I’ll start Monday.”
- “I’ll get fitter when things like this plague calm down.”
- “I’ll sort myself out next year.”
Sound familiar?
And then, at some point…
Time ran out. The plague actually took them.
That’s the bit that hits really, I mean, we have had COVID and that took a lot of people sooner than they were expecting.
We All Live Like There’s Plenty Left
Most people don’t think like that day to day.
We live like:
- We’ve got loads of time
- We can put things off.
- We’ll deal with our health later
After work calms down.
After the kids get older.
After Christmas.
After summer.
After this busy period.
There’s always an “after”.
But here’s the reality.
There is no perfect time coming.
There’s just time passing.
Every single week, I can see.
People waiting.
Waiting to feel ready.
Waiting for motivation.
Waiting for the “right time”.
Or starting… then stopping.
Starting again.
Then stopping again.
All while thinking they’ve got time to mess about.
Meanwhile, quietly, in the background:
- Joints get a bit stiffer
- muscle mass drops a little
- energy dips
- confidence fades
Not overnight.
Not dramatically.
Just slowly.
That’s how it happens.
It slowly catches up with you until you are either bones or ash.
This Isn’t About Death — It’s About Waking Up
There’s a phrase — memento mori.
It basically means: remember you’re going to die.
Sounds a bit dark and depressing.
But it’s not meant to be depressing.
It’s meant to wake you the fuck up.
Not in a:
- “panic and change everything overnight” way
But in a:
- “Stop wasting time on nonsense.” way
Because the truth is, most people don’t need a new plan.
They need to stop delaying the one they’ve already got.
Time to Call Out the Usual Bullshit
This is where it usually goes wrong.
People think they need:
- the perfect programme
- the perfect diet
- a detox
- a reset
- a challenge
- a new supplement
They jump from thing to thing.
All or nothing.
On it for 10 days.
Off it for 3 weeks.
Repeat.
Or they wait for motivation, like it’s going to knock on the door one morning and say:
“Right, today’s the day.”
It’s not coming.
You don’t need a 75 Hard challenge.
You don’t need to suffer your way into shape.
You just need to stop quitting every time it gets a bit inconvenient.
The Bit That Actually Matters
Here’s the good news.
You don’t need to overhaul your life.
You don’t need to be perfect.
You don’t need to go from zero to athlete in six weeks.
You just need to start… and keep going.
- Move a bit more
- Train a few times a week
- Eat reasonably well most of the time
- Sleep better
- Repeat
Not for 10 days.
Not for January.
For years.
Because the goal isn’t to smash yourself for a short period.
The goal is to still be showing up 10 years from now and making sure your future self is in a better place to be able to deal with things than you were at the start.
Perspective Changes Things
The Bone Church isn’t about death.
It’s about perspective.
It reminds you that:
- Time isn’t unlimited
- Later isn’t guaranteed
- and putting things off has a cost
Not an instant cost.
A slow one.
The kind you don’t notice until it’s crept up on you.
Final Thought
One day, your body will be bones or ash, depending on which way you want to go.
Not in a creepy way — just in a factual, unavoidable way.
What do you do before then?
That’s up to you.
You can wait.
You can delay.
You can keep saying, “I’ll start Monday.”
Or you can start now.
Nothing extreme.
Nothing dramatic.
Just start… and don’t stop.
