How do I know if I'm too caught up in the world?

I feel like the vines, the cares that choke you out, they're like alive. They're like in the cartoons, where the plant comes alive and it attacks the person and starts to choke them. That's how I think about this. The cares of life are like tentacles from this world, and they're constantly trying to choke me out. They're constantly saying, pay more attention to this or that thing, read the news more, be more concerned about what's happening in this or that area, be more concerned about your job, or about finances, or about this or that aspect. I feel like they wrap around my throat and I start to choke, and I'm like, what is wrong? And I'm like, oh, my faith is not strong enough right now, I'm getting choked out. I feel like I'm constantly having to cut back the bushes of this world, these tentacles that are always trying to kill me. And I just pray that we would all take this message to heart and really think about this gospel and spend some time in introspection, and really try to discern and see, where am I at in my life, and what am I doing? Am I producing good? Am I living in patient endurance? Am I loving and blessing the people around me? Am I generous, or is my mind and my whole life being overtaken by worldly concerns? Concerns that I promise you will not matter when you are laying on your deathbed. If the things that are overwhelming or the complete focus of your life, the number one thing, if you say, I am totally busted up about my children or the life that they live, I can guarantee you, if you are on your deathbed you will still be praying for them. That is something worthy to be thinking and praying about. But if you're like, I am busted up about my stock account or my retirement or whatever, I guarantee you, when you are laying on your deathbed you will not be thinking about money anymore. You will not be thinking about health. You will not be thinking about your job. You will not be thinking about politics. I promise you, you will not be thinking about sports teams. You will not be thinking about hobbies. None of that stuff will matter. And that is the ultimate criterion. If I got diagnosed tomorrow with stage four cancer and they gave me four weeks to live, are the things that I am worried or consumed with today going to matter in four weeks' time when I'm dead? If they won't matter in four weeks if you were to die, they should not matter today. That is the criterion. We live not for this life, we live for the next life. As Saint John Chrysostom said, the Christian trades this life for the next life.