Writing Your Eulogy

Today I want to share with you a powerful yet somewhat bizarre exercise some of my clients have enjoyed and one which I find helpful myself when I lose track of the big picture, somewhere between a traffic jam, a bad hair day, a disgruntled customer and too many grey afternoons in a row.

The idea is to sit down and write your eulogy, as you would like it to be read, should you die today.

Are you cheered up yet?

No, really.

Listen:

How would you like your family, friends, clients, staff, community and the world in general to remember you?

What qualities would you like them to list?

What achievements?

Would you like to be remembered as “Jo with the positive cash flow kitchen” or “ Mike who really knew how to make people feel at ease”? Would you like to hear “Oh, and he always wanted to travel to the North Pole and never got / created the chance” or “She managed to follow her dream and build an artist co-operative”?

This is YOUR eulogy so no censoring. Go for it.

And then I suggest you let it sit for a few days. It is likely new ideas will pop in your mind as you least expect them. Write them down; add them to your list.

A few days later, when you have some quiet time ahead of you, make yourself comfortable (a cup of good hot chocolate often does wonder for my insight) and get out your list. Some of the things you wrote down may not seem all that important anymore while others will stick out as quasi non negotiable. Then make a second list of three or four of those latter ones. Finally, it is time to get to work: what – if anything - is getting in your way? And more importantly: what will it take to get you there? Who and what do you need? What can you do today to get closer?

Often, it is only a matter of focus; of taking the time to remember what we want and most importantly what we don’t want. Then the “doing” part can be much easier. Also, sharing your list and plan with a friend or colleague and doing the same for him / her could be a fun and efficacious way to build accountability. You could also hire a life coach to help you with it (hey, I know a good one).

You see, no one is going to make that list for us and no one is going to walk us trough it. And really, no one really cares that much whether we do or not. And this is good. Because it means that no one but us has the power to veto it. Hmmm……

I invite you to play with this, to really play. Go ahead, be a little goofy, think outside of the box and see what comes up.

After all no one wants to sit through another boring eulogy!