Seriously, actually sitting down and writing your own eulogy can be a marvelous exercise in goal-setting. Make it long and detailed.
Your eulogy can become your script, telling who you were, what you did, how well you were liked.
If you are like most people, you will first list your accomplishments, successes, and positions in organizations. Then you will revise your eulogy, realizing that what you want to be most remembered for is not how many initials you had after your name or how many employees were beneath you on the organization chart.
Rather, you will probably want your life story to be about your character:
What useful things did you do?
How good a friend were you?
What kind of partner, spouse or parent were you?
How well did you behave in crises?
Personally, I want my eulogy to be more about other people than me. How helpful I was. How giving I was. What I did for other people. That I was a good husband, a good father, a good son, and a good friend.
I want it to say that my success was more a function of how much I helped other people than how I helped myself — that my success was simply the good karma I sent out.
Of course, there is only one real way to have the sort of eulogy you want — and that is to start living the way you would like to be remembered.
By taking a few minutes to write your eulogy today, at least you will have a life plan — a road map — to help you achieve those goals.
Photo: Courtesy of evolllution.com
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Dr. Tony Alessandra is a behavioral and communication expert, and author of 17 books including The Platinum Rule, Collaborative Selling and The Art of Managing People. Today he is a leading business motivational speaker on communication, customer loyalty and sales.
