Episode 1094: Writing Your Own Obituary

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1094 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Gina Johnson: I'm Gina Johnson from synergy mindset coaching. I encourage you to find your own journey from surviving to thriving. And one way to be inspired to do that is by listening to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:22] Scott Maderer: And believe it or not. I think that's often the area that most people get bogged down in because they jump to the how, before they've thought about the, what. They end up getting stuck on figuring out what to do next. What's the most important next action. But if they would step back and think about what impact they want to leave, then all of a sudden that next action becomes a little more obvious.

[00:00:46] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures. [00:01:00] For your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:13] In today's episode about impacting the world through stewarding your talent. I talk with you about why many coaches asked a question about writing your own obituary. I share what I ask instead and why. And I also share why thinking about this is so important. You've heard me talk about developing your talent.

[00:01:33] And one of the best ways to do that is through books. But if you're like most people today, it's hard to find the time to read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible. Go to inspired stewardship.com/audible to sign up and you can get a 30 day free trial. There's over 180,000 titles to choose from.

[00:01:57] And you can pick one and listen your way [00:02:00] to developing your talents via audible. That's inspired stewardship.com/audible to get your free trial and listen to great books the same way you're listening to this podcast. One of the most common coaching exercises that people have someone do. You can find this in books, you can find it.

[00:02:20] If you've ever worked with a coach on setting your life goals, if you've ever done any work on finding your calling or finding what your purpose is in life, you've probably been given in the exercise of writing your own obituary. Of sitting down and actually trying to feel the emotion of being present at your own funeral and hearing someone step up to the microphone and tell your life story, talk about the impact that you've left behind the legacy that you've left.

[00:02:53] And don't get me wrong. I think this is a powerful exercise and I think it's a very good exercise. In [00:03:00] many ways. I've made a small tweak to it myself. I tend to ask people and if you've listened to the podcast and you've heard me interview folks, you've heard me ask people the question about what happens if I invented a magic machine and I pluck you from the chair where you set today and move you into the future a hundred to 150 years.

[00:03:19] And through the magic of this machine, you were able to look. Back on your entire life and see the connections, the ripples, the relationships, the changes, the impacts that you've left. What impact do you hope you've left on the world? This is a version of that obituary question. This is about asking you to think about what do you want to leave behind when you are gone?

[00:03:42] Ask it this way, because I think it's a slightly more positive way of getting to the exact same emotion. And it focuses on not just death, but life, it focuses you on what are you going to be doing that [00:04:00] builds those relationships? What are you going to be doing that builds those connections? What are you going to be doing that leaves that impact?

[00:04:07] Because I think it's important to focus on doing and being, to make that impact. So I try to ask it in a way that's more forward focused rather than backwards focused. It's more focused on life than death. I don't have any idea if this is a better or worse way of asking it, it's a way that feels more authentic to how I coach and how I work with people.

[00:04:34] So that's why I choose to do it that way. And I think thinking about this is important because at the end of the day, it's truly the only way you can intentionally design your life to leave the impact that you actually feel called to leave in a way it gets you out of how having to worry about the how, and lets you just focus on the what and the why.[00:05:00]

[00:05:00] It lets you focus on what is the thing that I feel that I'm being called to do? What is the message that I feel that I'm being called to give, how am I supposed to be living this out? And it doesn't get you focused on the how part until after you've thought about the why part and more often than not, we get bogged down to try to figure out what we should do.

[00:05:23] Next, but we don't think about why we should do it. And the why is often the more powerful piece, because when you focus on what impact you wanna leave, then you begin to intentionally design your life to leave that impact. And for me, that is moving you in the direction of your calling that is moving you in the direction of your purpose, that is moving you towards what you're supposed to be doing.

[00:05:52] More than it is worrying about how you're supposed to be doing it instead. It's focused first on what's the impact I wanna leave [00:06:00] behind. And believe it or not. I think that's often the area that most people get bogged down in because they jump to the how, before they've thought about the, what they end up getting stuck on, figuring out what to do next.

[00:06:13] What's the most important next action. But if they would step back and think about what impact they want to leave, then all of a sudden that next becomes a little more obvious. Now don't get me wrong. It's still not easy to actually do the work. There's still a lot of work to doing it, but it simplifies the problem.

[00:06:33] So you're focused on the right thing, just like yesterday. When we talked about productivity as a doing the right thing, this is about helping you understand what is the legacy. See you wanna leave. So that you can begin to eliminate things that aren't in alignment and you can focus in on those things that are in alignment.

[00:06:54] And then you're moving towards being more protective because that at the end of the day [00:07:00] is what lets us leave an impact on the world. That's truly the impact we want to leave. Not just the impact that we leave by accident. It allows us to have intentionality in our life. Thanks for listening.

[00:07:16] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of talent, you can go over to inspired stewardship.com/talent and sign up for our five week series on the stewardship of talent.

[00:07:47] Or if you're in the us, you can text 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 talent tips. That's talent tips to 4 4 2, 2, 2, and get those tips [00:08:00] until next time. Invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.