This week, I’m talking about leaving your legacy. It’s not just about helping pay for your grandkids college, leaving your IRA and the coveted beach house to your kids. Legacy goes so much deeper than that, so this week I’m sharing with you creative and meaningful ways you can leave your legacy, most of which have absolutely nothing to do with the money you leave behind. 

Today, I’m talking about writing your obituary. Sounds morbid, right? I actually did this myself and it was a fun and enlightening exercise. For starters, you get to choose how and when you die. I chose a very uneventful dying in my sleep well into my 90s. So I didn’t have to deal with grief, I also decided that I would die first. 

But writing your own obituary forces you to think about your life from the point of view of those closest to you. What would they say? What would they remember? What would they point in in the obituary that was unique to you. What would you want them to say. What things would you want to be included in your obituary that you haven’t yet accomplished. 

Writing your own obituary helps you to think about your life from the end of your life looking back, which is powerful in putting the right things into perspective. In writing my own obituary, I discovered that I wanted to be known by others as someone who was always laughing and making others laugh with a wise crack or a joke, having uncompromised integrity, being a great listener (which is something I’m still working on), and that my whole life was ordered to the love and service of God. I also don’t retire until I’m 75, which surprised me a bit, and I discovered that I’d really like to spend my later working years writing and speaking as much as possible. And of course, in lieu of flowers, you can make a donation to my charitable foundation, which does not yet exist. 

I found this exercise to be meaningful, fun, and help shine a light on what’s truly important in life. It takes all of about 10 minutes of reflection, and 20 minutes of writing, with the goal that it’s this free-flowing exercise that you don’t overthink. So I hope you’ll carve out 30 minutes this week to write your own obituary.

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip.

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