Your Eulogy...or your life?
Everyone has written a resume, but if you were asked to write your own eulogy, what would it say?
Would you rather live your resume or your eulogy?
I did this exercise for a seminar I attended awhile back: I wrote my own eulogy, describing in detail the things I'd want to be remembered for.
And interestingly enough, it looked completely different from my resume....
On their death bed, no one ever says, "I wish I'd spent more time at work." Yet while we are alive, we measure our success by our working life - whatever you consider your work be it traditional job, entrepreneur, caretaker or parent - and often we lament not working hard enough or long enough. When we haven't yet achieved the status or success we seem to want so desperately, we take it as proof positive of our low worth to the world.
We may not say this out loud, or in those words, but we feel it. Most of the women I meet in hot yoga feel this pretty powerfully: never enough. We compare our lives, measure the distance to our goals, resolve to try harder to lose weight, gain control of our To Do List, spend more time with our kids.
In the end, was all that keeping up and holding it together really worth it?
Looking backwards from the other side, success can look quite different.
What if you wrote your own eulogy right now? Here is how I would like mine to read:
Rhonda was a person who loved to inspire others. She saw things differently than most and wanted nothing more than to open people's eyes and hearts to the joy of living while they were alive, to get the most out of their lives, whether that was financial abundance or family happiness. She lived without judgement of others and felt that all desires were equally valid. Her greatest happiness was to facilitate breakthroughs for others. She did so - for many thousands of her yoga students, through many years of teaching yoga at her signature yoga studios known for their hot yoga and warm community, her yoga Renewals all over the world. She was a keynote speaker on the subject of happiness for many events and conferences. She often said that the happiness of others fueled her tireless energy to continue well into her nineties, spreading her special brand of joy. For herself, she took particular joy the success of her two well-known children, her many grandchildren, and the person she called her Twin Flame partner who matched her own fire for facilitating happiness. Rhonda's many books on the subject of happiness - starting with her NY TIMES bestseller, The Blissful Warrior: Living the Paradox of Peace and Passion for Today's Empowered Woman, onto First, You Inhale - and continuing on through her last book - Last Breath Joyful - which all continue to break all bestseller records and thus we can be assured that her message of joy and how to get there easily will continue forever.
Many people are well advised to write a Living Will; perhaps its time for a Living Eulogy before it comes down to a matter of life or death.
There's no time like now to start living everything you want to be remembered for.
Rhonda Uretzky, E-RYT
Reader Comments (7)
Rhonda, I'd say your are well on your way to living out your eulogy. Keep inspiring and telling us that there really is no place to "set the bar". I heard elsewhere this week about the irony that you will never find a line from a hard-worked resume in someone's eulogy. Looks like an exercise I should do.
Thanks, Laura. I find it really inspiring to update your Eulogy every now and again...to realign and edit as you go. So - where's yours? Willing to share?
Dear Rhonda… What an unexpected challenge for me – to try to write my own eulogy… This task require other standpoint, unusual for everyday life. I’d better do it without any preparation, taking an imaginary position on the end of my life. And I’m very inspired by your eulogy, thank you very much… So…
"Liya was not afraid of change. She was waiting for them, called them, seized on them. By her courage she inspired people who knew her. For each year of her life she as if lived three years. Looking at her life we began to believe: nothing is impossible, we have access to any desires and goals, we just have to allow yourself to achieve them. Whatever she tought – journalism, copywriting, yoga or something else – Liya taught us to affranchise our own creativity and free will. Yoga for Liya was one of the most powerful tools for a magical transformation of the human body and soul. And she taught with amazing enthusiasm which encouraged her learners to build better themselves and better life. There were no trifles and unimportant details in her mix of Hatha and Kundalini yoga, breathing practices and energy exercises, a healthy diet and detox. She was a pedant, but in the best sense of this word. She never neglected technique of asanas, did not deviate from the schedule of her courses, seminars and retreats, never disregarded the accepted rules of the game and taught her students to do the same. She has gone to a new world. No doubt, there she will continue to enthrall someone for a further, higher, into even more uncharted given. But she left us with her articles, books and memories, like an inspiring lighthouses..."
Liya, this is fantastic! I recommend you print it out for yourself and post is someplace where you can read it daily - your bathroom mirror perhaps or nightstand or in a journal you carry. It is a lovely reminder that your life can and will be all that you want, now that you are clear about what you want!
Rhonda, thank you, yes, this is a great idea - to print it out and inspire myself daily! It might be the best affirmation... This challenge was very empowering experience...
So true, in the grand scheme of things, your resume means nothing. It is just a listing of things that you can do, it says nothing about you as a person. In today's society so much emphasis is put on this silly piece of information and for what. Just so that you can get that great job? In the end does that great job really mean anything? If you can't enjoy your life and the people who are in it, it really isn't worth it. Write the life you want to live and then live it
Ah, but your resume CAN be powerful, Gabby - if you think of it as the story of career you WANT to live and not a summary of your "accomplishments" that gets you to the next JOB (JOB - Just Over Broke)
So about that silly job - the one that has you so bugged - I am challenging you to write your RESUME from the view of looking back at your working life when you are at the end of it - and writing it the way you want it to be, starting now.