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Visualize Your Funeral To Create The Life You Want: A Reflective Exercise
Confronting your mortality is one of the most critical things you can do to find your true priorities in your life. Why do you live? Why do you get up in the morning?
In this article, I provide you a powerful exercise in imagination: You will reflect on your own death.
Below you will find the exercise. You will reflect on your ideal obituary and the life you want to live.
I was in my early 40s, buried under the façade of academic success — a stable job, a lovely house, decent income, a supportive spouse, and wonderful friends. Outward, everything was perfect.
Inward, however, I was drowning in a sea of dissatisfaction and disconnection, genuinely living a life of quiet despair. My research felt draining, my days were stressful, and my self-esteem had hit rock bottom.
I realized I had metaphorically died inside, and that’s when the idea struck me: What if I imagined I was actually dead? How would I want to be remembered?
Writing my own obituary tremendously helped me. It opened me to a fresh world of deep reflection: Why does my life matter?
Based on this experience, I have created the following reflective exercise for you.