The Obituary Exercise

Today, let's talk about what I call the obituary exercise. And by the way, I want you to know that I teach this and actually guide people through it at my $50,000 Destiny Creator intensive seminars and events—so it's like major technology.

The idea is this. Whatever age you're at, project yourself forward on one strand down the negative path, the way you are now, down the status quo—and on one strand down the path of discipline, the path of the resources, time, work, and effort that you know you need to invest to make things happen.

And write your obituary two different ways; write it as a failure, as a life of mediocrity, a life that you're continuing and that you're right now on the path of. Where will the eventual end of the path that you are living right now lead to?

Write another obituary that leads to the place where you are fulfilled, where you have lived a life that made a difference to others, where you have love in your life, where you have lived a life of economic freedom, and the trips, and the journeys and all the contributions you wanted to make.

I bet you'll see some amazing things that will help you make the right choices. I know that when I did it… you know what? I've already outlived my negative motivation date of death.

When I did it as the life of underachievement, the life of permanent potential, the life of always intending to but always having a job and not finding the time because I was tired when I got home from work, and it cost money to attend the seminar that I suspected would—and of course eventually did— turn things around for me…
I died at 57 in a godforsaken place, under public care, alone.

And when they wrote the obituary, it was basically two paragraphs because there wasn't much more to say than to identify who I was, and to identify that I had a son and a daughter—and I died alone, remember. And they identified that I had three language degrees, and that I'd always said I was going to be a great writer and I had a lot of potential.

On the other side, I died at 102, surrounded by over 80 people—my family, my kids, their husbands and wives, their kids and their kids' kids—in a private hospital in a place where it was like paradise.

And I had a string of 42 different books and works, and I had been speaking, and I had circled the globe. And I had an influence that had personally helped countless thousands, and the books had sold into the millions. And that influence had really revolutionized the world, through a positive benefit.

And folks, the difference between those two obituaries remains with me today.

The difference between those two obituaries—when you write your own story of the eventual outcome of your life, living the life of mediocrity or living the life that takes more, the life of achievement, the life of strenuous liberty versus the life of slavery and bondage with ease—will motivate you to do what you know you ought to do these present days.