Write Your Eulogy

How would you like to be remembered when you die? It may sound like an odd question, but it’s a really useful way of helping you decide on your future goals and aspirations. And it somehow seems fitting at the beginning of your quest for a better career to be thinking about it from the very end!

Make sure that you have at least half an hour free from distraction – this exercise requires some serious thinking.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to doing it:

1. Take a clean sheet of paper and write at the top of the page ‘My Eulogy: How I Would Like To Be Remembered’.
2. Then write a detailed description of how you would like a close friend to describe you at your own funeral. Look back on the outputs of the previous two exercises for ideas.
3. Think about your personal and family life. Think about your work. But don’t forget about your social life and any artistic aspirations that you might have too.
4. Don’t limit yourself to what you have done so far. Think about the future too. Write about what you would like to achieve with the rest of your life.

Critique your eulogy

Once you’ve drafted your eulogy, take a break. Go do something else for a day or two. Then, discuss it with friends and family. Ask them what they think. Do you and they think that it suits your interests and talents?

Next, come back to make changes to it until you are satisfied with it. Most people find that it takes at least a couple of hours of serious thought – perhaps over the course of several weeks – to write a thorough eulogy.

The following is a list of groups of related adjectives that you can look at. The list is by no
means comprehensive so feel free to add your own. On your second reading of your eulogy, which words might you want to add to it?

• Enterprising, autonomous, independent
• Artistic, creative, free
• Social, informing, knowledgeable
• Conventional, steady, realistic, disciplined, structured
• Persuasive, influential, trusted, leading, assertive
• Scientific, investigative, expert

When you’ve written your eulogy, read it through and think about the following questions:

• What are my goals in life?
• What are my goals in my work?

Write a newspaper article

If you don’t like the idea of writing a eulogy, you could pretend that you are writing a magazine article celebrating your 75th birthday! Looking back on your life and career, what would the article say? And then think about these questions:

• What publication would you choose? And why?
• What sort of person are you aiming the article at?
• What key achievements does the article talk about?