The Jesuits set up systems to review their activity about every three months, then an annual review, etc.…  In my experience, this serves as an amazing technique to maintain the lifestyle you wish to achieve.  That being said it can be quite confusing as to why and how to review your life.  I on a regular basis (about every three months) do what is often called the epitaph test. About every three months, I take a moment to think what my tombstone will say. I know this is hard for some of you, but please just follow me here.

The Epitaph Test

Write on a piece of paper your date of birth a hyphen and a question mark. It should look something like this “1970 – ?”  Now write 5-7 words underneath of the date.  Some people even find it to be more beneficial to draw a picture of a tombstone.  I know for many people this morbid, but I instead take death out of the equation in my mind.  The purpose of the exercise is not to focus on death or the end, but simply on what would be on my tombstone.  I’m actually proud of what is written there.  I celebrate my life not mourn it, so when I do die, I want everyone who comes to visit my final resting place to party and dance as I did.  I am grateful for the opportunity I had to create such an amazing environment.  I am motivated to continue to work towards
the five words I have chosen.  Sometimes I even put them on my mirror.  I am so happy that I had those years to help create such a wonderful environment for my friends and family.  I have shared my life with the people who show up to the party, what an amazing experience I have had.

How would you feel if you were to read your epitaph and it said here “lies … The was a great person.” Or would you prefer here “lies…They lived, they died, they laughed, they cried, well miss you…”  I prefer something along the lines “Here Lies  – J –   he came, he saw, he changed the world…”  The bigger, the more audacious your tombstone intention, and the more emotionally integrated it is, the more empowered you should feel to achieve it.  Simply attach it to your identity, your personal brand, and put out there what it is that you want people to think about you.

What is a Eulogy?

Fist what is a Eulogy?  It’s a story or group of stories about someone who passed. It tells their legacy, what their focus was and it’s intended to memorialize the most valued parts of a person’s life.   Some funerals will have several people come up to speak about the person who has passed. They take turns, some smile and laugh and make jokes, some roast the dead, and others just cry and experience sadness over the loss of the person who has passed?

New to me the eulogy test:

Today I was listening to one of my favorite podcast. It was Ryan Moran and the freedom fast lane, and today he was interviewing Jeff Hoffman.  He is an incredibly generous billionaire who shares his knowledge to allow people who have not yet reached their goals to thrive and reach goals much bigger than they originally intended.  He had a story where he realized it wasn’t about the Eulogy test, which is what would someone say at a Eulogy if I died today.  Instead, he turned it around to be what my target Eulogy is.  In simplest of terms much like the epitaph, I want on my tombstone exercise, he takes it a step further to be what do I want my Eulogy to sound like. 

I was mind blown, to say the least, I realized there are so many opportunities to completely change the way I and others review how they look at and direct their own lives with such a simple technique. It’s brilliant.  What you can do is write your own eulogy if you died today. Now write a second eulogy of how you want it to look when you die.  Then simply figure out what steps you would need to take to get form your current eulogy to where you want your final eulogy to end up.  What is it you want to be? Who are you going to become? What do you want people to think about you when you’re not around?

Using the feedback from these techniques…

Many people will do these test as well as journaling, the wheel of life, etc. and think wow that’s just amazing information.  That’s it. They do nothing to use the information to change their position.  Please use these tools to help define your purpose, your intention, and direction to improve your life. Always keep mindful that these will help extend into your legacy. Focusing on gratitude for everything you were able to experience.  It is often said that the most unused opportunities, ideas, and brilliant ideas die and lie in the graveyard. So many
people just live in fear of failure and rejection, to excuse themselves of not fulfilling the potential they want to experience from their tombstone or epitaph when they die. Do you want to be one of those unfulfilled statistics? You must own your own story.

Straight up, It’s really hard to remember to examine your life every three months.  The Jesuits made it a part of their lifestyle, as have many successful people I have studied.  It can be a difficult event because in my experience it just doesn’t feel natural to look at what I have done, and what I am doing, it’s almost impossible to critique myself sometimes.  However, the Eulogy test makes it much less critical.  The examination is much more objective and gave guidance for your goal. I personally want to be known as a philanthropist who influenced millions of lives to help them become more positive and full and exciting.