In this post, author and Modern Elder Academy founder Chip Conley shares a practice of life review: sitting down to write your obituary to date. Then you ask a variety of questions, listed in the post, to help you think about how to fill out your obituary so that you are content with its fullness.

This reminds me of an exercise I used to do with health coaching clients. We walked through a series of questions based on their life to-date. What are your 3 biggest accomplishments and failures, and when were the 3 periods of your life that you felt most satisfied, as well as the least satisfied. Then we reflected on the similarities or trends that we could see arise from the exercise. We then narrowed in on their top values, and finally started looking towards the future. What activities, changes, projects, etc should the move towards to bring more of the satisfying times?

Both of these could be useful exercises if you find yourself ready to reflect on 2020 and prepare for 2021. While some things are out of our control, most things are not, and our attitudes most certainly are not.