Through writing my life plan (as outlined in the book Michael Hyatt), there were a series of questions at the beginning that had you answer how you would want to be remembered.
This was a fascinating area that I've heard used before but haven't seen too much in the way of writing your life plan. The basic idea was to write in a short eulogy that you would want your friends, loved ones, and colleagues to say about you. The more specific, the better! This will help you decide how to act at the moment and give you a filter to decide what to choose.
Through this process, I've found that I was able to identify how I want to be seen. And it opened my eyes to how far away I was from that. In one of the categories, I wanted to be remembered as someone who kept up to his word, that fulfilled all commitments to the best of his abilities. In another, I wanted to be seen as giving, not holding back, and even in the short or hard times, I gave what I had. Those two alone changed my life in quite a big way; each morning, I review my life plan, and it gives me a renewed vision to act like how I want to be remembered and show up the best that I can that day.
Key takeaways:
1) Write down how you want to be remembered; it gives you something to refer to when uncertain
2) Don't be shy about writing great things about your ideal self; it's something you can aim for, even if you fall short; set your standards high
3) Reviewing how you want to be remembered gives you renewed excitement to be that person