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Why We Need to Write Our Own Eulogy

March 30, 2014 by Camilla

When I interview someone I end it with the question: “How would you want your eulogy to be read? And do you feel that you are living your life in a way that fits that?”

Last summer when I asked myself that question my first reaction was that it’s not up to me to write it. Then I got thinking. It is my responsibility to write it by creating the kind of life that lays the foundation for the one I want.

Lifeplan eulogy quote

 Think backwards so you can create a plan

For example, if you want to run a marathon in seven months you need to figure out how many miles to run each week in order to be ready. If you don’t plan backwards it’s hard to know what kind of milage you need to do each day in order to be able to run 26.2 miles. If you just go out and run each day without a plan you may either run too little or too much. In order to be your best on race day you need a plan.

How do you want to look back at your life? What are the things you want to have accomplished? What are the things you want to be remembered by?

What goals, dreams, passions do you want to be proud of that you pursued?

What are the things you don’t want to regret?

What kind of legacy do you want to pass on?

What good habits and personality traits do you want to have instilled in others?

What kind of family life?

How do you write your own eulogy?

After all, writing your own eulogy is a bit hard. Write a draft in first person. I wrote my first draft like this:

“I would like to be described as a kind, loving, inspiring, honest, generous and funny person that my friends could always count on. I also want to be described as someone that made a positive impact on the world. Someone that helped to change animal’s and people’s lives for the better. I want to be described as an adventurer, having traveled all over the world, done lots of charitable work and definitely have ski’d on all 7 continents.”

I then wrote it in third person:

“Camilla was kind, loving, inspiring, honest, trustworthy, generous and funny. She had a positive attitude and was quick to smile. She made a positive impact on the world and made animals and peoples lives better. She helped people turn their dreams into reality. She left a legacy through her nonprofit work and foundation that will now carry on in many needed areas. She was always up for adventure and traveled all over the world including having ski’d all 7 continents. She inspired others to travel through her photography. She was goofy, always herself and a challenger of the status quo. She created her own path and always invited others showing them how to create theirs.”

By writing it down you can make adjustments to how you would like it to be read. Writing your own eulogy is a great foundation for you to create a plan for your life. Don’t leave it up to someone else. Create your plan for your life. Or chances are that on checkout day you’ll look back wishing you would have.

 

Have you thought of how you would want your eulogy to be read? Share in the comments. 

 

Filed Under: Life, Personal Growth

Interview with B.A. Norrgard “A Bed Over My Head”

March 23, 2014 by Camilla

A while back I had the intent to start a series of interviews with people that had left the hamster wheel and the traditional path that society wants us to take. I only did one interview with Michael, a Danish World Traveler. Well, it’s time to get this series back on track. I belong to a group on Facebook called “30 Days of Hustle” created by Jon Acuff. It was in this group I got to know B.A. Norrgard.

B.A. Norrgard, who blogs and runs a website called A Bed Over My Head is in the process of building a tiny house and joining the minimalist lifestyle. Now you may think she is some kind of hippie but what intrigued me about her story is that she had a very successful career practicing law. B.A. Norrgard is a paralegal turned minimalist that decided to leave the rat race and create a new life for herself. I love her story because it shows us that no matter where you are and what career path you originally took it’s never too late to rewrite your story.

Interview with BA Norrgard photo
Q: What one thing or event made you decide to leave the rat race now vs. later? If no such particular event, how did the decision evolve?

A: I could see change coming at work. My boss is retirement age, and I am not. Although he has no plans to retire, realistically I could see change coming and I needed a plan. I had worked for the same attorney for 20 years and I did not want to start over with a new attorney. I started looking for what would make me happy for the second half of my life and this is where I ended up.

Q: What is your #1 advice for people that don’t know where to start but would like to do what you are doing?

A: Change is really scary. But do you know what is worse? Regret. Think about what you did as a child that made you happy: why did you stop doing those things? Get back to basics. If your life in 10 years is the same as it is today, would that make you happy? Probably not.

Q: Do you follow other blogs or websites that are doing what you are doing? If so, any you would recommend?

A: I do not…I am so slammed with construction right now that I don’t have much time for reading. I do enjoy Joseph Campbell’s words of wisdom.

Q: How do you finance your dream? Working along the way or are you living solely on savings? Or a combination of both?

A: I owned a traditional home and I sold it. Prior to that I had worked really hard to become debt free. Last month I negotiated a severance package from my law firm and that is carrying me to the Fall of 2014. I need to have my new plan in place by then.

Q: Do you meet a lot of other people downsizing or do you feel as if you’re still breaking new ground wherever you go? And the people you meet that are downsizing are they mostly single or families?

A: I am meeting tons of people who are downsizing! I get emails from people almost every day. It’s so fantastic – so empowering and so fun to talk to like minded folks. Mostly they are single people but most of the single people do not plan to STAY single. I do know a couple of couples, a couple of families with children who are transitioning to tiny living.

Q: How would you want your eulogy to be read? And do you feel that you are living your life in a way that fits that?

A: Wow, my eulogy? I’ve never thought about that. I hope that I am remembered as a generous person who wasn’t afraid to follow her heart and not follow the crowd.

 

I loved learning more about tiny housing and B.A. has lots of great information on her website and blog A Bed Over My Head.

And if you happen to be in Dallas, Texas on April 26-27 you can meet B.A. and check out her tiny house at Earth Day Texas 2014.

 

Let me know what you think in the comments. Could you live in a tiny house? 

Filed Under: Interviews, Live Your Dream, Simple Living

This is your life. Are you where you want to be?

March 16, 2014 by Camilla

This is your life

I recently started listening to Michael Hyatt’s podcast. If you haven’t listened to them or checked out his blog I highly recommend you do. Michael Hyatt has a lot of great information to share and writes about personal development, intentional leadership, productivity and much more.

So what brings me to write this blog post? Simple. The lyrics to a song that Michael Hyatt use as his theme song for his podcasts. I immediately recognized the song and remembered hearing it before but this time around the lyrics really popped out at me.

I found the following YouTube video that has the lyrics written on the screen. Crank up the volume because the song is really good and one that you will find yourself singing along to.
My favorite part of the lyrics are:

This is your life, are you where you want to be

This is your life, are you where you want to be

This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be

When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

 

This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, are you who you want to be
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

 

Why? Because if we ask ourselves this every single day it reminds us to work harder on not only being who we want to be but help us get to where we want to be. After all that’s the goal. Not to waste our life but pursue living it with purpose and in a way that is authentic to us.

I hope the lyrics inspire you as much as they inspire me.

Remember, this is your life and it’s happening right now. Are you working on living it or wasting it?

 

Filed Under: Life, Motivational

How to gain 9 weeks of free time in a year!

March 11, 2014 by Camilla

“Work takes up all my time. I don’t have any free time to work on my life, my goals and dreams.”

How to gain 9 weeks photo

What if I told you that you have more free hours in a day than you work? Yes, you have more non-working hours in a day than you have work hours. Let’s do some math here. There are 168 hours in a week.

168 hours / week 

– 45 hours of work (40 hour work week plus commuting)

– 56 hours of sleep (8 hours per night)

67 hours left

 

That’s 67 hours that you are not working or sleeping. Divide that with 7 days and you have 9.57 hrs per day!! You have over 9 hours of free time per day!

How many hours in a day do you spend showering, making dinner, grocery shopping, exercising, and taking kids to activities? Not 9 hours a day I hope.

So where are all those hours going? They disappear because we are not intentional about how we use them. Time is like money, if we don’t track it then it has a tendency to just disappear.

I’m a big fan of Dan Miller. Years ago when I started following him I remember how he kept mentioning that we all have 168 hours in a week. That really stuck with me. I started being more intentional with my time and how I use it. It’s a struggle at times but the more I work on it the better I get at it.

Something that works for me is to block out time in the morning for quiet time and exercise. I also read, write, check things off my to-do list and cook breakfast. I do these things before I have to get ready for work. If I start checking emails, social media and turn on the morning news my morning literally disappears. Those mornings I don’t feel as if I accomplished anything because my morning was filled with what I call “junk” instead of good stuff that fuels my brain and gives me good energy.

So what are some ways to start using time better?

– Turn off the TV.  Ask yourself what programs will give you a good return on your time investment. Is sitting down mindlessly in front of the TV a good investment of your time? What better things could you do than watching TV? If you watch the average amount of hours a day that people watch TV you’ve watched well over a decade of TV during your life time! That’s well over 10 years of just watching TV non-stop! That’s how your daily action can add up.

– Make a list of the things you want to accomplish that week. I have a list of things I want to accomplish each week. I do most of them in the morning because that’s what works for me. Key to success is to do the things you need to do first before doing things that is not on the list. If there’s any time after that, reward yourself with some goofing off time.

– Limit social media time. Facebook and Twitter can be huge time suckers if we don’t pay attention. I know some that use a timer, set it for 15 minutes and when that time is up they log out. I have recently started doing that and it really helps.

– Track where your hours are going by using an hourly schedule (you can print on off the internet). Write in what you are doing in 15 or 30 minute blocks. Do that for a week or two and then take a look at how you are spending your time. It’s a great visual to see where your time is going.

 

I’m aware of that after running errands, doing house chores and all the other things we need to do that we don’t have a full 9 hours of free time but if you plan your time better you will find a lot of extra spare time. Often hours a day!

Think of what you could accomplish in a week, a month or a year if you used those extra hours or even just 60 minutes a day. You can easily find one hour a day by watching less TV or spending less time on the internet.

60 minutes a day equals 365 hours in a year. That’s a lot of hours! Divide that into a 40 hour work week and you suddenly have over 9 weeks!

Think of all the things you can accomplish with an extra 9 weeks of free time in a year. I don’t have a crystal ball but I’m positive you can accomplish a lot more by being intentional about how you use your time.

 

What tips do you have for being more productive and intentional about your time? Tell me in the comments.

 

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management

Normal is so yesterday. Different is the new cool.

March 3, 2014 by Camilla

This quote is very representative of what a hamster wheel is.

Normal quote

I talk to people that want to leave the hamster wheel but they are not willing to give up the things that keeps them spinning the wheel or make any sacrifices. A great way to get stuck in the wheel? Carry debt. Especially consumer debt like auto-loans and credit cards.

Debt stands in the way of so many dreams. It robs you from being able to take a different job. It robs you from being able to stay home. It robs you from experiences you rather add to your life, like spending more time with family. It robs you from pursuing your dream.

What if the money you earned was going into a Financial Freedom account instead? Imagine your monthly “payments” accumulating in a savings account instead of going to a bank and when large enough you could choose to live your life differently. You could choose to continue working, quit, do something different.

What if you made the decision to be different and not normal? To make the necessary sacrifices to stop spinning the wheel? To stop throwing money out the window.

How would your life look like if you didn’t have to get dressed in clothes you buy for work, drive a car that you are paying for in order to get to a job you need in order to pay for the clothes, the car and the house?

Imagine how a life like that would feel like. Then make the hard decision to be different and get out of debt.

Do you want to be different? 

Filed Under: Life, Money

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Hello! My name is Camilla. I'm the founder of the Live Your Legacy framework and the Paycheck to Paycheck Method. Around here we love teaching high achievers like you how to achieve your goals so you can excel and live your legacy!

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