Creating a Meaningful Legacy Beyond Wealth - Expert Edition Episode 50
In today's episode, we're going to talk about something really important but a bit tricky to chat about—preparing for when we're not around anymore. It's a bit like knowing winter is coming and getting our cozy clothes ready, but for life's big goodbye. I read this super helpful book called "A Beginner's Guide to the End," and it's filled with awesome tips on how to make sure we leave a little bit of ourselves behind, like treasure maps of memories for our kids and loved ones. I've been thinking a lot about how to do this in cool ways, like writing special letters to my kids and saving fun stories about our life together. It's like packing a lunchbox full of surprises for them to find later on.
A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death
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TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Naseema: One of the things I know a lot of people struggle with and it's something that I have definitely struggled with is dying. And I really don't understand why because the only thing that's guaranteed in life is death. But it is something that people have a hard time talking about. And I'm trying to.
Change the way I look at death, especially in planning for death and what I want to leave behind. I'm blessed to be able to be very Googleable or have these public works out there that I feel leave a mark. But I want to do something personal for my kids. They have a trust but sometimes those things.
Don't really outline the intentions of why we're leaving stuff behind. So I wanted to do a little bit more for my kids so they know more about me more, know more about how I feel about them. And this all was really inspired by this book called A Beginners Guide to the End. If you're seeing on video, I'm showing it in my camera.
The Beginner's Guide to the End, Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death by B. J. Miller, M. D. and Shoshana Berger. It's an incredible book. I was listening to it on audiobooks, which is the way I consume most of my books, but decided to get a hardcover copy physical copy of the book, it's softcover.
Because it has so many lessons that I want to keep coming back to and one of the big lessons that really captured me was this chapter two on leaving a mark. And it's about it's called leave a mark. It's about bequeathing money, capturing your story, writing an ethical will and leaving a letter.
So the bottom line, leave a mark. You are here, even if you write no letters, capture no stories, don't fund a scholarship, and have nothing but moths in your pocket, you will be remembered for something.
Your personal legacy may hinge on nothing more than your interactions and words. Some of the people Thank you. We've met who left the most profound legacies, had nothing to their names, but a deep well of kindness that they and others drew from. I think that's beautiful. So there are more and more ways that we can capture memories to be passed on.
And so our stories live on. But I think like in the book, they mentioned story core where you can submit recordings. But they also have a section about leaving a letter. I use a service called Keepsake with a Q so Q E E sake, and I started that with my middle daughter right before she was born, and it captured it.
Those moments. So it sends you daily prompts to be a text around 12 noon my time and reminds you to just share little memories and then you can compile those memories like that's one way. But the thing that I really stood out in this book was about like leaving a letter for your kids. And I'm going to read an example of a letter here from the book.
And it goes like this, Cleo, you are incredibly strong. You can weather anything in your life. There are likely going to be times when that strength is challenged. You may feel like the world is testing you, doubting you, perhaps doesn't see you the way you want to see yourself. Remember this. You are capable of anything.
Anything if you see the world as a series of open doors rather than closed doors. There's nothing you can't do I learned my bravery from my mother who never heard the word. No a crazy matriarchal spirit comes through our line.
There is art in there, if you look for it. Your great grandmother, Paolo, can take any misshapen lump of clay and draw a spirit out. You will carry that forward. As a child, I feel like I've been chased and you have that same fear.
There is some value in that fear because our time is unlimited. And in a way, we are being chased by death and have five minutes here. So do all you can. Sometimes it feels like our family had a lot of strife. I worried about it. I worried about not modeling well what a loving family could look like.
I hope you know how deeply your father and I love you. Cleo, we are on a small blue marble in the sky. Look up, and as all consuming and overwhelming as life may feel, remember that we are just a small part of everything. Life is a really grand experiment, and I have no doubt that you are ready for it.
I love you, mom. So this is just an example of something that we can leave for our kids. So when we look at all the things we can do to make our transition easier for our kids, I think we should look at incorporating things like this.
I'm definitely looking forward to incorporating things like this. My kids have their own email addresses where I try to drop pictures and notes in there. You can also add pictures and videos to keep sake as well. But this is just a reminder to do these things in preparation for. Your transition here while you can, it doesn't take long.
Like I said, I have the privilege of having a platform. So as long as there's it, I have a digital footprint. These kids can look up and see the work that I've done, but I also want to personalize messages for them along the way. So I've committed to doing these things annually. I'm interested to know.
What you have done to help smooth your transition to keep your story alive and pass through your family or what things really helped you in transitioning, what stories were passed down from other family members, from your ancestors just something to think about. But if you haven't already.
Check out beginner's guide to the end. I've had a lot of death in my family recently. So it had me really start to reflect on, how I want to leave this world or the footprint impact I want to leave on this world. And so I hope that it gives you a little bit of pause to do that for yourself.
I'm interested in hearing your stories and I hope this inspires you to do this for your next generation.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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