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Transcript

Begin with the End in Mind · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year, my friend.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me for this episode that kicks off what I know is going to be an amazing 2023 for you.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In his classic book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Cubby famously wrote, Begin with the end in mind.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I invite you to come with me on a journey to the end.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: The end of your life.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine that it's the day of your funeral.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: You've had a long, productive life.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's sadness, but there's also a warm remembrance of a life well lived.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: The funeral service is over and people are telling stories about your life.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: These are people who knew you personally over the years.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: They can remember your mannerisms, the tone of your voice, your personality, and your quirks firsthand because they knew you and spent time with you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Fast forward 25 years after your death.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone who knew you personally as a kid is now an adult.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Twenty five years is a long time, and their memory is fading a bit.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: They still have pictures and videos, but those are probably archived on a hard drive somewhere or stored in the cloud on a server.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: There are still people alive who knew you personally, but the generation born after you died only knows you through the stories that people tell about you, or through things like pictures and videos that were left behind.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now jump ahead to 50 years after your death.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting further and further away from those who knew you personally.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: The only ones still alive who knew you personally knew you as kids or young adults, and now they're much older if they're still alive at all.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in a basement, somebody might have some pictures or other mementos stored that were once connected with your life.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jump with me one more time.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's now a hundred years after your death.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Several generations have grown up since you've been gone.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a single person alive who knew you personally.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Your kids and grandkids are probably gone as well.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: The technology and media landscape will have changed so many times that ancient video and audio files and even social media archives from over a hundred years ago when you were still alive, have either been erased or archived in some vast collection of human data.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: But even if your great-great-grandkids, generations after you can access all that, what will they find?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: They'll find birth and death records, legal documents perhaps, and maybe a bunch of random social media posts if those are even accessible.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But how will they know you?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: What will they know about your story, your hopes and dreams, your ideas, and what your life even meant in the first place?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's only one way that those future generations will know those things.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: They will know because you wrote them down.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: So begin with the end in mind.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Don't leave your legacy to chance.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today, here on the first day of 2023, commit to writing down the story of your life this year so it won't be forgotten.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question Your life will come to an end someday.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want to leave behind with your writing?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.