I just came back from the funeral of 89-year old man, an acquaintance of mine. His nickname was “Bud,” and in a word, he was “audacious.” He did things most people never dreamed of doing … one thing being … he built his own coffin, the one he was lying in at the funeral … and was buried in.
The coffin itself was a masterpiece of woodworking. It was beautiful on the outside, having symbols to represent his interests in life … a tennis racket, a deck of cards, and various woodworking tools.
It was even more beautiful on the inside. On the under-portion of the lid were wood carvings to represent the things that mattered the most to him. There was a carving for his wife and one for each of his 12 children.
This fellow was a planner. He even planned out every detail of his funeral years in advance … everything from the songs that were sung in church to the food that was to be served after the funeral ceremony. He even specified that the ceremony was to be held four days after his death.
As you can imagine, with that kind of planning, Bud was highly successful in life. He didn’t wing it. He planned it out, and as a result his list of accomplishments were long and his legacy will be forever lasting.
But as I sat at the funeral, I wondered what would happen if you … or anybody else … planned out their lives so well. I think the results would be very good. Goal setting and action plans seem to characterize just about every successful person I’ve ever encountered.
As the old saying goes, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I couldn’t agree more.
And yet, sadly enough, very few people know how to be alive … fully alive. Let me suggest that you don’t wait until you’re dead … or almost dead … to do your planning. Start now.
One the simplest and most effective ways to do that is to start your morning by listing your 3 highest priorities for the day. Start with that list before you get sidetracked by a lot of little or less important tasks. This simple focus on your 3 top priorties for the day will work wonders in your life and your work.