20 | Rewrite Your Obituary: Turning Today into a Legacy

Have you ever wondered what your obituary would say if you passed away tomorrow? Today, we're getting you to rethink your legacy and focus on the power you have right now to shape how the world sees you. Our dear friend Tim, a small business owner navigating a rough patch, is our focus. Through daily voicemails filled with motivational messages and practical advice, we help Tim—and maybe even you—get unstuck and reclaim a sense of accomplishment. 

In this episode, we tackle the profound exercise of rewriting your obituary. While it may sound morbid, this practice is all about reflecting on your achievements and leveraging them to inspire future action. We'll guide you on how to take stock of your accomplishments, big and small, and provide actionable steps to enhance your legacy in the next 24 hours. Listen in and discover how you can redefine your narrative and leave a lasting impact on the world around you.

If you are self-employed or run a small business and feel more like you're self-annoyed then get in touch, visit the website www.theannoyinglyoptimisticshow.com where you can submit a question or problem and start your journey to becoming self-enjoyed! 

The majority of 'business advice' out there isn't aimed at self-employed or micro businesses, following it leaves you frustrated and chasing quick fixes. I specialise in tools, systems, techniques, inspiration and help specifically designed for YOU, the person who has to do it all, who doesn't have a team of people, unlimited resources or the time to spend months learning complicated techniques. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey there, listeners, it's your annoyingly optimistic host here bringing you another season of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Welcome to Season 2, voicemails to Tim. Now let's meet Tim. He's been running his own small business for almost three years now and let's just say he's hit a bit of a rough patch. You know how it is Sometimes you get so stuck, you make yourself busy and just avoid finding the real problems. Well, that's Tim. So, as a good friend, I decide to leave him a daily voicemail, if I can't get hold of him, filled with nuggets of inspiration, insight and wisdom and downright brilliant ideas to help get him unstuck Every day. In just under 10 minutes, I'll share some tips, tricks and a healthy dose of optimism to get Tim, and maybe even you, back on track, because, let's face it, we're all a little tired, in need of help and muddling through. So here we go. Oh wait, never mind Tim's being busy. Here's the voicemail I left him today. Hi, tim, now it's a bit of a weird one. I was hoping to catch you when I rang you on this one, um, because it's gonna be a bit of a weird one to to leave, I think. But it's, I'm gonna persevere anyway. It's more of kind of like an inspirational one, obviously lots of different topics we kind of cover and it's just. It's actually, I think I think I got inspired by a particular song that I heard, but it was a number of kind of different things and it was this line of that just got stuck in my mind and I thought I'm gonna give Tim a call about that. And this is, as I said, it's meant to be inspirational.

Speaker 1 1:32

This is gonna sound a little bit dark when I dive in, but just stick with me. So rewrite your obituary. So what I mean by that is we often spend so long in the moment and what we're trying to do and what's the biggest problem we have right now and looking, you know, in a kind of three foot world and not very far ahead of us that not only do we not give ourselves credit for what we have done, what we're trying to do and all the rest of it, but we very rarely stop and take stock and and this idea of rewrite your obituary that is in my head is this idea that you know not, this is going to happen. This is what I say. This sounds a bit bit dark, but just go with me.

Speaker 1 2:13

If you were to die tomorrow, how would you be remembered? Because you'd be remembered by the things that you'd done, the things that you'd achieved, the people that you'd helped, the people that you'd served as a as that you'd achieved, the people that you'd helped, the people that you'd served as a business, how your family remembered everything that makes you who you are. You wouldn't be remembered for what you're planning to do, what you're thinking of doing, what you wanted to do, what you might do, what you want to do in 10 years time. And there is only one person that has control about how the world looks at you, and that's you. You know, and that's where this kind of thought comes in is that you know, take stock and look back of actually what you have achieved. Firstly, if you actually do that honestly, you'll realize that you've actually achieved far more than you than you give yourself credit for. Write those things down, you know. Write down what you've actually achieved credit for. Write those things down, you know. Write down what you've actually achieved. And you know because, again, if you've been in business as you are, well, it's come out three and a half years now, something like that that's an achievement, because most people can't run their own business. You know you've paid your mortgage, you've done everything you need to do on that, you know. So that's an achievement. Look at everything you've achieved with individual customers, with hard things that you've done all the rest of it. Give yourself credit for those, but they go.

Speaker 1 3:27

Okay, I can't do anything about what people think of me right now, but tomorrow, what I do in the next 24 hours, can be something that adds to that, that adds to that story. That would change that obituary, would change what people think about me. And if you approach every day like that in terms of, okay, the action that I take today, the things that I'm doing today, I want this to be something great. I want this to be something that people look back on and go, wow, look, what Tim achieved on that day as part of everything else, that's amazing. Now, every day is not going to be amazing, every day is not going to be breathtaking, but every action that you take, if you go with that mindset of how will this be remembered? How will I look back on this? Did I spend this day in the best possible way that I can to achieve the things that I want to achieve, and so that when I look back, I can see that I moved the needle. I can see that I was another step closer to where I wanted to be and what I wanted to achieve, and that was because of the actions that I took.

Speaker 1 4:30

You know, I think I mentioned before and it's one of these lines that I use a lot of that we can't control what happens to us, what the world throws at us, what customers want, all the rest of it. The only single thing that we can control is the way that we react to things and the actions that we take. That's it, that's what it comes down to, and it's only the actions that you'll ever get remembered for. No one will remember that amazing planning that you've got buried on a file on your computer. They'll only remember the things that you achieved. So look back, see what you have achieved, see what is there and what is pointing forward. Look at those plans and these ideas some of which we've talked about, that you really want to achieve. Let's stop really wanting to achieve them and let's start taking tiny micro steps, whatever those might be, every day to achieve those, so that you build up that momentum to achieve these great things and things that you'd like to be remembered for.

Speaker 1 5:28

So when you look back and when eventually, many, many, many, many decades from now, someone writes your obituary and someone thinks back, there are things in there that you're proud of. And it's today that you start, because the actions you take today will be the future pasts of tomorrow, if that makes some kind of sense In terms of if you do those actions consistently over the next three months, six months, 12 months, and then look back, what have you achieved from those actions? That's what you can now be remembered for. So again, it probably would have made more sense if we managed to kind of chat through it. But I hope that kind of resonates a little bit, because when we just get stuck in the weeds and focusing on the day, you know, day to day we just kind of muddle along. But sometimes we just have to stand up, lift ourselves up, look back at what we have achieved, recognise what we've achieved and give ourselves a pat on the back, recognise what we could achieve and how we can start taking action to that and start making a difference and rewrite that obituary. So I hope that makes some kind of sense, tim, and I shall catch up with you again soon.

Speaker 1 6:38

Bye for now, and that's it for today's episode of Voicemails to Tim on the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Now, remember, tim might be busy, but we're all in this together. Whether you're tired, in need of help or just muddling through, tim is here for you because, well, tim is you. Yes, you heard that right. Tim isn't just my friend. He's a reflection of all of us who are struggling to make it work. T-i-m stands for tired, in need of help and muddling through. So if you're feeling like a Tim, you're not alone For all those ambitious listeners. If you've got a burning business question, a quirky thought or just want to see if you can leave an even weirder voicemail, head over to the website voicemailstotimcom. Submit your question and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear your idea in a future Voicemail to Tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember, if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail about it.