Sometimes people tell me I seem very content.  A long time ago I read about a cool way to measure your personal contentment.  Draft your obituary.

Every few years, or sometimes more often, I write down what I think people would say about me.  Of course this is deeply personal and I never share it or discuss the content with others.

The exercise focuses on what you think about yourself.  Not surprisingly, most people are their own harshest critics.   Self assessment can be a valuable to to check how successful you are.

If you don’t have a positive feeling about your life , both lived and to be lived it’s unlikely others would.

Checking How you feel about yourself

The draft obituary is a great tool for a personal checkin.  The content accentuates the positive (few people write obituaries a about a dead persons failings.).

The narrative is objective and factual to a point, that is history, career and acomplishments are based on events.  The subjective portion, for example, “he was loved by his children” is indicative.

Usually you would omit those types of subjective comments if they did not have a ring of truth.   So ultimately the obituary you draft about yourself is really a reflection of how you view yourself.

Things you identify that you don ‘t like about yourself you can change and the other things make you feel good about yourself.

Give it a whirl, better than even a personal massage.