Imagine it’s the day of your funeral. You’ve had a long, productive life. There is sadness, but also a warm remembrance at a life well lived. The funeral service is over and people are telling stories about your life. These are people who knew you personally over the years. 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.

Fast forward 25 years after your death. Anyone who knew you personally as a kid is now an adult. Twenty-five years is a long time, and their memory is fading a bit. They still have pictures and videos, but those are probably archived on a hard drive somewhere or stored in the cloud on a server. There are still people alive who knew you personally, but the generation born after you died only knows you through the stories people tell about you, or things like pictures and videos that were left behind.

Jump ahead to 50 years after your death. We’re getting further away from those who knew you personally. The only ones still alive who knew you personally, knew you as kids or young adults, and now they are old, if they are still alive at all. Somewhere in a basement, someone might have some pictures or other mementos stored that were connected with your life.

It is now 100 years after your death. Several generations have grown up since you’ve been gone. There’s not a single person alive who knew you personally. Your kids and grandkids are probably gone, as well.

The technology and media landscape will have changed so many times that ancient video and audio files, and even social media archives, from over 100 years ago, when you were still alive, have either been erased or archived in some vast collection of human data. But even if your great-great-grandkids generations after you can access all that, what will they find? They’ll find birth and death records, legal documents, perhaps, and maybe a bunch of random social media posts if those are even accessible.

But how will they know YOU? What will they know about your story, your hopes and dreams, your ideas, and what your life meant?

There is only one way those future generations will know those things. They will know because you wrote them down.

Begin with the end in mind. Don’t leave your legacy to chance. Today, here on the first day of 2023, commit to writing down the story of your life so it won’t be forgotten.

Question: Your life will come to an end someday—what do you want to leave behind with your writing?

The post Begin with the End in Mind appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One day, the threads will run out and your life will be over. When your friends and loved ones reflect on your final tapestry, what will they see? Will they see shadows and a hint of greatness that was never fulfilled? Or will they stand in awe at the bold shapes and bright colors that helped them see they could create a beautiful tapestry, too?

Which picture will they see? The choice is up to you.

Your words are the most powerful tool you will ever own. Don’t let another day slip away without using them to weave a better future for yourself and those you care about.

A master craftsman weaves one thread at a time. When you stand back and look at the complicated pattern, you wonder how in the world they managed to create something so complex and beautiful. How did they do it?

One thread at a time.

Years from now, people will wonder how you achieved so much with your writing. But it won’t be a mystery. Like a master artist who weaves a tapestry, you used each day as a thread to weave a life and legacy of words.

You will have done it because you were a Daily Writer.

Question: Are you using today—THIS DAY—to weave a beautiful tapestry with your words?

The post Weave an Epic Tapestry appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Here, during the last week of the year, expand your horizons and think not just about this week, this month, or this year. Go beyond even the next five or ten years. Think a hundred years into the future.

How will people one hundred years from now be able to interact with your writing? No one can predict what the technology of the future will be like. That’s why I believe it’s important to create something physical that can be passed down to future generations.

One of my most treasured possessions is a tattered notebook that my grandmother Louise used to write her poetry. She died when I was three years old, but when I look through the notebook at her poems—many of which are quite good—it’s almost like she’s there with me.

That’s something you can’t get on a computer screen.

In terms of writing, I think every author should create a print book. Not only is it more prestigious than an ebook, it’s something you can pass down to your kids and grandkids, and all future generations.

As writers, we have a responsibility to think not just about the impact we leave in the world today, but how we will impact those in the future as well.

Question: How do you imagine your writing might impact someone a hundred years into the future?

The post Think 100 Years Into the Future appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

The area I knew the least about was architecture. I had always been fascinated by it, but never studied it in-depth. Over the years, as I have learned more about architecture, it has become one of my favorite subjects.

I’m especially drawn to Gothic cathedrals. These medieval works of art represent one of the pinnacles of human ingenuity and creativity. The designers, laborers, and craftsmen worked for decades, in some cases centuries, to complete these massive projects.

My personal favorite is Chartres Cathedral in France. Built from 1194-1260, it’s one of the oldest Gothic cathedrals. Chartres is famous for several iconic features, including its beautiful stained-glass windows, a medieval labyrinth, and a purported relic of the Virgin Mary’s tunic.

Consider the mindset of the artists and craftsmen who built Gothic cathedrals. They worked to build something they knew would outlive them—not only by decades, but by centuries.

That’s a stark contrast to today’s creative world, where we don’t normally think in centuries or decades, or even years. We think in weeks and days, hours and moments.

Today, most of our creative work is designed for quick consumption. We share social media posts that we hope people “like” in the 30 minutes after the upload. We write blog posts that we hope go viral in the days after they are published. We hope our book gets traction in the weeks and months after it’s released. We hope our podcast or video gets downloaded thousands (or millions!) of times.

I’m not saying those things are bad. I engage in all of those mediums, and more. But is there a way to balance the need for relevance and timeliness with a more long-term perspective on our creative work?

The real question is: Will your creative work outlive you? We don’t create just for today. We create for decades from today. So let us create, work, and write with excellence. And with a view to impact not just people today… but many years from now, just as we enjoy the Gothic cathedrals today, many hundreds of years after they were built.

Question: How do you think your writing might impact people decades into the future?

The post Your Work Will Outlive You appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

One day, the sand in your hourglass will run out. We have a limited amount of time on this earth. What will be left after you’re gone? Maybe some social media posts, mementos, people’s memories, and what you created. Those things can fade over time, but your words can be immortal.

We all have the same amount of time in life. Life is never going to be ideal, and things are not going to slow down. There is always going to be something happening. You write in the midst of an imperfect life, in the mess and the muck of what is happening all around you.

In the musical “Hamilton,” Eliza Hamilton asks her husband, “Why do you write like you’re running out of time?” The truth is that we’re all running out of time.

Question: Does knowing your life will come to an end someday motivate you to make the most of every day? Why or why not?

The post Like Sands Through the Hourglass appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

I’m thrilled to feature this conversation with my good friend M. J. James. M. J. is a member of our Daily Writer Community, and she has built an amazing podcast and website called Burned Out Business Mom. You probably heard M. J. featured on an episode of the Daily Writer Podcast a few weeks ago when I interviewed her.

Now we’re flipping things around and she interviews me about my new book 18 Words to Live By: A Father’s Wisdom on What Matters Most. I wrote this book as a gift to my son for his 18^th birthday last month.

18 Words is a short, fast read covering 18 values to guide your life. I have to tell you: this is my favorite thing I’ve ever written. I really tried to pour my heart and soul into this, and I share some very personal stories that I hope will be inspiring to anybody looking for a short, simple, book that is a handbook for life.

In this conversation, we talk about the story behind the book, the process of writing it, and the themes of many of the chapters. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

You can get your own copy of my book and follow the awesome M. J. James through the links below:

18 Words to Live By: A Father’s Wisdom on What Matters Most

TheBurnedOutBusinessMom.com

Burned Out Business Mom Podcast

Connect with M.J. on Facebook

Connect with M.J. on Instagram

The post Behind the Scenes of My New Book “18 Words to Live By” appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

On May 21, 1990, audiences tuned in to the series finale of the CBS show Newhart. They probably expected a standard final episode that wrapped up the 8-season run telling the story of Dick Louden, a Vermont innkeeper played by Bob Newhart, and the oddball cast of characters who populated the show.

This was not Bob Newhart’s first foray into the world of sitcoms. He had previously starred in another successful series, The Bob Newhart Show, which ran for 6 seasons in the 1970s.

In the second-to-last scene of the Newhart finale, Bob stands in the doorway of his inn and gets hit with a golf ball, knocking him unconscious. Then in the final scene, much to the surprise and delight of the audience, he wakes up in bed next to his wife from The Bob Newhart Show and explains that he had a strange dream about being an innkeeper.

It was a brilliant way to tie the two series together, and is considered one of the best series finales in TV history.

Surprise endings work in real life, too. Maybe up to this point, you have lived on a certain pathway of tempered expectations and muted dreams. Maybe nobody expected much out of you. Maybe you don’t expect much out of yourself, hoping to just scrape by and, if you get lucky, something good will come along.

You can write a new ending that surprises everyone, including yourself. You can choose your pathway and rise to the occasion by taking charge of your life. Don’t let anyone else determine your ending. It’s for you and you alone to choose.

Daily Question: Have you decided to take charge of your life direction?

The post Write an Unexpected Ending appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

Each day is a thread you are weaving into an epic tapestry.

One day, the threads will run out and your life will be over. When your friends and loved ones reflect on your final tapestry, what will they see? Will they see shadows and a hint of greatness that was never fulfilled? Or will they stand in awe at the bold shapes and bright colors that helped them see they could create a beautiful tapestry, too?

Which picture will they see? The choice is up to you.

Your words are the most powerful tool you will ever own. Don’t let another day slip away without using them to weave a better future for yourself and those you care about.

A master craftsman weaves one thread at a time. When you stand back and look at the complicated pattern, you wonder how in the world they managed to create something so complex and beautiful. How did they do it? One thread at a time.

Years from now, people will wonder how you achieved so much with your writing. But it won’t be a mystery. Like a master artist who weaves a tapestry, you used each day as a thread to weave a life and legacy of words.

You will have done it because you were a Daily Writer.

Daily Question: Are you using today—THIS DAY—to weave a beautiful tapestry with your words?

The post Your One Thing appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

In his classic book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey famously wrote, “Begin with the end in mind.” Come with me on a journey to the end—the end of your life.

Imagine it’s the day of your funeral. You’ve had a long, productive life. There is sadness, but also a warm remembrance of a life well lived. The funeral service is over and people are telling stories about your life. These are people who knew you personally over the years. 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.

Fast forward 25 years after your death. Anyone who knew you personally is now an adult. 25 years is a long time, and their memory is fading a bit. They still have pictures and videos, but those are probably archived on a hard drive somewhere or stored in the cloud on a server. There are still people alive who knew you personally, but the generation born after you died only knows you through the stories people tell about you, or things like pictures and videos that were left behind.

Jump ahead to 50 years after your death. We’re getting further away from those who knew you personally. The only ones still alive who knew you personally, knew you as kids or young adults, and now they are old, if they are still alive at all. Somewhere in a basement, someone might have some pictures or other mementos stored that were connected with your life.

It is now 100 years after your death. Several generations have grown up since you’ve been gone. There’s not a single person alive who knew you personally. Your kids and grandkids are probably gone as well.

The technology and media landscape will have changed so many times that ancient video and audio files, and even social media archives, from over 100 years ago, when you were still alive, have either been erased or archived in some vast collection of human data. But even if your great-great-grandkids generations after you can access all that, what will they find? They’ll find birth and death records, legal documents perhaps, and maybe a bunch of random social media posts if those are even accessible.

But how will they know YOU? What will they know about your story, your hopes and dreams, your ideas, and what your life meant?

There is only one way those future generations will know those things. They will know because you wrote them down.

Begin with the end in mind. Don’t leave your legacy to chance. Write it down so it won’t be forgotten.

Daily Question: Your life will come to an end someday—what do you want to leave behind with your writing?

The post Begin with the End in Mind appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.

On a day-to-day basis, we are consumed with the here and now—what we have to write and publish today or this week.

Expand your horizons and think not just about this week, this month, or this year. Go beyond even the next five or ten years. Think a hundred years into the future.

How will people one hundred years from now be able to interact with your writing? No one can predict what the technology of the future will be like. That’s why I believe it’s important to create something physical that can be passed down to future generations.

One of my most treasured possessions is a tattered notebook that my grandmother Louise used to write her poetry in. She died when I was three years old, but when I look through the notebook at her poems—many of which are quite good—it’s almost like she’s there with me.

That’s something you can’t get on a computer screen.

In terms of writing, I think every author should create a print book. Not only is it more prestigious than an ebook, it’s something you can pass down to your kids and grandkids, and all future generations.

As writers, we have a responsibility to think not just about the impact we leave on the world today, but how we will impact those in the future as well.

Daily Question: How do you imagine your writing might impact someone a hundred years into the future?

The post Think 100 Years Into the Future appeared first on Daily Writer | Essential Habits for Impact & Influence.