Illustration: One fateful day in April, 2003, someone at the Cable News Network faithfully published the obituary column on the Web. Only problem was, the people hadn't died yet! How could that happen?

Major news networks must be ready to announce the death of a famous world figure the minute they get word of it. They can't wait around for someone to research the person's achievements and write a nice column. Thus, they go ahead and write these obituaries before the people die, so that they will be prepared. Someone at CNN simply wasn't paying attention to what list they were publishing, so that if the Pope, Fidel Castro, Bob Hope, Nelson Mandela, Dick Cheney and Ronald Reagan logged onto their internet news at the right time, they would have discovered that, unknown to them, they had died.

This brings up a powerful thought. If your family and acquaintances were to write up your obituary now, what would they say about you?

1) Write down some of the things you think your obituary would say.

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2) Imagine that by the time you die, you’ve accomplished the things you want to accomplish and have become the person you’d like to be. Write a brief obituary using the character and accomplishments you hope people will know you for.
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Similar to our last session, we've just done another valuable exercise in “beginning with the end in mind.” But while in our last session we wrote a very general life purpose, today we want to get more specific. By determining specifically what we want to be and to accomplish during our lifetime, we can set goals to help us reach that end.

Looking far down the road in your life, write down some dreams you’d like to see come true. I’ll divide life into a few categories and give a couple of examples to make it clearer.  Look back to your “reflections” above and incorporate some of those ideas.

Discussion: (After individual reflection and writing down their dreams.) Could you share some of your dreams with the rest of the class? Hearing other's dreams might give you further ideas to write down on your list. 

Congratulations! Now you’re well on the way to living a life of direction and purpose! In the next session we'll discover how to make these dreams come true. 

We began this session with the story of Cable News’ major goof in publishing the obituaries of people who were still living. Let’s end with the story of a man who actually saw his errantly published obituary and decided to “live with the end in mind.”  

Illustration: Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and later built companies and labs in over 20 countries, accumulating vast wealth. A brilliant man who held over 350 patents, he also wrote poetry and drama. But a dramatic personal event showed him that he needed more than personal success.

Following his brother's death, a newspaper mistakenly ran an obituary for Alfred, saying that he was known for creating the most destructive force known to mankind - dynamite. The title said it all: ''The Merchant of Death is Dead.''

The impact of reading his own obituary changed his life. Not wanting to be remembered for destruction, he began thinking of ways to give away his fortune to recognize those who had made significant contributions in medicine, chemistry, physiology, physics, literature and peace. As a result, The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year to the person who ''shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding of peace congresses.''

Today few know Alfred Nobel as the man who invented dynamite. Instead, we know him as the creator of the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of an editorial fluke in a newspaper, Nobel faced his legacy before his death, and had the opportunity to turn things around.

What will we be known for when we die? A person who built a business? Owned a nice car? Built a big house?

I hope that, like Alfred Nobel, we can become farsighted enough to invest in things that will matter long after our deaths. 

(Copyright February, 2004, Legacy Educational Resources. Sources: CNN makes a deadly mistake JIM MCBETH , The Scotsman, Scotland's National Newspaper Online, April 18, 03. http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/ ; Alcorn, Randy, The Treasure Principle, Multnomah Publishers, Sisters, OR; p. 77-78, http://www.meaning.ca/meaningful_living/worthy_lives/alfred_nobel.html )