Beginning With The End In Mind

As the New Year starts, we re-fresh, re-boot, and re-new ourselves. We make goals and resolutions. We extend ourselves to new ventures or into new directions.

Winter is also a time of year we see more elderly friends and clients suffering from life-threatening illnesses. We may find ourselves wondering if they have talked with someone about their end of life wishes. In our society this is a taboo topic.

It's a topic that raises our fears. It's a topic that changes as health needs change. It's a topic that involves medical technology – how it helps and hinders us. It's also a topic that highlights our personal beliefs and values. What does “quality of life” mean to you?

Having meaningful conversations with my clients about their values and wishes is a vital part of my work as a fiduciary. Over the past few years, there has been a lot of discussion about how medical technology increases the costs of health care while extending life expectancy. While the many options available for health care today offers a life-giving blessing for many, sometimes it also puts us at odds with our values and the quality of life we would want.

Here's a new opportunity for a new direction in the new year.

The Conversation Project is on it's way to Contra Costa County in 2014. Community leaders are brainstorming ways to highlight the importance of talking about what matters with our families. You can be part of this movement. Just by listening in, you can become more in tune with ways to talk about the difficult topic of death. Learn to face and how to raise the issue in order to choose the quality of our life, even in illness.

The Conversation Project guides people through considering end of life wishes and talking with significant people about them. The Conversation Project is a nationwide movement to encourage people to discuss their end of life wishes with their doctor and loved ones. It's important.

Interested?

Check the website for The Conversation Project. Let me know and I'll give you advance notice of the symposium planned for Contra Costa County this year.

In 2014 listen up and starting talking.