As fires cause fatalities across the West Coast days after honoring our fallen veterans, at home I’m faced with death as well. My grandmother, at the age of 90, passed away over the weekend and I’m writing this on her funeral day.

While reflecting, I’m finding death becomes a measuring stick for our lives, and how well we lived. This includes our physical and financial condition, as well as our overall mental and emotional health. But wellness also includes an aspect often overlooked: Living well includes participation with others, contribution to society and people we care about, and ultimately how well we loved.

By these terms, my grandmother lived very well. During her last days, she was eager to run into the arms of her maker, not from pain but because she had run this race, we call life, well. Just ask anyone who knew her. She was a blessing, and her gift will live on forever.

So, if life insurance is really about helping the death process, then I think “death insurance” would help us with the life — or wellness — process. Therefore wellness becomes like death insurance.

I don’t mean to be morbid at all. Rather, this is a call for wellness. We all have the same fate awaiting us, and all have the same ability to love others genuinely, to be available for others, and able to serve. We also have the same basic abilities to perform at a high level, whether in the classroom, on the courts or in business. If it’s all for selfish gain, then I can tell you it’s not worth it. To make life count, some things may need to change. In order to do this, we have to stop and take account of how well we’re doing in the first place. Is there anything holding us back from living truly well?

What does living well look like?

To answer this, you must prioritize what matters and move that direction. This becomes the start of your own wellness plan or journey, aka death insurance, in which you, as well as those around you, become the beneficiaries for generations to come. (I discuss more about this concept of learning to live well in my new book coming out on January, No More Weed In Our House.)

However, before we can help others, we must help our selves. Life is meant to be lived to the full, which requires a healthy mind, body and soul.

Addictions steal these opportunities with lies. But wellness is the solution. That’s why I’m devoting the next phase my professional career to helping people out of the addictions and recovery cycle and into a wellness journey for life.

When my day comes, I hope my life will be measured not by the numbers on a balance sheet, but by people who have been touched with my message and have been inspired to change for good.

Don’t let death insurance scare you. Embrace wellness, and let your life show it. It’s worth it.