The Retirement Wisdom Podcast What Matters Most – Diane Button
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What does it mean to live life fully — without any unfinished business? Today’s guest, Diane Button, knows the answer. As a compassionate end-of-life doula and author of What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living, she’s spent years walking beside people at the end of life — and she’s learned lessons that help all of us live more fully right now.
In this podcast conversation, Diane shares what she’s learned about forgiveness, gratitude and legacy — and how each of us can create peace long before the final chapter. You’ll hear touching stories of regret, reconciliation, and joy — including how one man’s “joy counter” became a simple but profound reminder to notice beauty in everyday moments.
If you’ve ever wondered how to live more intentionally, strengthen your relationships, and make sure nothing important is left unsaid — this episode will move you, inspire you, and change how you think about how you want to use your time.
Diane Button joins us from California.
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Bio
Diane Button is a founding partner of the Bay Area End-of-Life Doula Alliance in Northern California, a frequent podcast guest, and best-selling author of several books related to end-of-life, meaningful living, and the growing impact of death doulas worldwide. She is an instructor at the University of Vermont’s End-of-Life Doula Certificate Program and was a former board member of the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA). She holds a master’s in counseling psychology from Goddard College in Vermont. Her master’s thesis, The Components of a Meaningful Life, became the genesis for her life’s work of supporting people to find meaning, comfort, joy, and peace in life and in death.
Diane’s best-selling books have been featured on numerous programs and podcasts, inspiring others to leave a meaningful legacy. Her other books include the best-selling titles Dear Death: Finding Meaning in Life, Peace in Death, and Joy in an Ordinary Day which combines the insights gained from her research on “The Four Pillars of a Meaningful Life,” with over a decade working with hospice and doula clients in their final days and The Doula Tool Kit: The Complete Practical Guide for End-of-Life Doulas & Caregivers, which was co-authored by Angela Shook and Gabby Jimenez.
In October of 2022, during the pandemic, Diane wrote an article that went viral article for Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper that remains widely-read and one of their most popular articles. What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living is her latest book, written at the invitation of Maria Shriver and published by Penguin Random House.
Diane is also a breast cancer survivor. Immediately following her diagnosis of breast cancer at 48, Diane and her young children established the nonprofit Dream of a Better World. Through grassroots fundraisers and local events, they have supported underserved children and families around the world. Their motto is: “You’re never too young or too old to make a difference!”
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For More on Diane Button
What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living
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Podcast Conversations You May Like
The Well-Lived Life – Dr. Gladys McGarey
Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller
The Inspired Retirement – Nathalie Martin
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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast
There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.
About Retirement Wisdom
I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.
Schedule a call today to discuss how the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one — on your own terms.
About Your Podcast Host
Joe Casey is an executive coach who helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a 26-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.
Joe has earned Master’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Gerontology (at age 60), the University of Pennsylvania, and Middlesex University (UK), a BA in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his coaching certification from Columbia University.
In addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, ranked in the top 1% globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.
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Wise Quotes
On What Matters Most
“Death is just one day. All the other days are for living fully.”
On Unfinished Business
“Just being in the moment, which means pausing which means looking people in the eye, which means having deep conversations…not being afraid to say how I feel to have to live my life with a clean slate – so that I don’t walk around carrying unfinished business with people. More than anything, I say I’m sorry. I say I love you. I say thank you. I show up for my friends and people in my life so that if this were my last day everybody knows that I love them and everybody knows that I’m sorry for the things that I’ve done. I think it’s really important because if we don’t say the words now they build up and at the end of life it can be just so excruciating to watch somebody who hasn’t healed something from their past scrambling to get it done at the end of life. So I think I’ve learned that lesson and I really try to stay on top of that.”
On Joy
“The real beauty of life lies in the simplicity of an ordinary day — the coffee on the porch, the laughter, the quiet moments. That’s where joy lives.”