The 4 Pillars of a Meaningful Life with Diane Button
Week of September 26, 2026
Discover What Matters Most in Your One Big, Beautiful Life
What if you had the tools to make the rest of your life the most meaningful years of all? What if you knew what would matter most to you at the end of your life? This week we invite you into a deep and thought-provoking conversation about how you are living—and how you want to live from now on. Drawing from her book What Matters Most, Diane Button gently introduces the wisdom that emerges when we listen to those facing the end of life—and when we allow our own mortality to become a teacher rather than a threat.
This workshop is designed for you to explore all that is percolating inside you, some of which you may know, and some dreams or ideas that are still waiting to surface. Let’s look at it all and discover what matters most… to you. Let’s find out what motivates you, what tugs at your heart, and how can you continue to grow and love deeply throughout your life, both as an individual and in community with your circle of people on this planet.
Session 1: Waking Up to What Matters Most
There are nuggets of wisdom waiting for you when you are willing to pause, pay attention, and contemplate each moment of life, from now until your final day. This session explores one of the central insights from What Matters Most: that awareness of death has a remarkable way of waking us up to life. Drawing on stories from people nearing the end of life, we will highlight the common regrets, realizations, and awakenings that arise when time feels precious. We will reflect on what falls away when life is stripped to its essential, the difference between a full life and a busy one, and how a simple pause can help us understand what matters most. The session closes with a simple reflection that sets a personal intention for the week.
Session 2: The Four Pillars of a Meaningful Life
How can we learn to live each day stronger, healthier, and better than before? The answers can be found in the knowledge of our elders, who have faced the life experiences that come with aging and time. They are the wisdom keepers, and they have a lot to teach us, especially now. Join us to learn what matters most to people at the end-of-life and discover how these four pillars can offer you a fresh start and a new opportunity to step back into life in a more meaningful way.
Session 3: Honor Your Story
This workshop will help you to discover “YOU”, and how your unique way of being manifests itself every day. When you know and care for yourself in a wholehearted way, the walls come down and your heart is better able to connect with and feel love for all people and this beautiful thing called life that we all share. This session is an invitation to shed distractions, soften defenses, and step more fully into your very own unique life.
Session 4: Leave Your Lasting Legacy
Every single person leaves a legacy. What’s yours? How will you be remembered by your family, your friends, and your community? What will people say about you when you are gone? Today you’ll have the space to think about these questions, to consider your own legacy, and to explore ideas and creative ways for passing your wisdom, traditions, and love to future generations.
Session 5: Show Up and Finish Well
Once we know what matters most at the end of life, we become free to let go of that which no longer serves us. We lighten our load, and we intentionally move forward in the direction of our dreams. We live with everyday joy, knowing that we are prepared and at peace for whatever life brings our way. This session offers essential tools, including The Final Checklist, to incorporate the four components of a meaningful life into an everyday practice, as we finish this week together and step more fully into our lives away from the Ranch.
Diane Button has dedicated her life’s work to serving the dying. Her courageous clients are her greatest teachers, revealing what matters most to make a full and meaningful. She is the author of several bestselling books including, Dear Death: Finding Meaning in Life, Peace in Death, and Joy in an Ordinary Day. She is a founding partner of the Bay Area End-of-Life Doula Alliance, and a lead instructor for the End-of-Life Doula Program at University of Vermont’s Osher Center for Integrative Health. Diane’s latest best-selling book, What Matters Most: Lessons the Dying Teach Us About Living was written at the invitation of Maria Shriver and published by Penguin Random House. It is available everywhere books are sold. You can learn more at www.dianebutton.com.