Why is your legacy important?
“What you leave behind is not what is left on stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.”
- Pericles
What is it to leave a lasting legacy behind?
What is legacy defined as?
Can anyone be designing a legacy with purpose and intent?
Can you create an impactful legacy? Why should you try?
Is your legacy going to be a positive or a negative one?
Do you have time to change it?
When should you start caring about your legacy?
So many questions yet, not a lot of answers are available on such a broad and important subject. One that no doubt we all ponder at some stage or another.
Legacy starts to come up when we get to a certain age, it tends to be often during times of great stress, periods of change or when faced with the spectre of someone's death, possibly our own.
The first place we need to start with when it comes to talking about someone's legacy is understanding what the word actually means.
Are we talking about legacy in terms of financial heritage? Is it something grand and inspiring? Almost so lofty that only the very fortunate, influential or wealthy can leave behind?
Or, can it simply be a personal thing, one that everyone will have a different take on?
What will your legacy be?
Does your legacy have to be something grand? In short, no. I don’t believe it does.
Your legacy doesn’t need to be one of riches, but it should be one of richness.
Your legacy should be about the amazing experiences you have with people, the relationships you form, how you have impacted the lives of those that matter most because of the imprints left in their mind and lives.
I often think about parents that don’t lead lives where wealth was something spoken about or even aspired to, but who have led lives where their children grow up to be amazing humans, full of gratitude and care for others because of how the parents raised them, the values they nurtured in them… This, to me, is an important part of legacy.
It is what I call your living legacy.
But here’s what it actually means when we understand it doesn’t have to be about scale.
What does legacy mean?
There are thousands of quotes about legacy, dating back thousands of years and there are numerous ways to define legacy.
Some that really resonate with me are:
A long lasting impact
Fulfilment
Giving back
What has been taught and passed on
Something for those that follow
A feeling felt by many
Making a difference
What I did for my kids
How people remember me
“People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
Your legacy is an evolving thing
For many years, my definition of legacy would have been something along the lines of “the things you leave behind for others”. And let’s face it, the earlier you are in your life, the less it is really top of mind or priority.
In my twenties and thirties it was about winning, being right and obtaining possessions with a sprinkle of sharing and nurturing along the way. The thing that really changed in my fourties was that I didn’t want to wait until it was too late to start to change the trajectory that I was on to make an impactful legacy on those around me - in a truly positive and impactful way.
I wanted to choose what my legacy was going to be, with purpose and intent. I wanted my legacy to be one of giving, kindness, patience and being remembered for the impact I made.
BUT is it easy to just wake up one day and start to create the legacy you want to leave?
Building a truly impactful legacy takes time
No, designing a legacy that will fulfil all that you want it to be is not easy.
Don't forget, it can be difficult to change who we are as individuals, especially when we get into our 30s, 40s and 50s. All the behaviours you display each day are driven by the beliefs that you have been building up over your entire lifetime, all of those experiences and moments shaping your reactions.
Those reactions and actions impact those around you while you’re here, very much alive, and it’s defining a legacy you will leave behind.
Start somewhere, anywhere, but start now!
If you decide you want to design your legacy now, then where do you start?
How could you make those changes when you’re not even sure of what they should be?
Much like any goal, you need to define firstly what you are trying to achieve and then set the habits and smaller purposeful actions in place in order to get there. Eating an elephant can only be done one way: one bite at a time.
Ask yourself those questions:
Can I define what I want my legacy to be?
Am I doing the things now that work towards my vision?
What values would I like to represent in the way I live my life?
What can I do today to get started?
Am I doing all you can to be happy and fulfilled when I die?
What will I care most about at the dn?
“BUT, I have time and I can’t think about this right now!”
This always comes up with people I coach, they say “I don’t have time” or “it’s not the right time to worry about something so far away”.
But it doesn’t work that way. What you are doing right now is going to be part of your legacy and it’s foolish to think otherwise.
Conversations.
Actions.
Each and every day these add up.
Each time you use the right words, it’s like bricks in the wall, higher and more powerful your legacy builds.
And it’s not always what you are doing. It can be the things that you keep putting off, they can have just as big an impact further down the road as those things that you are actually doing.
Think about that, the conversations you are afraid of having that will make a positive difference to yours or someone else's life aren’t having a profound impact because you aren't being courageous and brave. Your legacy is less than it could be… why?
Because you are holding back, not showing up in full force.
Because maybe you are afraid of actually going all in and failing.
But isn’t a legacy of going all in worth living?
So my last 2 questions for you are:
What would the happy ending to your story be?
Are you doing enough to write that ending right now?
You can start defining your living legacy now with my Dawn of Legacy life coaching programs.