Leave a Legacy :
Making Your Life Matter
We all want to leave our mark on this world, to know that our life matters. Leaving a legacy means putting a stamp on the future and contributing to future generations. People strive to leave a legacy because they want to feel that their life had significance.
Benefits of Deciding Your Legacy
- Living with Purpose: Knowing what you want your legacy to be helps you live in a way you want to be remembered.
- Taking Meaningful Action: It encourages you to start doing what matters now.
- Efficient Use of Resources: It allows you to make better use of your time and resources.
- Positive Decision Making: It influences your day-to-day decisions positively.
- Finding Meaning and Purpose: Gaining clarity on your legacy gives your life meaning and purpose.
- Showing Up with Intent: It enables you to let your legacy determine how you show up in the world each day.
- Living Significantly: It ensures you live your life as if you matter.
Identifying Your Legacy
See Yourself as a Relay Runner
In a relay race, team members take turns running while holding a baton. Each runs a portion of the race before passing the baton to the next runner. President Barack Obama viewed his life this way:
“I saw myself as a relay runner. I would take the baton and I would run my leg in the race. And then I would pass the baton to someone else… Each generation tries to make progress knowing that what we do is not going to be perfect… But hopefully, we have run our leg of the race effectively – and the world’s gotten a little bit better.”
Reflect on your life: How are you doing on your leg of the race? What are you doing to advance the baton?
Picture Your 80th Birthday Party
Imagine your 80th birthday party. Everyone you have impacted is there, toasting you. What would you like them to say about you? This exercise helps you identify what you want your life to stand for.
What Words Do You Want Etched on Your Tombstone?
Consider the words you want on your tombstone. Reflect on Thomas Jefferson’s epitaph:
- Author of the Declaration of American Independence
- Of the Statute of Virginia for religious freedom
- Father of the University of Virginia
While most of us will not have such grand achievements, an ordinary life lived well can make a significant difference. What words do you want etched on your tombstone?
Questions to Ask Yourself
These questions will help you identify the legacy you wish to leave:
- What do you want your life to stand for?
- How do you want to be remembered by family and friends?
- What will those beyond your circle remember you for?
- What kind of impact do you want to have on your community?
- How would the world be better because you were in it?
- What contributions do you want to make to your field?
- Whose lives will you have touched?
- What lessons do you want to pass on to future generations?
- What do you want to leave behind?
- How can you serve?
Ways to Leave a Legacy
Brainstorm ways to leave a legacy using these ideas as a starting point:
- Add knowledge to your field.
- Leave a legacy through your body of work.
- Write a book.
- Leave money for your descendants to build their financial futures.
- Bequeath money to charities close to your heart.
- Write down family recipes and traditions.
- Serve as a good role model.
- Be a mentor.
- Volunteer.
- Start a business or a non-profit organization.
The Story of Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy aimed to land humans on the moon. Apollo 11, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins, launched on July 16, 1969. Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and Armstrong became the first human to step on the moon. They left a sign that read, “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
Aldrin was the second person to walk on the moon, but his name is less remembered. This illustrates that even significant contributions can be overshadowed, yet both astronauts left a legacy of exploration and achievement.
Reflect on how you can leave a legacy and make your life matter. Click here to find a global patented business opportunity through which you can leave a legacy.