Legacy is about life not death.
Legacy isn’t tomorrow. Legacy is now. How people think of you now is how people will think of you then. Today’s footprint is tomorrow’s legacy.
Everyone leaves a legacy. Leadership is all about what you leave behind.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
7 Legacy blockers:
- Lack of focus.
- Living the life others want you to live.
- Bitterness, anger, and fear.
- Consumerism.
- Urgencies that smother priorities.
- Safety.
- Defeatism. “It won’t matter.”
Build legacy by eliminating behaviors and attitudes that dilute impact. It’s not enough to add positive behaviors; eliminate bad.
The only time to build legacy is now.
The only way to change legacy is to change now.
10 ways to build powerful legacy:
- Dare to be joyful. Serve in ways that bring you joy. Angry, unhappy people leave sad legacies.
- Monitor your impact on others. What are you doing when you make the biggest difference. Do more of that.
- Develop and maximize your talent, strengths, and skills. Know yourself – Bring yourself.
- Do what matters now. Everyone who’s at the end of life says it goes by fast.
- Seize small opportunities. Big may follow. Stop waiting to make a difference.
- Start with those closest to you and the ones you spend the most time with.
- Bring your best self to work and family. Everyone has at least two selves. Bring out the best one.
- Think service not success.
- Relax. Don’t run around building a legacy. Run around making a difference.
- Elevate the needs of others over your own.
“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”
Charles Dickens
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