Are you designing your legacy?
What will you be remembered for? What will you leave behind? How will you impact the future's current events? How will you impact your grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
There's a lot of good thinking out there today about 1-year and 5-year goal setting and lifestyle design. But what about legacy design? How many are designing and acting on plans to impact and bless future generations?
Some, like MLK, Helen Keller, and Billy Graham were clear early-on about the legacy they wanted to leave. Most of us, however, just don't think or plan this way. We focus our energies on pursuits, goals, and stuff that lasts only as long as we do. When we're gone, so is our impact on the world.
The symptoms of this are everywhere in business and fatherhood:
- Companies focus on making money for quarterly Wall St. earnings reports and leave a legacy of greed, short-sighted decisions, and betrayal.
- Fathers put personal pleasures and pursuits before their families and leave a legacy of broken homes and relationships and lost opportunities.
I've seen some care dearly about legacy, but not until later stages of life (presidents in their last year of office come to mind). But at that point it's more about revising history than designing legacy. Why not start when you're young and still have time?
I'll write more on this in future posts, including what I'm doing. For now, I'd love to hear from you. Anyone out there designing their legacy?
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