Your Legacy is Not A Wall - It is an Opening...
Create Meaning for Yourself Now - Don't Stare at the Past!
While history should be consulted and analyzed, not all of it is relevant to today. Your life today IS meaningful, and can be shaped to be more rewarding, relevant, and meaningful as you move into your future. Otherwise why plan anything?
Where are you going with your life? It doesn't help to plan, as we have been doing the past few weeks, unless there is a possiblitity of achieving desireable outcomes, even something as simple as inspiring someone else to do better. Pay it forward, as they say.
We are goal seeking mechanisms at a fundamental level. According to Abraham Maslow, we must solve survival before we turn to other needs, but all organisms must do that. Our Creator has given us the capacity to seek other, higher outcomes even while we seek to perpetuate ourselves. It is a good time of year to remember Victor Frankl and reread Man's Search for Meaning. Build a list of once a year books to center your efforts towards your true North.
Knowing the general direction we are going is helpful, but our brains react powerfully to specifics. Lily Tomlin observed once that "When I grew up I always wanted to BE somebody. And then: Perhaps I should have been more specific".
It is likely that if we were allowed to visit Heaven and had the option to stay, we would stay, because of its specific nature of extreme joy. Thousands of near death experiences confirm this. Hopefully, we are afraid enough or lucky enough to avoid a premature trip, because there is still a lot of work to do here. Effort goes better when we plan the outcomes, specifically.
However, I have been urging you to rearrange and plan for orderly, positive emotions before you plan your external changes. The normal procedure is to set goals for increasing income, possessions, etc. Tangibles lend themselves to easy measurement. They are quantifiable. But it is much better, and more inspiring to try a different path using intangibles.
Check this out from Alan Weiss as he describes the elements of finding our ultimate legacy in his book Your legacy Is Now. He uses the metaphor of a sailboat:
Beliefs and Values, but no Vision = Lost at sea, no port in sight
Values and Vision, but no Beliefs = lack of Navigation.
Vision and Belief, but no Values = Sinking, no integrity in the craft
Therefore, put integrity into the craft before casting off. It is another way of saying we should know what harbor we want to sail to, but the craft we are sailing in must have integrity or all is lost.
It is most likely that you will have a normal year next year, whatever'normal' is for you. Unless you are inspired to change. Habits are very hard to modify without emotional reasons to do so. Yet, your potential is vast. Finding even one unknown piece of that puzzle is a great triumph, and that is why you plan your legacy - life's great treasure hunt.
Lastly, a comment from Anne Frank talking about young people - "Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in therir own hands".
While that is certainly true, day to day life events scream for leadership from others. Leadership from those who are more mature is VERY important and setting an example IS your legacy. Make it a good example! The world depends on it for direction in a most perilous time.
Remember this then from Ralph Waldo Emerson - "Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Look for Joy as a natural outcome!
Happy Days Ahead
Joe Grant, MBA
Certified Retirement Coach
Contact me for a Free 45 minute Consultation at https://yourvantagepoints.com
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