Th Legacy of Living Life
As I have said in the last few weeks, for years we asked: What can I accomplish? What can I build? How successful can I become? How much can I earn? Then, almost imperceptibly, another question begins to emerge.
What will remain because I was here? Legacy is often associated with the end of life. I think that’s a mistake. Legacy is being created right now. It is in the way your children feel when they leave your presence. It is in what your grandchildren learn from watching you live.
It is in the people you mentor. The ideas you share. The courage you model. The laughter people remember. The risks you are still willing to take. The love you are willing to express. And perhaps legacy is also found in something we rarely discuss:
The permission our lives give others.
Permission to change.
Permission to leave what no longer fits.
Permission to begin again at 60, 70, 80 or beyond.
Permission to be successful and still want something different.
Permission to become softer without becoming smaller.
Permission to become bolder without needing anyone’s approval.
Permission to live the life they chose to live.
As we age, we know it’s no longer about accumulating more. Perhaps it is about becoming more intentional about what we leave behind. Not only money. Not only accomplishments. But evidence of how we chose to live.
So, I find myself wondering:
If the people you love described what your life taught them, what would you hope they would say?
That you worked hard?
That you were successful?
Or perhaps something more? That you were curious?
That you loved deeply?
That you changed when change was called for?
That you never stopped becoming.
That you refused to confuse getting older with becoming old.
And that, right until the end, you remained fully engaged in the extraordinary privilege of being alive.
What do you want your life to teach the people who are watching you live it?
Perhaps that is where legacy begins.
