Your Legacy is Now
Life is not a search for meaning from others, it’s about the creation of meaning for yourself.
For over 30 years Alan Weiss has consulted, coached, and advised everyone from Fortune 500 executives, state governors, non-profit directors, and entrepreneurs to athletes, entertainers, and beauty pageant contestants. That’s quite an assortment of people, and they run into the thousands. Most of them have had what we euphemistically call “means,” and some of them have had a lot more than that. Others have been aspiring and with more ends in sight than means on hand.
Alan Weiss states:
I’ve dealt with esteem (low), narcissism (high), family problems, leadership dysfunctions, insecurities, addictions, and ethical quandaries. And I’ve talked about them through the coronavirus crisis. But don’t get the wrong idea. About 95% of these people have been well-meaning, honest (to the best of their knowledge), and interested in becoming a better person and better professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be talking to me.
I found the equivalent of the “runner’s wall” in their journeys, where they must break through the pain and the obstacles and then can keep going with renewed energy and spirit. But runners know how far they must go after the breakthrough, be it another half lap or another five miles. There is a finish line.
I’ve found that people in all positions, even after the “breakthrough,” don’t know where they are in the race, let alone where the finish line is.
They do not know what meaning is for them. They may have money in the bank, good relationships, the admiration of others, and the love of their dogs. But they have no metrics for “What now?” They believe that at the end of life there is a tallying, some metaphysical accountant who totals up their contributions, deducts their bad acts, and creates the (hopefully positive) difference.
That difference, they believe, is their “legacy.”
But the thought that legacy arrives at the end of life is as ridiculous as someone who decides to sell a business and tries to increase its valuation the day prior. Legacy is now. Legacy is daily. Every day we create the next page in our lives, but the question becomes who is writing it and what’s being written. Is someone else creating our legacy? Or are we, ourselves, simply writing the same page repeatedly?
Or do we leave it blank?
Our organic, living legacy is marred and squeezed by huge normative pressures. There is a “threshold” point, at which one’s beliefs and values are overridden by immense peer pressure. Our metrics are forced to change.
In an age of social media, biased press, and bullying, we’ve come to a point where our legacy, ironically, is almost out of our hands.
Yet our “meaning”—our creation of meaning and not a search for some illusive alchemy—creates worth and impact for us and all those with whom we interact.
Bill
Two words… “Amen brother!”
Alan Burke
I absolutely agree. The vast majority of people think in terms of survival, and to justify their limited results in life, they get defensive when they hear of others living in abundance. I learned at a young age that we become the average of the five people we spend the most time with (that’s probably why I have very few friends). I started my consulting practice 3 years ago (I’m 29 now) and even before I found my business, I would drive through neighborhoods here in Orlando where the homes were in the 5+ Million range, and see luxury cars, and quite frankly, happy people. Never did I feel envy, but I thought how amazing and what a wonderful life this will be when I am at this level. About once per month, I stop at the executive airport just to look at the private planes lined up, and sometimes if I’m lucky, there’s the smell of jet fuel in the air when I roll the windows down. I go to Boca Raton, Palm beach, etc. on a regular basis, and I’ll stop on worth avenue to try on watches (patek philippe, audemar piguet, etc.), and get into the feeling space of this life. I surround myself with winners, and the people you mentioned on social media (I’m not on social media – big waste of time) surround themselves with mediocre, and limited thinking individuals. Cheers Dr. Weiss, and look forward to meeting you in the future.
Alan Weiss
You have the right attitude. You either want to achieve what others have that is important to you, or you resent everyone else because of your own inferiority complex. There are winners and whiners.
kevin berchelmann
“There are winners and whiners.”
And never the twain shall meet…
KB