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.
Dennis
Alan – wondering why the Video channel for WOTW is ‘unlisted’? I.e. only people with a link can see it. I would have thought it is a lost marketing opportunity for ‘passing traffic’ to find you? Interested to hear your view
Jeffrey Summers
It’s not unlisted: https://www.youtube.com/user/alansummitconsulting
Jeffrey Summers
Spot on!
But just one question: How did you get the bird to squawk just as you made the “raised-eyebrow” face?
Alan Weiss
The bird is in my coaching program.
Dennis, is Jeffrey’s reply sufficient?
Esteban J Fallas
I think Dennis is referring to the fact that WOTW is not listed as a separate entity from Alan Weiss video channel on Youtube.
Perhaps he experienced the same minor inconvenience as I did, which is, having to dig into Alan’s vids to put together a numerically ordered list of WOTW..
Alan, just as a friendly “mirror” on the matter, you could delight your audience by setting up playlists. I’d love to see a few of them, something like WOTW season 1, WOTW season 2, and so forth.
Last but not least, in absence of the necessary means or time, WOTW is the closest thing anyone can have to hang out with you for a few minutes every now and then, so please keep it up!
Thanks!
Alan Weiss
Even minor annoyances should be remedied. Thanks for the playlist which I’ve sent to my technical team for more widespread dissemination. Greatly appreciated!
Esteban J Fallas
Here’s a draft of a playlist, just the first 30 are correctly ordered… if you find it useful let me know…
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ0rFBNom5oKlFo3ojhCS_OCzRlvuhFr6
Cheers,
Esteban
Alan Weiss
I do find it useful, thank you!
Dennis
Thanks Alan. Not sure what happened there. It appears normal now. I was I think the 4th viewer oin the day of the post. And there was definitely an indication on the settings that it was restricted – which prompted the question because I thought that would be unusual for you. (I thought maybe it was normally viewable by Forum members only or something.)