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
A quick google shows FB and LinkedIN profiles too. Rest assured, she weill get no value from your books
Craig Martin
The sad thing is, while myself and most people would blush at cheek and cover our mouths with embarrassment, she is probably congratulating herself in ‘oneupmanship’.
I think Dennis is right, she has no substance.
And as for it being a small matter, she may have done the same to others, so yes, there should be consequences.
To be fair, consequences are often the best platforms to learn from.
Noah
Amazing – What Dennis said..
Alan Weiss
Does anyone know the square root of 163 times infinity, so that I can log in and place comments here?
Craig Martin
Jeez, Alan. At least you get the easy ones.
Mine said 3 + six =
Starting with numbers then converting to letters?
I’ve always been poor at algebra.
What do these people want?
Alan Weiss
It must be an anti-spam device. Like Monty Python: What’s your favorite color? Sorry, that’s incorrect.
Craig Martin
Quality humour, and big Spam fans to boot.
But are evidently no brain surgeons working on the script code for these bloghosts at the moment!
ALAN WEISS
I have no idea how it’s done, and my site has been under attack at times from sickos. If you agree, subtract 7 from 3.
Craig Martin
I tried, but was left with a hole where my brain cell used to be.