The Legacy Drawing Board

It's important to pause from legacy building to legacy evaluation.  Set aside time to reflect and to ask others about your legacy.  How fit is it in terms of delivering your message and touching the lives of others?  Examine it for its strength, flexibility, mobility, and balance.   

Writer Farley Ledgerwood identified the four kinds of people you need in your life:

 Listen to examine your relationships and what direction you want them to go.

Do you show before you tell?  Have you established your identity before assuming responsibilities?  Listen to appreciate the importance of placing indicatives before imperatives in your legacy design and building.  Doing so will position your legacy to empower than to burden.  

Persistent or stubborn?  Collaborative or indecisive?  Honest or indiscreet?  How you channel your core energy will either build or destroy.  Listen to design a path for your essence to engage others in sharing a clear and consistent message.  

How do you view your children's spouses?  Do you consider them in-laws or on as your own children?  Listen to prepare for this family addition with open arms, open hearts, and an enduring loving message of acceptance.  

Will people know your faith by your works?  And, are works grounded in loving others?  Listen to begin examining how you are living your faith and how your works shape your legacy.  

Money has three fundamental functions: it is a medium of exchange, a unit of account/measure of value, and a store of value.  Have you examined the function of your legacy?  Does it promote dialogue, be held up as a standard for living, or continue to influence people after you are gone?  Listen to build a better legacy by combining form with function.  

Your legacy is your kingdom.  How do you treat your subjects: your hopes, dreams, fears, and your message?  Listen to understand whether your rule or govern and what will be the lasting impact of your reign.  

Running barefoot improves form because we receive unmediated input from the ground.  As we build our legacies, are we taking the time to go barefoot to ensure our perceptions are aligning with the truth?  Listen to let your legacy run a better course by shedding comfort for the fullness of life.   

Your legacy.  Your story.  Yet, who are the individuals who are part of the story, who have contributed to expanding your vision, and shared in the labor of telling it?  We have examples of the value of partnerships in business, the arts, and in sports.  Have you identified and thanked those who opened doors to collaboration and synergism?  When you do, you enrich your legacy.