Create a Legacy.
Creating and leaving a legacy is a marathon not a sprint – Believe you me, I have been there! It will be the hardest yet most rewarding thing you will ever do in your life. There will be days when you want to throw in the towel and others where you feel like you are on top of the world.
There are some clear needs you must have to start you on this journey;
You must have a passion for the legacy you would like to leave
Define how are you wanting to inspire or give back to others or the community
You need to be prepared to work long unpaid hours to achieve this legacy
You need to be able to pivot when your legacy derails.
You must be able to stay humble
You must at all times continue to be happy about leaving your legacy
All these points are guides for you to think about when creating your legacy. By defining how you wish to help, and the message you leave, you will have a clear pathway towards setting and achieving your goal.
We cross paths with people in this world for a reason. Some are there to evoke our thought, others to work with, and there are those paths that we cross that will truly inspire us to make change.
In life, many people leave legacies. Princess Diana left a legacy of peace and love for mankind. Freddie Mercury a legacy to Rock and Roll and Steve Irwin a legacy to animals and the environment. My legacy is the way I changed the face of the condition Spinal Muscular Atrophy here in Australia, not quite on such a grand a scale as the ones previously mentioned, but equally important to many others, none the less.
Leaving a legacy can have many different meanings. It can be personal, or professional, or a combination of both. I was lucky enough that my passion became my full time career, and I have spent countless hours working towards my goal. For me, my legacy is a personal one. After my girls passed away from Spinal Muscular Atrophy I promised myself that I would fix it. Although I couldn’t fix it for them I can fix it for future babies being diagnosed with the condition.
So for me, when I see my girls at the end of the day when I die, I can tell them “I fixed it”. This has been my single biggest motivator for the past 16 years and I am proud to say I have nearly completed what I set out to do.
A legacy for you is entirely personal. It can be as simple as writing a book about your family history to leave for future generations, or it can be as complex as finding a cure for a disease. Whatever it is, it must be meaningful to you.
You will most likely be working on your legacy with every spare moment you have. You will live it, breathe it, dream it, curse it, and most of all be super excited and proud when you achieve it!
You may also achieve it in milestones along your life journey. There will be days of smiles and laughter, and days of flooding frustration and anger, and others that will bring you sadness and tears. These reactions all form part of your journey, and without them your legacy wouldn’t be complete. Embrace them. It’s those in-between moments, that you will reflect upon, that will be the most meaningful, and sometimes the most pivotal part of what you are trying to achieve.
