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|  | | | | | ISSN
1943-8133
Volume 2009-03, Issue 1
March 25, 2009
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you on our mailing list. Manage your subscription at the end of the
newsletter. | |
| | | |  | Greetings,
Progress
sometimes
looks like one step forward and two steps back. We certainly
know that here at Creating Legacy – so if you wrote to say
you couldn’t see the garbled text in our last Ezine or the
web version, the good news is that with some great help, we now have a
lovely and improved newsletter template. I hope you enjoy it.
The last issue is also available on our archive
web page.
Moving that dance of
progress forward happens only with persistence and consistency
– two watchwords that my clients know well (and hear
often). It takes putting one foot in front of the other,
which, as my mentor Bucky Fuller would remark is why the universe
designed us to walk ‘right foot, left foot’ not
right foot, wrong foot – there are no wrong steps as long as
we keep moving. And sometimes in our progress, we have to
take a step back and regroup. It’s just the way it
is, whether you are trying to progress in a relationship or career, in
growing finances or managing wealth, or in building a business, a
structure or any project.
Even if
you are making good sound decisions along the way, set backs can occur
as we are seeing in the current world economic situation. They tell us
to pause, take a step back, and maybe even hit the
‘restart’ button – but not to stop
altogether. Progress requires action.
On
February 7, 2009, the New York Times published an article called
“What’s
Your New Plan B?” about how people are
regrouping. Amid the gloomier descriptions of
people’s stepped-down versions, there was a reference to
Steve Maslow, a corporate headhunter in Manhattan, who remarked that
some of his clients have started to segue into work that they actually
prefer.
Moving toward developing whatever
project defines your true legacy can well resemble that
‘regrouping two step’ dance – especially
if it includes moving into work that resonates more with your heart and
soul, like starting some sort of social enterprise business.
You may need to complete something you’re doing now, or leave
where you are, to even open up the space – physically and
consciously – to consider what you want to do to that truly
makes a difference. You may start working on that, only to
find other things that need tending to first. It’s
okay. It’s about progress, not perfection
– consistent and persistent action over time.
That’s how anything great gets built.
And
while the term legacy most often generates thoughts of "what," some
tangible thing produced and left behind, it starts with
“who.” It’s true that some form
of asset – human or artifact – that persists beyond
your involvement will be a part of your legacy. But deciding
how that unfolds starts with who you are … and choose to
be.
Taking action from that
perspective is a different way to get things moving again in the world,
which has contracted considerably. There is no shortage of
important things to be done, and acting on them from the core of who
you are can give birth to greater hope and optimism. The resulting
expression of your unique and perfect design may also then prove to be
quite easy and enjoyable. After all, as Stuart Wilde says in
his book, "Life Was Never Meant to Be a Struggle." We sure do
need more of all that.
So in this issue we ask
the question, “Who Are You?” and provide a few more
examples of others thinking through who they are and how they see
themselves making a difference. The bottom line: before you
do anything, get to know your true attributes, values and interests and
why you want to take any action or build anything. You can
build more effectively from there.
Cheers,
Dolly
PS – If you’d like to
consider your own legacy further, take our Legacy
Story Quiz.
Back to Top
| | | |  | "Know
Thyself"
-
Plato, Greek Philosopher, 428 – 348 BC
Back to Top
| | | |  | Who And Why, Before What And
How
Do you know who you
are – really? Do you know what you value?
Are you involved in what interests you most in life? Can you
say what you believe, articulate what’s important to you? Can
you list your talents and abilities with confidence? Do you know what
environments best support you? Can you state what truly motivates you,
really stresses you (and describe the coping mechanisms you have in
place), and describe the natural style that makes you, well, you?
Well,
who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I
really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell
me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
'Cause
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
--
Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend, 1978
The
term legacy most often generates thoughts of "what." Some
thing that’s left behind. Something tangible
– an asset, impact on someone else, artifact, ongoing
organization – may well be a part of your legacy.
But preceding that is the "who" – that’s you
– and the “why” –
that’s what’s important to you and works best to
support your day to day brilliance – behind the
"what." This foundation that makes the "what" what it is!
Developing
any sort of legacy project is about equal parts of "beingness" and
"doingness." We are first human beings, though many
people live their lives as human doings:
‘if I do the right things, I’ll get the things I
want (or think will make me happy) and then I’ll be who
I’m meant to be.’ My coach training
teaches that while that is typical, it is not as effective as
‘if I appreciate and become fully who I am, I can do the
things that develop my personal sense of significance and fulfillment,
and from that I’ll produce or have what I truly
want.’ So before taking action, go inside and
discover yourself to truly know and appreciate all that you uniquely
are – so you can more fully impact the world in the way that
only you
can. It’s not about being right, it’s
about being real, true, authentically you. The world needs
that.
"A
bird sings not because it has an answer, but because it has a song."
--
Chinese proverb
Knowing
yourself and the song you have to sing allows you to fully appreciate
your individuality and the gifts only you can contribute, based on the
unique design of your DNA and life circumstances. It makes
you a true power to reckon with – not in the "win, kill and
conquer" sense, but from the magnificent ability to "do" that only you
possess. From that perspective, there is no competition
– only you and what you came here capable of doing.
Will you fully discover yourself in order to do it?
As
for the doingness
part, you already have a developing legacy. It is how others
currently perceive you and your talents, and the contributions you have
already made – both tangible and intangible, large and
small. You may discover that your family, friends, colleagues
and others in your communities already think a lot of you –
for reasons you may not be fully aware of. You may want to
ask a
few of them how they perceive you – and may be surprised to
hear about your attributes, not just your self-perceived flaws. These
are the parts of your beingness
to build on.
Creating legacy begins with a
mindset and a conscious decision about how you want to be known and
remembered. That can color all your interactions and
outcomes. Begin to take stock of who you are, which may give
you a clue about why you’re really here on the planet
– what you’re drawn to and meant to touch and
influence. Your attitude and how you choose to touch our
world, are among the few things you truly have much control over
anyway. That is your true power.
We’re
here to help with that discovery and your development of great projects
that make a positive and sustainable difference …
So who are you and what will that be?
Back to Top
| | | |  | This
issue features the second set of stories I gathered from people I
interviewed when first exploring the concept of living and
working from the perspective of legacy.
The
questions I posed:
•
What does the word Legacy mean to you?
•
If you were to consider creating a legacy, what would it be?
•
Is there an optimal time of life to create a legacy?
Jess
Jess
thinks of the traditional notions of legacy first – who are
my beneficiaries, my family, and how can I leave them financially
comfortable? He’d like to leave each of his
children with enough principal to do something significant.
He adds how nice it would be to also be able to fund a scholarship for
a needy child or family.
On further
contemplation, Jess thinks some people would be surprised if they knew
he remembered them. There are many people who impressed him,
showed him something he wanted to model 25-30 years ago when he was in
graduate school, for example. His softball coach had an
admirable way about him simply in the way he advised about the game; he
loved his wife, stood out because of his character and was someone Jess
could look up to. Jess also had a teacher in a difficult
class many struggled who once said to him, plainly “you could
be really good at this.” These simple interactions
made a big impact, and were a form of legacy in the way
they’ve carried on through Jess. He’s
tried to emulate these ways of being, and pass them along to others.
While
Jess sees legacy as tied to his finances, and sees the optimal time for
building something himself when he is “well off
financially,” he also sees his current involvement
in community activities as part of his legacy. He’s been
actively involved in helping to create a park in his town, and finds it
fulfilling to be able to do something like that.
Jack
To
Jack, “legacy means having an impact on others that is larger
than me, beyond me.” He sees it like the pebble dropping into
the pond, and the ripples that extend out in all directions –
“it’s the effect of my
actions.” While one example of legacy is leaving
money to a good cause, it is also simply “something you live
and that can be left behind,” which can be identical to your
work in the world, or different and separate from that. Jack
wants to see how what he does impacts the world, and says “it
would be very disappointing to work your whole life and never feel like
you had any real impact.”
He gives an
example of his own legacy from when he worked in a center for teenage
school drop outs. Mike, who had a violent temper, picked up a
ball from the pool table and was about to throw it at another
kid. Jack simply stepped in between them and looked Mike in
the eyes – he dropped the ball into Jack’s
hand. He feels Mike had an “a ha” moment:
here’s an adult male who demonstrated a peaceful
intervention. Mike went on to hold down a job and
didn’t land in jail. There were also other examples
where Jack’s efforts to be a good role model impacted kids
– “they’ve tracked me down to tell
me,” he says.
Jack doesn’t
think there is a distinction between living your legacy and living your
life purpose. If you find one, you find the other.
To him, though, it is the idea – the intangible –
that is more important than the tangible. He notes that
Andrew Carnegie’s legacy was about expanding one’s
mind – not about the actual libraries he built.
“It’s the idea that’s
important” and they may take any number of physical
forms. (Read more about Andrew Carnegie and his legacy here).
Jack
says developing a legacy is about developing your passion –
first discovering what it is and then challenging yourself about how
you can express it, expanding on that to find a number of different
ways. And the optimal time to develop a legacy for Jack is
“as early as you can figure it out.” How
you execute it – and how often and how many times you can
build on your legacy – may change, but “do whatever
you can as early as you can.” By all means
don’t wait until some magic age, like 65, or retirement.
Eleana
For
Eleana, legacy embraces the following questions: ‘For what
will I be remembered and for what do I take a stand. How do I want my
name to be spoken? What impact do I want to have left?
What’s important to me?”
As
she ponders it, Eleana realizes her legacy may involve
writing. She explains that she had a mortifying experience
having her personal journaling revealed when she was young, and as a
result stopped writing altogether. But now, later in life,
she’s captivated by the possibilities writing
holds. She wants to write a memoir of her colleague
– so she can remember him and so his children can know him as
she did, not just as dad but also how beautiful it was to work with
him. She is considering writing about other people she has
lost and their significance, “to open up that space where
memory is held.”
When contemplating
legacy, Elena realizes that as a professional woman who has left one
career and begun another, she is “more fully living into it
now.” Her legacy is about her children and
grandchildren – but it goes beyond that to “a
strong matrix of community upon which everybody can
stand.” Her legacy dream is to develop an
intergenerational mentoring program that goes beyond helping kids get
through school to deepening their critical thinking skills and knowing
there is someone in the community for them. She wants to
contribute to a dialogue between elders and young people in their teens
and twenties, so they are all comfortable talking with one another.
Eleana
sees a legacy project in the shape of an organization – a
tangible thing that becomes woven into the fabric of society.
She envisions people saying “remember that organization that
Eleana started …?” It is something
dynamic, and that lasts for a longer period of time impacting
people’s lives so they become richer and more
sustainable. In her vision, the project would expand
exponentially – teaching values and concepts of growing
community to empower others to go forward and share it.
As
for an optimal time of life, Eleana replies that “life is
fragile and you start when you start.” She says we
all experience “choice points” in our lives, at
which we are given the opportunity to create our own legacy.
It is about noticing them and getting into action with what you have
and bring with you, and getting what you need if you don’t
have it.
--------------
*Names
have been changed to maintain confidentiality
If
you have or know about a legacy story we should feature, please email
me with the background information, including any links to online sites
where they were featured. We’d love to consider
including them in our growing list of examples of great personal
legacies, consciously created.
And –
take our Legacy Story Quiz
and share your thoughts! We may use them in a future story.
Back to Top
| | | |  |  Dolly
M. Garlo, RN, JD, PCC is the founder and president of Thrive!! Inc. and
Creating Legacy. It is a company devoted to empowering business owners
and entrepreneurially minded professionals make their positive impact
in the world – with joy and meaning.
For
30 + years
Dolly has supported clients in many different arenas –
healthcare, law and business. While she’s currently best
known
for her expertise in business development and professional career
transition, her clients, members of Generation G (for generosity!)
share that her biggest impact comes from her philosophy.
That
philosophy is to design your work and create an exceptional life by
making sure that all your actions reflect your personal integrity and
values, greatest level of wellness, highest and best contribution, and
individual sense of abundance – for which you can feel
exceedingly grateful. These, Dolly says, are the keys to true, lasting
satisfaction and happiness from which you can also “make a
positive difference that lasts for generations.”
You
can learn more about Dolly and her programs, presentations and products
at CreatingLegacy.com and AllThrive.com.
Back to Top
| | | |  | Creating Legacy Kit
Pick
up a copy at www.CreatingLegacy.com
to help you contemplate, define and plan your own personal legacy. This
fr.ee resource includes a downloadable mp3 audio discussing more about
how you, too, can make a positive difference that lasts. It also
includes our Life And Work After Career guide - a comprehensive
workbook that will give you a holistic view of your own life and what
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how they impact one another, and your coping resources. Take the
profile to access a better understanding and greater satisfaction, here.
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| | | |  | You
may absolutely share this newsletter with people you think may
enjoy it. When doing so, please forward it in its entirety, including
our contact and copyright information.
Thanks and enjoy! The Legacy Journal newsletter is written by Dolly M.
Garlo:
http://www.CreatingLegacy.com.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: Dolly@CreatingLegacy.com. |
| ©2008-present
by Thrive!! Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
| | | |
