The Legacy Journal

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Note From Dolly

ISSN 1943-8133
Volume 2009-06, Issue 1
June 9, 2009

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Greetings,

I’m in Washington DC this week, participating in Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) activities and as nominee from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for Volunteer of the Year! I thought I was just showing up for activities I enjoy, volunteering to do things that are easy for me, working in subject matter (the marine environment) I truly value … and then I get an award on top of it! How great is that?!

Everything should work this way ... hmmm, and it can! When you define your personal legacy and you start living it, you trade hard work for good work that is enjoyable and fulfilling – and people truly appreciate it. The world can use a lot more appreciation – something that works for both the giver and receiver of it. And pursuit of your good work is holistic – it affects your whole life. You might even find true love in the process, like I did ...

Our Spaceship Earth

More on that later, but it is truly my honor and privilege to get to participate at CHOW this year, with its theme: “The BLUE Economy: Understanding the Ocean's Role in Our Nation's Financial Future.” It kicked off June 8 with a celebration of World Oceans Day and its complementing theme of “One Ocean, One Climate, One Future.” That reminded me of Buckminster Fuller’s view of Our Spaceship Earth (a term he coined) as a “one world island in a one world ocean.” As part of his legacy, he also created the map of the earth with the least distortion. (More about that here.)

This week we will explore the links between the ocean and the economy in an effort to find tangible ways to improve it in keeping with sound ocean policies. Sound ecology that pays off – that’s good thinking in my book. And this is all right up my alley as a nurse concerned with wellness, a lawyer concerned about justice and equality, and a professional coach focused on sound value-adding business development, social entrepreneurship, career transition and legacy – oh, and as a lover of life and creator of my personally defined legacy focused on green living and environmental preservation.

How can I help you get on with defining, living and leaving your personal mark on the world? It may be the most fulfilling thing you ever do. Call me. I’d love to explore it with you.

Cheers, Dolly

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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Marianne Williamson (from A Return To Love)

"If you think you are too small to be effective,
you have never been in bed with a mosquito."
- Betty Reese

Inspired, Thought- & Heart-Full

Great legacies have a number of significant characteristics – all accessible by every human being who applies them. You may think of a legacy as something beyond you, that only others produce or leave behind. Not true. Great legacies are being created in many different forms by people of all ages and walks of life. And they’re doing it consciously, during their lifetimes – so they can also enjoy the creation, see it come to fruition and joyfully witness the benefit it has for others.

Let’s explore the first few characteristics – consider how these apply to you:

GREAT LEGACIES ARE INSPIRED. They begin from a moment of inspiration. Like drawing in a breath, when you’re open and receptive, there is a spark – a moment of awareness of something. It may begin as an inkling, or an itch. It may present as a full blown idea. You may get a glimpse of a solution to a problem. A grand solution to a recurring problem or just a way to deal with something that just occurred for the first time.

That inspiration may seem like a fanciful notion at first. Your conditioned way of thinking might reply to with something like “oh that’s not possible” or “who are you to think you could do something like that?” We all have such thoughts when we have big ideas – depending on risk tolerance and how willing we are to jump into something new. Even the folks who don’t appear to us to question their own capacity do it (I’ve heard the boldest-seeming clients admit it in private). But what both the bold and the initially timid discover when they take their first steps to follow their inspiration is that the risk of doing so can be a calculated one, taken slowly, while acknowledging and addressing questions and limiting beliefs.

The key is to listen to what inspires you and take action – even small steps add up. When you find something that inspires you, hold onto it. If you nurture the idea rather than dismiss it, like a seed, something beautiful can grow.

GREAT LEGACIES ARE THOUGHT-FULL. They often result from deep soul-full contemplation – about your life, the things you appreciate, the gifts you’ve been given, the people you care about, or a situation in which you’d like to make a difference. It may start with a fleeting thought. When that thought given some attention and registers in your conscious mind, then you can play around with it.

It may be simple or profound. But when brought to active contemplation, your best thinking and that of others can be further applied to morph it and coax it out. You can brainstorm, develop it, design logistics for it, and from there figure out how to make it work. And such thoughtfulness is bound to become a precious gift for someone, which in turn becomes a gift to you.

GREAT LEGACIES ARE ‘FROM THE HEART.’ Your legacy idea may start in your head as a logical response to a developing awareness. Or it might start in your heart – a vague feeling of unrest or curiosity, a flutter, or a “disturbance in the force” that compels your attention. It may feel like a hunch, or a gut feeling - a burning sensation. It may develop into something you day dream about, that is part of a recurring dream or one that wakes you up at night.

Wherever it starts, a legacy idea is both an intriguing thought and a deep seated feeling about something that makes you want to act. Listening to it eventually compels you to do something – whether that’s to write about it, try to describe it to someone else, or merely do a little happy dance whenever you consider it. That dancing may make you wonder why you’re not doing more of something derived from such internal insistence or desire. And your next action may be to investigate further to bring it to life. If you’re not sure where to begin or how to pursue it, working with a coach can help you explore in ways most comfortable to you and applicable to your unique situation.

What has inspired you lately? What thoughts do you have about that? Where in your body do deep feelings register when you contemplate those inspirations? And what would you really like to do about it? You can do something – so take a step. It may end up being very grand, very gracious and very helpful. And it may just be the most important thing you ever do in this life.

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If You Think You’re Too Small

They say good things come in small packages. Great legacies often start small, and in some cases early. Those small starts carried forward one step at a time, add up to a lot. Let a teenager be your inspiration …
Emily Goldstein

When Emily Goldstein was a senior at Atherton High School in Louisville, Kentucky, she was one of 16 teens chosen from around the world to study polar bears in the Arctic. She and her partner, Brandie Farkas, both volunteers at the Louisville Zoo, entered the “Project Polar Bear” contest.

Likely inspired by the news that led to the Earth Day poster design for 2009, for their entry they created a website at the Louisville Zoo to educate about the effects of climate change, and encourage individuals to help address it. As an anti-pollution and water quality advocate, Emily’s thought was that it will take everyone to help address global climate change. She felt that each individual can make a significant difference and wanted to make it easier for them to do it. She knew that if each person makes a small lifestyle change, it would add up to big changes that could help not only the polar bears and their diminishing habitat, but the whole planet. On the website, people have made pledges that add up to a reduction of over 15 million pounds of carbon emissions of energy use.

Emily gives climate change presentations as well, and has educated over 1,000 people and convinced numerous companies to recycle and change their energy-use policies. Emily serves on the advisory panel of the National Environmental Education Foundation, and the University of Louisville will be lucky to have her as a student in the fall of 2009.

But she has big plans for next steps in the legacy she’s building. In 2010, Emily is planning an ocean awareness day, and will continue to carry her message by setting sail down the Ohio River on a boat of recycled bottles.

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As a life-long learner, my life (and office!) is full of books – some I read and reread, some only read parts of or use as references. Here I include some that have been helpful to me in pursuing my life’s work:

The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All, by Azim Jamal and Harvey McKinnon (see also: http://www.thepowerofgiving.org/

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UPCOMING TELEPROGRAM!
We’re putting the finishing touches on a legacy development program called “7 Steps to Creating Your Legacy” that we plan to offer starting in the fall.
And you are invited to an upcoming fr.ee preview:

Why Women Professionals and Business Owners Must Create A Legacy

Why must they? Essentially, because they can.
And for at least three reasons:

It’s time that successful women take a bigger lead in making positive change
If you’ve had the freedom and education that allows you to serve as a professional or own a business, you are in a privileged minority of people with access to the necessary resources, and
It may well be the most fulfilling thing you’ve ever done.

Our preview program is planned for the end of July, to explore these issues further. It will be delivered by teleconference so you can participate from the comfort of wherever you happen to be!
And if you’re called to consider it, we’d love to have you participate!
Detailed announcements to follow – please stay tuned. Or contact me directly to find out more at Dolly@CreatingLegacy.com

Interviews With Masters
Our First: Lynne McTaggart
We are compiling a series of “Interviews With Masters” – if you haven’t gotten our first recording and transcript with the amazing Lynne McTaggart, you can access those fr.ee resources here.
Lynne is a journalist by background who sought to understand the science behind the “metaphysical.” Much of the evidence in that realm is still empirical or even anecdotal, often defying proof through scientific method, yet is demonstrable and replicable. However woo-woo that may seem, here at Creating Legacy we love working with the invisible forces in the universe – like trimming sails to capture the invisible, but powerful wind. We want to master those intangibles physicists know and revere (precession, serendipity, synchronicity, heart intelligence, love …) that help us feel better and do better. If this intrigues you, Lynne’s work may as well.

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 is important to you. With our compliments!

(If you have any difficulty accessing any of our materials, please contact Creating Legacy Executive Assistant, Kim McDaniels at Kim@CreatingLegacy.com)

A Short Quiz
Take our Legacy Story Quiz online, and share your thoughts! We may use them in a future story.

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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.

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Thanks and enjoy! The Legacy Journal newsletter is written by Dolly M. Garlo:
www.CreatingLegacy.com. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: Dolly@CreatingLegacy.com.