St. Augustine said that asking the question of your own legacy — “What do I wish to be remembered for?” — is the beginning of adulthood.
This profound question has been on my mind a lot lately. I don’t think that there’s anyone who would say that one day they’d like to be remembered for their selfishness, their social ignorance, their boastful personality, their lack of kindness, or their bigoted beliefs.
Instead, many of us have prolific qualities we want to be remembered by, yet we don’t stop and examine ourselves to see if we are living in alignment with those desires.
Many of us have prolific qualities we want to be remembered by, yet we don’t stop and examine ourselves to see if we are living in alignment with those desires.Click To TweetWhen it comes to the “leaving a legacy” question, I like to look at my life and break it into three general areas where I’d hope to be remembered in a positive light. These areas are: day-to-day living, parenting, and business.
I’m a work-in-progress like the rest of the population, so I’m positive that a few of the following areas need some refining and polishing.
I want to be remembered for:
Day-to-day living
- Stopping and making time for others
- Being kind in the face of ugliness
- Seeing both sides to a story/belief
- Elevating others above herself
- Seeing her fellow woman/man as an equal
- Speaking up instead of remaining silent about injustice
- Defending the weak
- Bearing others’ burdens
- Listening well
Parenting
- Listening well and with my “whole face”
- Spending quality time with my children
- Loving unconditionally
- Recognizing and celebrating differences
- Praying daily
Business
- Letting go of the ledge and doing scary things
- Never giving up when things got tough
- Thinking outside of the box and trying new things
- Following through on what she said
- Leading well and with integrity
- Being honest and fair
- Listening to her heart and following her dreams instead of being bullied by the naysayers.
Can you relate to any of the things I’ve written above? Which “legacies” would you add? Besides day-to-day, parenting, and business, what other “category” would you add?
Here’s a challenge for you. This week stop and ponder this question: “What do I want to be remembered for?”.
After thinking this over, begin jotting down everything that comes to your mind. Ask yourself this KEY QUESTION: Am I living my life in alignment with what I wrote? If you find your life veering off course a bit, determine to take some action steps or change some behaviors so that you can get back on the road to living the life you were meant to live.
Drop me a comment and let me hear about a few of the things you’d like to be remembered for.
Thank you for reminding me that I need retreat and review my obituary that I started writing a year ago of how I’d like to be remembered! It needs major tweeking! 🤦🏾♀️
I’m so glad that you took the time to read my blog. I hope this note finds you safe and healthy!