What Legacy Are You Creating?
What will you be known for?
Some of you may be saying, “I’m a younger adult or newer in my career, how would I know?” but I don’t think it’s ever too early to start thinking about what you want to be known for. Maybe these are two different questions to answer, but I think they ultimately come together because we have the possibility to build several legacies – to our families, our communities, our workplaces (and most of us will have more than one), and it all begins with what people think about when our name is mentioned.
Let’s start with this set of questions:
What are you known for today?
Do you like being known for that?
If not, what concerns you the most about it?
How much effort was required to be known for that skill, behavior, expertise, etc.?
Would you want to continue to improve and develop in this area?
If not, what do you want to do instead?
Based on these answers, assess if this is part of your legacy. Legacies aren’t created overnight; they are multi-year, multi-decade areas of focus. Legacies can be many things –
how you treat the people who you interact with and how that impacts them; mentorship of those who seek you out or that you seek out;
creation of a product or bringing an idea to life;
a process improvement;
funding or championing a cause;
or something else where you have a special ability or capability or passion.
We don’t have to be more senior in age or career to start leaving a legacy; we can start today with what we want to be known for.
As we head into August, I’m taking the opportunity to focus on this question for me professionally. I know that there are lots of things I can focus on, several things I’m good at, and some that I’m passionate about. My goal for the month is to start becoming clearer on how I evolve my areas of focus in my business and create my professional legacy. I know it will be a journey that will be full of starts and stops and u-turns and hairpin turns and hills and valleys, but that is all part of life and what makes this an exciting adventure. As I go through this exploration, I’d love to hear your thoughts on what I’m known for in your mind.
Start asking these questions of yourself and take the time to explore the legacy you want to leave behind – for your family, for your community, and the workplaces you encounter.
What are you known for today?
What do you want to be known for in the future?
What will it take to get there?
Enjoy the exploration and the journey! Your impact may start as a small drop, but we know a few drops can turn into swells. Those swells become the legacy you leave.
What is the swell you’ll create as part of your legacy?