welcome to another lesson. We're going to have some fun this week. We've already covered purpose and meaning, we've covered mortality and spirituality and now we're going to move to legacy and impact. Alright, now I want you to to kind of keep in mind that as we go through this, you're going to see there's going to be some overlap. All right. There's a lot of similarities between all of these that that I'm talking about right here and and that's okay. I think the idea behind this, the way I designed this is to to pick apart each one of these and and there's little subtle differences with all of them and there's going to be value and all of those and the way we interpret those. So part of this this course is for you to decide how you want to interpret some of the topics that were covering. So again, if you were to think of a Venn diagram and you know, I'm just kind of in my mind, I'm imagining what it would have been diagram with purpose and meaning mortality, spirituality, legacy, and impact. What would that look like? I think you'd see a whole lot of overlap with all of these. Okay, so keep that in mind as we go forward. I don't want you to think, hey, Ron we've already learned this and this is redundant. It's not, it's not redundant, but again, we will see some similarities. Alright, so let's move into this, let's talk about it. The first thing that I want to talk about is what is legacy, let's start with the definition. Alright, so in this on this slide, you can see there's multiple versions of legacy or multiple definitions. We're going to stick with number two. So something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. Okay. And I'll talk about what that means a little bit more details. We move forward, but essentially we're, you know, it's I know maybe this sounds a little bit more bits, but what what are the things that people are going to think about us remember about us when we're gone? And usually that means when we've passed on, but maybe it's it's not that maybe we've moved to another city and what's the legacy we left behind where we used to live or maybe a previous company. So we can be there as well. But a lot of times this when we talk about legacy, it usually means what what is it, what is it a value that you left behind When you move on to to that next chapter, a lot of people are going to say this is fundamental to what it is to be a human. Now again, there's some philosophies out there that are going to push back on this idea, which I've already mentioned. There is no purpose and meaning to life. You know, those sort of things. I'm not that I'm not that guy to advance that notion. I feel like that's a that's a bleak world in my opinion, to live in, where there's no purpose and meaning and there's no no thoughts of, of legacy. So these are important to me. And again, I want to leave this with you to decide how important it is to you, and where it fits in. Maybe you'll say it doesn't fit in. It's not important to me, that's perfectly fine. Alright, I'm just sharing my thoughts on this. And I think most people again are going to say that this is important. And again, but a lot of people advance the notion that this is this is fundamental to being, being human. All right. And so it gives us this idea. Again, you're going to start to see in these slides, you're going to see the words purpose and meaning bubbling back up. We talk about legacy and we see purpose of meeting coming up, right? So without, you know, working to create a legacy, we may lose a sense of meaning in our life if we're if there's there's no legacy to leave behind, is there, is there meaning? I think there can be. But let's keep that kind of thought. Let that percolate until the next lesson. We talk about impact. But right now, let's just keep our focus on a legacy. I'd like to say this is about relationships, right? And it's it's about our communities and it's about the human spirit, this idea of legacy. I think what I want to impress upon you is that it helps us come to terms with our accomplishments and our disappointments. So I very much want to emphasize disappointments. Why would I do that? Hey, Ron are you just negative know what I want you to understand is no life is perfect. Everybody's life is flawed and we all have disappointments. We all have failures. We all have those moments where we fall down and skin our knee, right? Or we don't live up to what our values and our ethos more on that later. But that's ok. That's part of the tapestry of what our life is. But this idea of legacy, don't think your legacy is going to be perfect. Don't don't shoot for that. We want to do the best we can show up the best we can. And then and just realize we need to make room for those disappointments. And then just to realize that are in the grand scheme of things, little things matter. We never know those little gestures that we have. They're going to, you know, you've heard the, you've heard the term have a ripple effect, right? You never know when you're going to have a ripple effect. You know, the idea of just showing kindness to a stranger who knows what that will do for that stranger. Maybe they'll go out and and show kindness because of the kindness you showed. You know the old saying of buy a cup of coffee for the person in line behind you And then it's a lot of times it turns into the whole line starts doing exactly that it becomes this domino effect of kindness and so again, I just want to be very clear, We don't have to be mother, Teresa, Gandhi, nelson Mandela. That's all wonderful if you want to, you want to have that kind of legacy, but we can do little things that make a difference and, and don't discount how those little things can add up. All right, So what does this mean to you? This is a list I put together. All right, this is my list. You, I would encourage you to think about what your list looks like as we go through this. Think about, alright, Ron you're missing this. What would you add to this list? Or maybe there's something in this list that you say, you know what, that's not that important to me, That's fine too. This should be a little bit of a personalized list. I think there will be some, some commonalities, but here's my list, You know, and these first few are going to look very similar. Elevate others. That's part of my purpose. You've already seen my purpose statement and one of them is to elevate inspire others. So that's going to be something that's going to be part of my legacy. Giving back, paying it forward. Again, similarities here, right? I feel like a lot of people have done nice things for me throughout my life, right, whether their coaches, teachers, parents, or other adults or, or just colleagues. it doesn't really matter. A lot of people have had in you know, this, this impact on my life, and I would like to kind of look at that as something as can I pay it forward? Can I do the same that they did for me? Can I do that for somebody that else is in need? So I look at it that way, that's part of how I frame my legacy, you know, reaching out a helping hand, I've had people reach out a helping hand to me and I'm so grateful that they did that, and I don't forget that. And so again, I want to be part of that process of doing the same for others. Leave the world a better place than you found it. This is very common when people talk about legacy, it's not about necessarily a grand impact, but you're saying how can I bring some value to this world while I'm here again, hopefully that that value that you bring, I'll ask you. And and again, that's where we would see legacy mentorship. I think that goes without saying, what, what are you doing to help others? A lot of times, mentorship is something we do for free, right? Many times we're not paid to do this. So why are we doing it should be a very intrinsic motivation to, to mentor others? And and I I gotta be honest, I don't see enough people mentoring others. And I know that sounds a little bit judgmental, but I'd like to see more of this. So maybe you take away from this discussion. This slide is you're going to go out and mentor somebody that would be wonderful family. I think that's the easy one, right? We talk about leaving a legacy to our family, especially if you have kids, that is going to be a big driver of legacy, but I also want to say, I don't have kids, alright. And for those of you out there that don't have kids and really have no plan to have kids, don't give up on the idea that you can have a legacy as well. I always like to look all of you all of you out there and you're my kids, I my students, my clients, the people that I work with, I'm hoping that I'm going to leave a legacy with them. Again, I don't have any, you know, I don't share any blood with these people, but I do think of them and all of you as my brothers and sisters. And so I don't think that you can't have a legacy without, without reproducing Children coaching and teaching. I think that's an obvious one, right? And you don't have to be formally trained in this to coach and teach, alright. I teach all of my leaders that well, I'm being a little bit circular there, but all of my leaders, I say at some point in your careers, you should step into a role of teaching alright. And, and coaching goes right along with that. So that's part of being a leader. And then of course, you know, friends, colleagues, maybe it's students or pupils constituents, and even strangers, All of those should be part of the grand scheme of legacy. Volunteering, That's an easy one. And the community, what are you doing to get back to the community, be a, maybe an active member of your community to to hopefully make it better. So those all can be part of a legacy. Let me spin this. I've been talking about legacy. It's fundamental to human beings, that sort of thing, but also alluded to how important is it, is it really that important? I used to put a lot of weight on how important my legacy was. I'll tell you my thoughts on that as we wrap this up. But let's look at a little bit of a case study that you had some readings on that. If you're not familiar with this, this should be pretty fascinating to you. I know this story well I've I've watched the movie and I've read multiple books on this survival story. Miracle. And these, this is a book I would recommend. I've read a couple of books on this topic and I like this one the best this was written by Nando Parrado who was really the person that led them on, you know, basically got everybody rescued. He led the rescue. And so it's a fascinating tale from a firsthand account of what it was like to spend 72 days in the Andes with no food. If you can only imagine how tough would that would be, hang with me here. If you're saying, hey Ron, how does this fit into legacy? I hope it's obvious, but I'll be more clear about that in a second here, but not know, he's a fascinating guy. Not only in the book, but you also had a ted talk to watch with Nando and I like to think the experiences that he went through in that situation really galvanized the kind of person that he is now. And so I I find that quite fascinating. Let me let me spin this little bit, I know we're talking about legacy and I'll talk more about Nando and the miracle in the Andes in the next lesson, but for now let's let's let's circle this background a little bit more to leadership Because if you read the book and I hope you do, because it's one of those books, you just can't put down what are the lessons that came out of that? One of them is leadership is fluid. Nano talks many times in the, in the story of how different people assume positions of leadership throughout that 72 days and it really depended on the context and who was strong at the time to assume that position of leadership. So you, I think in in everything we do in life, we can be in a position of leadership, we can be a follower and at any time we can transition between the two. Alright, that's something that I think is important. Leadership is about choices all right in your life, you're faced with choices every day. Those choices add up to what your legacy. Again, this we're talking about leadership, but I hope you see the connection to our legacy, you make bad choices throughout your life, that's probably going to be a negative legacy. You make good choices most of the time and I'm with you sometimes I don't make good choices, but that's okay most of the time I think I do pretty well, that's going to add up to legacy. Leadership is hard, alright, I cannot overemphasize this in the in the story and you know what they went through the people that you know, stood up to take leadership positions including nando at times, it was a hard thing to do. So understand, there's a lot of weight there, okay, there's a lot of weight, there's a lot of power behind leading, but but no, it's not always going to be easy, it's about empowerment and inspiration many times throughout the journey, they had to the leaders of that, that we're assuming that position had to empower and inspire the group to hang on to have faith to keep fighting for their survival and that wasn't always that wasn't always easy or obvious and so the leader sometimes has to stand in and do that, it's about helping others. Alright again I can't emphasize this enough, I was a selfish young man as I as I started to transition in my life maybe because of maturity and wisdom, I started to frame it as helping others and that has been fundamentally changing for my life alright. That gets you out of the bed a lot better than being selfish and so when you can make that transition to helping others if you haven't already, that's a that's a powerful thing for for so many things leaders, this is about vision, I think that's obvious, we'll talk more about that and lessons coming up. Leadership is about legacy. Alright, so now we're getting to the heart of why am I sharing this this story and nando and and everything the survivors went through, it's about their legacy alright. And and this is the kind of legacy that will live on beyond their their life. And lastly leadership is about impact. Again, we'll talk more about that in the next lesson. So that's what I want to wrap up with here. We're talking about legacy, how I want to leave you with this question. You know, I teased the idea that I used to think legacy was more important than it is. And I've, I've kind of changed my thoughts around that and the reason being, this is not to influence you is just to give you some something to think about When I leave, when I leave this life. How important is that legacy? Now? Again, if I had Children, maybe that'd be a different answer. But again, do I care if my legacy lasts a year, 10 years, 100 years, how long will it last and how much impact will that be? I mean, if we think about even our loved ones, maybe you think of a grandparent that's passed on and and maybe it's 20 years down the road, how much do, and I know this sounds bad, but how much do we actually have legacy from that grandparents? So, again, I think that legacy has a shelf life for most of us, Alright, if you're, if you're nelson Mandela, you're Gandhi, your mother Theresa, whoever, maybe, you know, 100,000 years from now, they'll still be talking about that legacy. Maybe I think most of us have to live in the real world and say, you know what, we're not going to be that person, It's great if you are, but more than likely you're not. So what does that mean to you? Does it matter how long your legacy last? So anyway, frame that because we're going to transition into talking about impact, which I think is a more powerful thing. So hang with us in the next video, I'll see you there.
