Reimagining Legacy
The world is not so much in need of new thoughts as that when thoughts grow old and worn with usage it should, like current coin, be called in, and, from the mint of genius, reissued fresh and new.
Legacy is one of those old coins. It has grown tarnished with time, worn thin, and difficult to understand. It needs to be freshly recast to be comprehensible in our times.
You see, as most people understand it now, legacy is viewed as arcane and frozen in time, dusty gifts of the distant past – the remnants found in old Indiana Jones movies. But our culture is not content to be stalled in one place, looking backward. Our legacy to the future is always to grow, to achieve more, and to be always better.
Legacy isn’t about the past. It’s about what we gift to change the future.
Each generation is racing forward, at a pace that’s always faster. We are part of that race. Our generation was handed a baton by those who came before us with the expectation that we would continue running, and when we are ready to hand it off to the next racers, in this case, the children and grandchildren of the baby boomers, they will be prepared to succeed in this contest into the future.
And expectations are always racing forward. There are countless examples of how we keep pushing ourselves to achieve more. As an example, in 1925, Albert Michelsen, at age 31 was the first American to run a marathon in less than 2 hours, 30 minutes. The oldest American now to break this same goal is Norm Green who accomplished it when he was 55. So, when can we expect this same barrier breached by a 60-year-old?
And this desire to achieve a powerful legacy is not true just in sports. Individually, we want to prove we can fulfill more dreams, achieve more goodness, and create more happiness, leaving more gifts to the future.
Reorienting Our Legacy to the Future
When we reach our late 50s and 60s, we may be tempted to define our personal legacy from that dusty arcane past - by giving gifts to future generations from what has already been achieved during our life. Our culture keeps telling us it’s time to retire and live on the memories of the past.
An alternate view is that we have not yet completed the legacy building stage of our life – perhaps we have barely begun! There are so many more adventures yet to experience. What new challenges should we now add to our bucket lists?
Bill Gates is a prime example of the alternate view. He has an amazing legacy to the world from the successes he achieved as an adult. Surely, if anyone could afford to live off of the good works of the past, it would be the founders of Microsoft. That's not what Bill Gates did. He made a decision before his 50th birthday to radically change course. He announced that he would transition out of a day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time with his foundation. He decided to work part-time as chairperson and technical advisor at Microsoft to devote full-time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focusing on global health and education. He chose not to live off the legacy of his past. He looked forward and engaged in changing the future for the betterment of humanity.
What motivates people to stay fully engaged as they reach their 60’s or 70’s or 80’s?
For some, it can be an important humanitarian concern to help future generations. Even when our actions center on helping people now, they can also have a profound impact on the quality of life for generations to come.
As an example, nutritional programs directed at protecting the health of pregnant mothers also includes the well-being of the infant and the prevention of birth defects and other health problems – thus serving the needs of both the mother (now) and the child (future).
For others it may simply be acknowledging their mortality. Perhaps we want to either be remembered by our family and friends, or for leaving a lasting mark behind to prove our life mattered -- achieving immortality through our influence on the values and behaviors of future generations.
And for many of us, we are a blend of these motivations – through our other-oriented humanitarian efforts as well as our self-oriented desire to be remembered and relevant to others.
What items have you already added to your bucket list, and which issues are you considering adding to inspire the future?
