The Why and How of Everyday Legacies (Part 2)
by Robert Hackman
Photograph by Dalton Touchberry on Unsplash
Lead my way every day because I’m here to leave a Legacy
From the song ‘Thing for You’
By Kynty
Everyday Legacies are defined by your impact on others, your environment, and what you leave behind. You are always living and leaving your legacies simultaneously. Their impact ripples out in far-reaching ways you do not have any way of comprehending.
Legacy Mindsets give you the power to grow yourself, your team, and your organization in what matters most. They tap into essential fundamentals that differentiate them from other Mindsets. Most importantly, they are vital, compelling, and relevant to you.
Everyone wants to make a difference. The same is true for you. You want there to be a reason you were here when you are gone – and preferably while you are here too.
Legacy Mindsets acknowledge and draw on the universal desire to matter that resides inside us, individually and collectively. They push these essential elements to the forefront of our minds and keep them there. Most critically, they fuel our subconscious, which drives ninety percent of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Legacy Mindsets are comprised of the five P’s – Purpose, Principles, Personal, Present, and Perspectives. We take a deep dive into Purpose here.
Leaders, teams, and organizations centered around their purpose are significantly more likely to live and lead with fewer regrets. Identifying and clarifying your ‘why’ represents a primary aspect of Mindsets based on Legacy.
You might ask yourself, do I really need to articulate my purpose to take on a Legacy Mindset? The answer is yes. You are unlikely to pursue your purpose if you have not stated it first.
Languaging is an incredibly potent focusing device you can utilize to your best advantage. You tend not to pay attention to what you have not put words to.
Regardless of your successes, you will feel regret if they are out of alignment with what matters most to you. It will be as if they were attained in service to living someone else’s life and not our own.
You cannot move toward where you want to go if you insist on taking the path that is not right for you or continually shifting tracks.
It is essential to distinguish between changing the channels through which you practice and express your purpose, from continually switching it. They are not the same.
What Purpose within a Legacy Mindset Does for You
Claiming your purpose instantly starts you down the path to ensuring your impact and that what you leave behind moves closer to what you intend.
Purpose creates direction in your life, a true north. It gives you the motivation to continue through hardships and the resilience to persevere. It acts as a focusing device, increasing your clarity and focus.
Identifying your life mission improves your health and resiliency, including improved immunity, heart health, sleep, and resistance to depression and anxiety, among many other benefits.
It creates a context for you, connecting the conditions and settings in which your life occurs to what you deem most significant, thus informing your decisions, actions, and priorities.
Your purpose provides the foundational element around which to align yourself. You will notice when your decisions, actions, and focus align with your primary aim and when they do not.
The means through which you live your purpose are endless. However, most opportunities to support your purpose will not become apparent to you until you have identified it. The law of attraction will bring possibilities to you once you do.
You become infinitely more powerful in the best sense of the word when you put a stake in the ground for yourself. Declaring what you stand for, committing to pursue the fulfillment of your primary intention.
When you are clear about your purpose, you enlist the trust of others and boost confidence in yourself. You have a clearer idea of who you are, and people instinctively understand what you care about most.
Perhaps most vitally, committing to your purpose creates a pull effect. Your primary aspiration naturally draws your internal motivation, intention, and attention, rather than relying on externally generated push incentives.
Team and Organizational Purpose
I am fond of saying that shared laughter is the only thing better than laughter. The same goes for one’s purpose. Joining with others to pursue a common purpose surpasses doing it alone. Nothing remains out of reach when everyone rows in the same direction with the same goals and intentions.
Legacy Mindsets involve striving to remain conscious and pay attention to what matters every day. It may sound ruthless and unrelenting, yet it is true. Our Legacies never get a moment off, making striving to remain on purpose all the more crucial.
You continually impact others and your environment and leave something behind. Rather than be weighed down by that burden, embrace your Everyday Legacies and make your life count in ways that mean something to you.
Legacy Mindsets embody beginning with the end in mind. They are the pathway to living and leading with fewer regrets.
Worthy Considerations:
- What is your approach to living and leading with fewer regrets? You do not want more of them, do you?
- What holds you back from identifying your purpose? Do you believe doing so is possible, realistic, and beneficial? How would your leadership improve if you did?
- Are you open to the absurdity that you are constantly generating impact, leaving something behind, and thus always accountable? How can you use humor to live purposefully and still hold life lightly?
- Can you imagine how powerfully aligned and compounding your decisions, actions, and intentions would be if you adopted the Legacy Mindsets?
- How would your team and company operate with everybody aligned around a common aspirational purpose, taking responsibility for living and leaving their Everyday Legacies?
To receive a starter list of ways to identify your purpose, please go to www.4cconsulting.net.
Please contact me for help identifying, clarifying, and building on your purpose to benefit yourself, those you love, your team, and your organization. I welcome the conversation.
Robert Hackman, Principal, 4C Consulting and Coaching, helps people live and lead with fewer regrets. He grows and develops leaders through executive coaching consulting, facilitation, and training of individuals, teams, and organizations. He is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He facilitates trusting environments that promote uncommonly candid conversations. Rob is also passionate about the power of developing Legacy Mindsets and has conducted over 50 Legacy interviews with people to date.
A serious man with a dry sense of humor who loves absurdity can often be found hiking rocky elevations or making music playlists. His mixes, including Pandemic Playlists and Music About Men, can be found on Spotify.
Bravely bring your curiosity to a conversation with Rob, schedule via voice or text @ 484.800.2203 or rhackman@4cconsulting.net.