Some wise mentors recently asked me that question. The short answer is that your legacy is what people choose to imitate regarding your values and actions.
What Kind of Life Inspires You?
Some people want maximum strength, power, influence, wealth, good looks, and fabulous health. Others highly value orgasms or multiple sexual partners, letting the good times roll. People who seek “more and more for me and mine” tend toward those goals. Acquiring and winning are high values for these folks.
Others believe that significance comes from giving time, talent, and treasure… often to people who cannot repay you. This second group perceives that their talents are only important to the extent that they benefit others.
One very rich man gave wheelchairs to indigent, paralyzed people halfway around the world. One day, a recipient of one of those wheelchairs asked the man to wait one more minute before leaving. He carefully studied the rich man’s face, then said, “If I see you in heaven, I want to recognize you and thank you again.”
I believe people are created by an infinite, well-meaning, and wise deity. I recognize that you may have different ideas, but here is what I think is how you live a life worth imitating.
The Key Elements of Living a Life Worth Imitating
Your legacy is your impact on others and how they choose to live. A life worth imitating is committed to a purpose beyond yourself. It’s more than the cash and the keys. Instead, it’s about what David Brooks called “The Eulogy Virtues,” such as kindness, bravery, honesty, and faithfulness.
When you live a life worth imitating, you live to embody your values. As someone said about Alabama football coach Bear Bryant: “Coach Bryant had an idea about how a man should act, and if you watched him, you could figure it out.”
This will not just happen. A life worth imitating is deliberate and purposeful, actively choosing to pursue what truly matters rather than passively drifting through life.
One Example of a Life Worth Imitating: Walt Henrichsen
Walt Henrichsen positively influenced thousands, maybe more than 250,000 adults, to seek service beyond self. Among his core notions was that fame and recognition were fleeting. Instead, his understanding included: “You have not changed a person unless his thinking has changed.”
Walt lived in the San Diego metropolitan area for 10 years or so, and I mostly knew him because he led men’s retreats. I admired Walt because he was a Christian with skin on him. He was completely comfortable with who he was. Walt was intelligent and wise and a powerful example of how to live.
One of my favorite Walt stories is not the most impressive. One of my friends asked Walt to come to lunch with Sam Skeptic to convince him to become a Christian. Walt was friendly and persuasive, brilliant and insightful and gracious.
Shortly after they sat down, he said to Sam, “I understand that the outrageous claims of Jesus don’t mean much to you, and you may have heard they mean a lot to me. If we had a conversation in what you thought was a rational way, and I laid out a case for Jesus and why millions of people have believed his outrageous claims for thousands of years, how likely is it that would make a difference?”
Sam said, “None at all.” Then Walt shifted to something like football and said no more about Jesus. That confused my friend, who asked Walt why he’d acted that way. Walt said something like, “We weren’t going to go anywhere, and there was no need to bore any of the three of us with that if he wasn’t open to change. I didn’t need to go through that drill, and I didn’t need to wear him out.”
Walt Henrichsen lived a life worth imitating. He lived for a purpose beyond himself by leading retreats, writing books, and sharing that purpose with others. He demonstrated his values in everyday life when he wasn’t writing or leading a retreat.
A Modest Suggestion
I invite you to consider what your life will amount to seriously. Few of us will have mortal life beyond 100 years. Seek inspiring stories and reflect on how you or those you know might benefit by imitating those examples.
Recognize that no mere mortal is perfect, but find some way to improve at least a tiny bit. When I search for people to imitate, my goal is to find a good example, not a perfect person. Make choices about the life you want to live. Drifting is easy, but drifting rarely takes one to an intended destination.
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Who might benefit by attempting to follow in your footsteps?
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Terry Moore, CCIM, is the author of Building Legacy Wealth: How to Build Wealth and Live a Life Worth Imitating. Read his “Welcome to My Blog.”