Professional Legacy & Personal Life Philosophy

A PRACTICAL LIFE PHILOSOPHY

Last year, I was privy to a group exercise with a number or people. One of the questions that was asked during the session was “write down your life philosophy”.

After several minutes of reflection and glancing at the other participants enthusiastically and feverously writing down their thoughts we are asked to share.

Here are some of the examples I heard:

• “Live day by day”
• “Enjoy every precious moment”
• “Bring happiness in every situation”
• “Love one another”

My contribution:

• “Never be late”.

I do not need to tell you I was not proud of myself. When I started to hear other people’s selfless, if not a little fantastical idealistic thoughts I have to admit I was sweating. Not half as much as the awkward silence that followed my “life rule”.

LEGACY

Then, recently I was attending a training on Leadership. We talked about Legacy. What would you want your legacy, your team’s legacy to be? Certainly, an interesting question, one that really struck a chord and this reminded me of my life philosophy session (and also memories of my embarrassment, and my quick exit). In fact, in hindsight the approach to both these questions are very similar. You follow your life philosophy consistently; your Legacy will reflect it.

I’d never really sat down and thought about either. It’s never been on my list of things to do:

But since some people have given this thought which was highlighted last year, and legacy is really an interesting a creative concept in Leadership and Teams I thought it was about time I thought about this in a little more detail.

Do I really want my legacy to be “you remember Adam? Yeah. That guys was never late!”

But then again, I can truthfully say that I make every attempt not to be late, and, if not the most idealistic of life philosophies, at least it’s SMART!

NO WEEKEND RETREAT FOR ME

So how does one go about finding a Legacy? For oneself, for one’s team. For one’s family?

For one, it’s not something that justifies 5 minutes of reflection to base the rest of your life and your core values around. And if it’s a philosophy that just happens to spring out of nowhere like lightening making you realize you’ve been in the dark and this is the way forward, it’s certainly not happened yet.

I thought about organizing myself a weekend retreat in a hotel & spa to brainstorm ideas, graffitify white boards, heavy use of post-it notes and a guest speaker on motivation, but it ended up too expensive just for me. In addition, I would have spent too much time in the Spa anyway and justifying this to my wife would have been a hard sell.       

A cheaper, easier sell was to start with a blank sheet of paper, a cup of coffee, early morning jazz and 30 minutes of quiet.

AND…….

Now – if you’re reading this and wondering, did he come up with his Legacy and Life Philosophy? What was it? I can answer this very quickly. No I did not.

I noted down punch words like:

• Role Model
• Family / team
• Happy / Content / Laugh / Joy
• Persist
• Truthful and honest, Just

And tried to make a phrase from it.

I thought about influential people like:

• Albert Einstein (one of my favorites)
• Pope Francis
• Bob the Builder

And thought about how they created their legacy. Why to I hold them in such high esteem.

But I wanted to find something that covers my personal and professional life. Myself, the teams I work in, my family, my rugby team. A short statement that would cover a myriad of situations leading to a shining legacy which would last for generations.

I know – I ask too much. Certainly more than 30 mins and coffee are willing to offer me.

I’m a long way off finding my guiding star and it takes time.

I say this with a hint of irony as I’m writing this in an Airport for a flight that’s been delayed for 5 hours. I certainly have time. 

ONLY POSITIVES – THINK ABOUT IT!

I’ve written in the past about looking at the positives and describing Negative Bias. The later hardwired into our subconscious.

However, the exercise I started, looking for a life philosophy, my legacy, only focused on positives. The only negative connotations were those examples such as “never give up”.

Even though I have not yet found my Life Philosophy, I did spend time to think about positives, how I could positively influence others, make life’s more enjoyable, add a little ray of sunshine. Never once did it even cross my mind to suggest “how can I make someone’s life a little more difficult”.

I highly recommend thinking about this. Not because or even need a life philosophy. It’s just a super 30 minutes for thinking about the positives that’s only right for you.

If you do come up with a Legacy. BONUS!

Do you have a life philosophy? Can I borrow it?

#positivity #positivemindset #positivethinking #leadership #positive #legacy #philiosophy #leadershiptips