Leave Your Legacy
By Susan Harrington MA Ed, CPC

Do you ever think about what you what to leave behind when you are no longer here? Some of us have careers that satisfy this desire to leave a “legacy” but probably most of us don’t. For some of us, our children serve this purpose, they are here because of us and they will carry our presence onward after we have passed on. But many of us don’t have children or we want more than that or just different than that. Here are some questions to ponder:

1. Think about how you want to be remembered. How would you like other people to describe you? What will others remember about you?

2. What do you want to be known for being and doing? Some people find it helpful to write their own obituary as if their life had already ended and they are describing to the world their accomplishments and life story. It’s an interesting exercise because it forces you to really put down in black and white what you want to achieve.

3. What type of contribution do you want to make? What has meaning to you? Do you want to contribute your knowledge? Your skill? Your money? Your passion for something in particular?

4. What does a “legacy” mean to you? What would it look like through your eyes?

5. What are three things you could begin doing starting right now that would start you on the path to creating your legacy?

Answering these questions is a good starting point to finding what it is you want to create here in this life, and what you want to leave behind. Give them some serious thought and maybe even use them as questions to write to yourself about. Quite often, writing about a subject – journaling – about it brings ideas and thoughts into clearer focus and shows certain common threads or themes that you might miss otherwise.