Leave a legacy or enjoy the journey?

Do you want to leave a legacy?

Seems like a noble aspiration, doesn’t it? Do something with your life that lasts beyond your time on Earth.

Yet how often do we stop and ask ourselves why? Why do we want to leave a legacy, and what does it mean?

First, let’s define ‘leaving a legacy’. I believe your ‘legacy’ is the reputation and imprint you leave on the lives of those who knew you after you die.

So here’s the thing. When you die, you’re dead.

Without getting into cosmic conversations about consciousness transcending the physical realm and existing beyond our mortal bodies (which is an idea I’m not against, by the way) — leaving a legacy is not something you’ll personally experience (as far as we know). It’s something your ego (while you’re still alive) wants. Fair enough, I can relate to that feeling. We all need to feel significant and recognised in our lives. That’s normal.

But do you want to be normal? I sure as hell don’t. I want to be extraordinary. Therefore, I should want to leave a powerful legacy in my lifetime, right?

Well, I’m not so sure anymore. For most of my life, I have. I’ve been driven by a deep need for significance and recognition (cheers Dad). But lately I’m starting to wonder — what’s the point?

I have a canvas up on my wall called my 2020 Dent — it’s how I want my life to look in 2020. Here’s one small part of it — my life manifesto:

Manage your perceptions and your emotions. Act according to your nature — be congruent with your values, beliefs and ideals. Have the will to see the opportunity in adversity and accept whatever fate may send you.

Your life is short — a blip in space and time — so infinitesimally small it carries no significance. As quickly as you were given life, death will take it away — your life soon forgotten.

Therefore, don’t waste it. LIVE and live well — with courage, conviction and in harmony with your nature.

My life is short — a blip in space and time — so infinitesimally small it carries no significance. I really enjoy this sentence. It’s a reminder that in the continuum of space and time — 13 billion odd years — I’ve ended up on this Earth, in my current form, communicating some ideas to you in a blog post that will be forgotten in the annals of time.

And amidst all that, I want to leave a legacy? What legacy? My life is but a speck of dust in the cosmos, indiscernible to the naked eye under the most powerful microscope ever invented.

It might be shocking to some people to consider their life in this way. But when you sit with it, you realise how liberating it is. Whatever obstacle or challenge or discomfort you’re experiencing in your life right now — examined on that space and time scale — is empty and meaningless. All of life’s problems suddenly seem more manageable.

So, what’s left over?

Ah, that is one of the great discoveries of life.

What is left over is a greater appreciation of the journey. The simpler things in life. Like marvelling in nature and admiring the intricate patterns of a flower, or the leaf of a small plant. The simple yet joyous pleasure of making fresh coffee in the morning and listening to the sounds of birds chirping outside your window. Uniting body and mind with another in the rhythmic motions of sex and orgasm. Smiling at the problems you’re solving in your business and realising that in the end, none of it matters. So why not find what you do enjoy in your business and redesign to have more of that.

Meditate on the insignificance of your need for significance and you’ll edge closer to living in the present moment. That’s where the journey begins and that’s how you begin to master one of life’s great dichotomies.