Tuesday 13 March 2007

More on Your Legacy and Your Contribution

The other day I came across the most fantastic video-blogger on Youtube – a 79 year old called Peter, aka Geriatric1927 . You must listen to this interview with him on the World Service , which is also posted on Youtube. Musing on the fact that what started out as a bit of fun has turned into quite a responsible role, Peter says “I do believe that I’ve encouraged more older people to copy me and have a go and therefore widened the age range of people who use video-blogging, and so I could go out of this world feeling that I have contributed something”.

What a brilliant contribution to have made.

On a similar note, I heard Charles Handy speak last year, he’s one of my favourite management gurus. (he brought “unconditional positive regard” into management-speak years before anyone else). Anyway, the point is that, reflecting on his life and his contribution to the world, Handy mentioned that he writes letters about his view on life, as well as everyday stuff, for his grandchildren to read when they’ve grown up. I thought what a fantastic “legacy” idea this was, a bit like Geriatric1927 on Youtube.

In the meantime, I can thoroughly recommend having a go at writing your own legacy (see this blog entry for details). We use this technique with many of our coaching clients; here are some of their comments:

“It was a very creative way of finding out what really matters to me”

“I was surprised by what came to mind, it wasn’t what I was expecting and it has helped me get my work:life balance sorted out”

No comments: