Your Legacy is Now
Life is not a search for meaning from others, it’s about the creation of meaning for yourself.
For over 30 years Alan Weiss has consulted, coached, and advised everyone from Fortune 500 executives, state governors, non-profit directors, and entrepreneurs to athletes, entertainers, and beauty pageant contestants. That’s quite an assortment of people, and they run into the thousands. Most of them have had what we euphemistically call “means,” and some of them have had a lot more than that. Others have been aspiring and with more ends in sight than means on hand.
Alan Weiss states:
I’ve dealt with esteem (low), narcissism (high), family problems, leadership dysfunctions, insecurities, addictions, and ethical quandaries. And I’ve talked about them through the coronavirus crisis. But don’t get the wrong idea. About 95% of these people have been well-meaning, honest (to the best of their knowledge), and interested in becoming a better person and better professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be talking to me.
I found the equivalent of the “runner’s wall” in their journeys, where they must break through the pain and the obstacles and then can keep going with renewed energy and spirit. But runners know how far they must go after the breakthrough, be it another half lap or another five miles. There is a finish line.
I’ve found that people in all positions, even after the “breakthrough,” don’t know where they are in the race, let alone where the finish line is.
They do not know what meaning is for them. They may have money in the bank, good relationships, the admiration of others, and the love of their dogs. But they have no metrics for “What now?” They believe that at the end of life there is a tallying, some metaphysical accountant who totals up their contributions, deducts their bad acts, and creates the (hopefully positive) difference.
That difference, they believe, is their “legacy.”
But the thought that legacy arrives at the end of life is as ridiculous as someone who decides to sell a business and tries to increase its valuation the day prior. Legacy is now. Legacy is daily. Every day we create the next page in our lives, but the question becomes who is writing it and what’s being written. Is someone else creating our legacy? Or are we, ourselves, simply writing the same page repeatedly?
Or do we leave it blank?
Our organic, living legacy is marred and squeezed by huge normative pressures. There is a “threshold” point, at which one’s beliefs and values are overridden by immense peer pressure. Our metrics are forced to change.
In an age of social media, biased press, and bullying, we’ve come to a point where our legacy, ironically, is almost out of our hands.
Yet our “meaning”—our creation of meaning and not a search for some illusive alchemy—creates worth and impact for us and all those with whom we interact.
Tom Smith
I believe the radio host you refer to is closer to the truth than you Alan, but reasonable people are to be found on both sides of this issue.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/06/jon-rappoport/to-citizens-wearing-medical-masks-youre-whacko-conspiracy-theorists/
If you choose to wear a mask, then you’ll get no argument from me… as it should be your choice.
It’s important to understand though, that the mask hysteria is just a tactic.
The concept is that you should unquestionably obey government approved narratives disseminated via the dominant media.
The ultimate objective is to eliminate liberty/choice and replace it with tyranny/obedience.
It’s important to see the big picture when discussing concrete issues, it adds the necessary context.
Alan Weiss
Tom, when I hear conspiracy theories I see paranoia.
Tom Smith
If you want to argue the facts and/or dispute the sources, then please do so Alan.
If you want to make statements that are non-falsifiable in order to blank out the truth or stifle discussion, then that’s a problem.
In fact, that’s a huge problem in this country right now.
Maybe I’m wrong about what you really meant, so please explain what it would take to falsify your “conspiracy theory/paranoia” hypothesis?
If you can’t do that, then you are not advancing a hypothesis; you are advancing an article of faith.
As you well-know it’s difficult to convince anyone of anything if they are not open to reason.
Especially so if it questions their long term beliefs or their long-held worldview.
As Mark Twain might have said, ‘It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.’
Don’t you agree?
Alan Weiss
This statement you made is simply absurd: “The ultimate objective is to eliminate liberty/choice and replace it with tyranny/obedience.” Whose objective?
That’s paranoia, and I’m not about to debate with you that the government or big business or anyone else is trying to rob us of our freedoms. I don’t debate extremist theories. so don’t bother writing again if that’s your intent. I only agree that any quote by anybody can be distorted to try to prove a point, no matter how ridiculous. I’m open to reason, I’m not open to absurdity and extremism. So, really, stop here because I won’t enable you on my site, in my house. Believe what you choose, hide in the basement, arm yourself to the teeth, but that’s your business, I don’t care.