Embrace Minimalism and Build a Living Legacy

I’m sure that I’m not the only person in the world that gets caught up in the busyness of “stuff”, only to forget about what is really important in our life.

We live in a consumer society that is constantly marketing the value of the latest gadget, newest fashion, and long list of must-have items that we don’t really need.

I’d like to be able to say that I am exempt from becoming a collector of stuff but, like many of us, I’m not. I have far too many books, clothes and things that I don’t need.

I recently thought back to a trip I took about a dozen years ago, to visit my son and his family in London.?

They lived in a nice townhouse, or in the UK, a terraced house. It wasn’t huge, but it was located close to a beautiful park, just around the corner from the local pub, and within walking distance of just about anything you could need.

I mentioned my surprise to hear how expensive it was; I remarked on how you could have a large home with a big yard for the same amount of money in the U.S.?

Thus, a discussion ensued about city living and the American dream for many of owning a large home with a big yard.

My son Michael and I got into an interesting discussion that made me think deeply about “having stuff.” I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this...

“You know dad, we don’t spend our nights and weekends taking care of a giant house and all that goes with that. We walk out the door, go to the park, go for a walk, out for dinner, etc. While at home (U.S.) everyone spends the weekend taking care of their stuff.”

My son had no need for a car (let alone two or three,) a lawn service, etc…?

That conversation stuck with me.

It made me think about the concept of taking care of stuff vs. living our lives. Or the idea of moving crap around vs. creating memories.

For me, I know that I spend way too much time dealing with stuff.

Does that resonate with you??

I’ve been working to embrace minimalism in my life because I know that the less time I spend taking care of stuff, the more time I have to do meaningful work and create memories with people I love and care about.

As we get older, we often begin reflecting on life and thinking about our legacy. We think about how we’ll be remembered and what our impact was on the world.

The truth is that most of us aren’t that important in the big picture of a world filled with 8+ billion people.?

When our time on earth is near it’s finish, no one will be going over a list of accomplishments.?

It’s said that as the end nears, we all share similar thoughts that can best be summarized as:

• Did I live?
• Did I love?
• Did I matter?

…those are the only few things we’ll care about.

The one finite thing we all share in life is time. No matter who you are, you only get 24 hours in a day.?

We’re all bound by these constraints and therein lies my desire to embrace the tenets of minimalism.?

When we embrace minimalism, we make space and time to understand our purpose for being.?

With all of this in mind, I’d suggest that we could all benefit from taking some time today to create a strategic plan for our lives.

We often engage in planning processes to create alignment within our businesses; why don’t we do that in our personal lives??

Here are some thoughts on why you may want to do this from leading business expert, Verne Harnish whom I learned a ton from being a part of his coaching organization for man years.

Some Verne wisdom...

“We often engage in strategic planning to create alignment in our businesses, but fail to do the same in our personal lives.? When is the last time that you sat down and really spent some time thoughtfully engaging your personal strategic plan and thinking about your living legacy?”

People often joke that the best moments of boat ownership are the day they bought the boat and the day they sold it.

Well, our lives have similar punctuation marks -- the day we’re born and the day we pass away.?

As busy executives, if we’re not careful, our personal lives can end up as neglected as those vessels, forever docked in the harbor (or parked in storage!)

That’s part of the reason why I’m a big believer in building a living legacy.?

Your life will be more meaningful if you treat every day as if it was your last and, instead of rushing from one obligation to another, you proactively establish personal priorities and align them with your professional goals.

There are four decisions you must make to build a thriving company:?

• People
• Strategy
• Execution?
• Cash?

In your personal life, there are parallel areas:?

• Relationships
• Achievements
• Rituals
• Wealth

I challenge you to commit to writing your goals in these four areas.

Relationships: At the end of the day, what matters most in life are relationships.??

Action Step: List the key people in your life on whom you want to have a lasting impact. This list is probably composed of your family, friends, and those in various communities to which you belong. Limit the list to 25 people so you don’t get overwhelmed. It’s also worthwhile noting, in this list, any relationships you want to end. This allows you to free your time for the people who truly matter most.

Achievements: You’ll want to think about how you can make a real difference to the key people in your life. For instance, you might aim to have a happy marriage, instead of just staying married, as many people do.??

Action Step: List out the actions that you’d like to take and prioritize with your time that you know will fuel you. For instance, signing on to facilitate the 5-year strategic plan for our children’s school was something I enjoyed prioritizing this past six months.?

Rituals: ?Establishing regular routines in your life will help you achieve your larger goals. Examples of rituals might include a weekly date night with your partner and booking some “alone” time with each child once a week. Maybe you meet regularly with a workout buddy because those meetings help support your bigger life goals of fitness and health.?

Action Step: Figure out the rituals that will matter most for you. For example, with distant family members, you might build a regular routine, like taking a vacation together every two years. Take time to list out the destructive rituals and behaviors you wish to stop as well, to create self-accountability.

Wealth: Rather than financial wealth being an end in itself, see it as a resource for supporting the rest of your personal plan. Set goals for the amount of money you want to donate to causes that matter to you.

Action Step: Decide what you need to set aside to support activities with your family and friends, investing in experiences that create lasting memories. You’ll want to make note of any financial goals you must meet to fuel your living legacy.?

When you let money flow through you to help those around you, it seems to appear more effortlessly.

While it’s not easy to do this type of planning, just getting yourself to think about what matters most is 90% of the battle.?

You want to make sure that what you leave in the wake of your life as you sail along is a legacy worth living."

There is a lot of wisdom in Verne's take on building a living legacy.

At a minimum, my hope is that today’s post caused you to think about the finite life you live and why it’s important to consider embracing a minimalist lifestyle in an effort to preserve your time and energy for those things that matter most.

With the time and treasure gained, you can reinvest them in building a living legacy that will be much more impactful and meaningful to all. You can live it, experience and know that it happened vs. hoping you will be remembered at some point in the future.

What do you think? What do you want to make a part of your living legacy??Please share.

Soar, Don’t Settle!