Memories to a Legacy

This week I began the first day of the last year of a very important decade in my life. Did you follow that?! For the sake of our friendship I won’t tell you which decade. *grin* I was dropping my daughter off for school and as I watched her climb the stairs, slipping her backpack over her shoulder, she looked up and waved at a friend and entered the school. The song Memories by Maroon 5 was playing on my car radio…

Here’s to the ones that we got (toast to the ones here today)

Cheers to the wish you were here, but you’re not (toast to the ones that we lost on the way)…

Tears flooded my eyes. First grade. Just beginning to find her place in the world. And I’m wrapping up a decade. It took only five minutes to drive home, but the memories playing in my mind seemed endless.

So how do we want to be remembered? (I’m not trying to be morbid!) It is easy to be mired in a to-do list and forget to align our daily tasks with our values and ultimate vision for our life. Are we moving in the direction we want to go? What are your values? How does that illuminate your vision? And what daily goals/deliverables do you need to do to honor your values and move towards your vision? I was working with a coaching client this week and we were doing some values work. When he’s experiencing peak performance he’s taking something that seems a mess and digging in to see what he can do to get it back on track. He spends time understanding the history and where it needs to be and works to implement the changes. According to the Clifton Strengthsfinder©, it’s the restorative strength. Out of our work together, my client got real clarity around his values of innovation, hard work, collaboration and change. Ultimately, he wants to have a legacy of wisdom and adventure. That legacy drives his day-to-day actions.

You don’t have to be in the “sunset” of your career to think about values and legacy. I encourage everyone to think about values. They aren’t static. They will change over time. What’s important is identifying them and knowing how they guide your vision for where you’d like to be in a year, five years or 20 years from now. When we are in alignment with our values, we are more focused, happier and energized. You can also have team values and team vision. If you’re interested in doing this work with yourself or your team, I’d love to be your guide!

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