There comes a time in a persons life when they start to realize they are bigger than their surroundings. When they realize that they have an impact on any and everything thing they touch. Conversely, they also realize that any and everything that has touched them has an unknown and devote origin. Revelations during this period of life also identify intangible constants occurring in their life. How the hard working trait of a great-grandparent has managed to flourish four generations later turning a high school degree earning great-grandparent into a 1st generation great-grandchild Doctoral recipient. This cyclical nature of enlightenment often leads one to trace their roots to find the beginning of their own personal legacy.
Why do I act the way I do? Why do I excel in some areas and fail at others? Why do the elders in my family say that I act like an older distant relative? Where do these traits come from and since I have them, what do I do with them?
Throughout our lives, we are taught to work hard, get an education, get a career and be successful. For many people this will do, however their are those who may struggle with certain aspects of that plan. They fight with what is being asked of them subconsciously because they have not yet identified with their legacy.
A legacy is as defined by Dictionary.com:
anything handed down from the past, as from an ancestor or predecessor.
With that being the definition, how do you identify or relate to anything handed down from the past when you cannot see it or know what it is? The easiest way to begin to identify your legacy is to listen to your parents. Rebellious teenagers and some young adults may find that is a hard pill to swallow however, it does go down well with a nice glass of pride. Swallow it.
Your parents are catalyst for legacy relation. Their lives and stories, their successes and failures, are all examples of when and where their lives begin to develop your legacy. Find the common thread in their stories that when overlapped with your life tend to reflect the same outcome. Repeat the process of listening with grand parents. If there are stories of ups and downs in their lives that match up with your parents, that overlap with your life, then you are starting to see there may be a legacy in the works.
The sooner you can identify your legacy, the better off you will be. Not all legacies are good. There are bad legacies, like bad habits, that must be broken. In order for a person to have a profound impact on others they must first understand how others have impacted them. I challenge you as a reader to discover your legacy.
© 2010 Jerell Little
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