The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. (Walt Disney)
Thinking about the musings from DAY 2: Working For The Man…
I believe at the end of the day, two things that weigh heavily on our minds, especially as we age and approach the mid-point (mid-life crisis), in our lives are:
1) Finances (or money), and;
2) Time.
To me, I think that the majority of us believe that it is a zero-sum game: you either become wealthy, but usually at the cost of time, or you give up wealth, but seem to have more free time. It is possible to find exceptions to both of these rules of course, but instead of wasting time looking for those exceptions and debating the validity of them, I think that one should shift their focus on something I believe supersedes both money and time.
That is, your legacy.
The reason why I think that one should shift their focus away from their finances and time, and focus on their legacy is…
The internet.
The internet is definitely a game changer for the human race. Since the dawn of mankind, humans have all been leaving behind a legacy. In class, I refer to this concept as “Man Expresses Himself”. Whether expressing Himself on a cave wall or in cyberspace, throughout time, mankind has been leaving their legacy behind for future generations to see, whether they realize it or not.
As of 2018, it has been estimated that at least 108 billion humans have lived on planet Earth. That means that at least 108 billion people have already left, or are currently leaving, their legacy.
Thanks to the internet, leaving behind a legacy has never been more simple.
And excuse free.
Before the internet, odds were that the details of your life would not be remembered after 3 generations after you die: your kids, grandkids and maybe, your great-grandkids, would remember you. After that, at best, for most people, a couple of your lifetime facts may take up a paragraph or two, or maybe a couple of pages at best, in a history book.
For those looking for fame, it is fleeting indeed.
But what if you were able to leave behind something more tangible than a couple of facts in a history book? Something that could last much longer than a fleeting 3 generations after you? Whether it be a piece of art like a sculpture or a painting, or maybe a building, or a philosophy or technology, whatever the case, mankind has been leaving that stuff behind, forever.
Why not you?
But, what if you have issues like me, keeping those blasted colors inside those ever shrinking paint-by-number spaces on the page?
What if you are not talented, or smart, or rich enough, to paint or sculpt or built or create these items?
Moving forward, humans are now on the cusp of truly revolutionary times, for all of us.
Is it possible for anyone to build a website? A Blog? A YouTube channel? After all, can’t you just go to a YouTube channel and follow the directions mentioned to build a website or a blog…
Or both?
Those things all can last in CyberSpace long after you are dead, in fact, once out there, much longer than 3 generations after you die.
How could anyone before this era been able to have prepared and planned for this monumental fact: truly, enduring legacies, lasting theoretically forever, as long as someone has access to a computer, or iPad, or cellphone, and WiFi?
Considering that I have seen computers sold for around $100 and that WiFi is free at every one of the almost 30,000 Starbucks around the world, someone, somewhere, has a pretty good chance seeing your legacy online.
In other words, never in human history has it been so easy…so accessible…and so affordable…to create a lasting legacy, that literally can stay with us forever.
The internet has pretty much eliminated any and all of our excuses to not create a lasting legacy.
Today, tomorrow, or 1000 years from today.
Dr. North has said that spending more than 40 hours on your salaried portion of your job is unwise. But instead of thinking of refusing to work over 40 hours as sticking it to the man, why not think of it as sticking some of your ideas into CyberSpace instead?
Why not think like an optimist instead of a pessimist?
I believe that we all have different gifts. It makes sense right? I would contend that for the over 108 billion humans that have lived on planet Earth, there have been at least 108 billion different gifts they potentially could have blessed mankind with. While they were alive, they could have wielded these gifts that potentially could have altered the course of human history…
For the better.
In the end it matters not, based on the fact that for the overwhelming majority of those billions, over the last several thousand years, those gifts were at best remembered for at most…
3 generations after they died.
My gift? I think, that after 25 years of teaching high school students, that is my gift.
I did not develop my gift of teaching. I did not inherit my gift of teaching. At the end of the day, I believe that my gift has been given to me. Who gave it to me? That, I suppose can be discussed another day.
Upon deeper reflection of this thought of who gave me my gift to teach, I do not take this idea lightly. Hence, my sense of urgency to begin the process of acting on this gift. To teach. 50 plus years after being born. Knowing that the average lifespan is between 70-80 years.
Time, at least for me, is running out….
Do not feel discouraged if you are uncertain about whether or not you even have a gift. Do not feel discouraged if you think you have a gift but you have wasted time, energy and money trying to discover it or turn it into something more. Instead, understand where you are in relationship to the over 100 billion that have been on planet Earth before you. Knowing what you know now about the incredible opportunity that those before you could have hardly ever have dreamed about, what are you doing about it personally? What are you doing today, right now, starting on how you will map out your legacy for the benefit of others after you? Got too much on your plate today? Remember, the sun will eventually rise sometime around the world tomorrow, and a new day will begin.
6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching; 8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. (ROMANS 12:6-8 KJV)
Was today’s blog a little confusing at times? Was the content perhaps a little overwhelming? Did you feel lost not understanding some or most of the subject matter?
Those feelings are totally understandable and it is ok to have one or more of those feelings. Remember that you are reading Day 3: 108 Billion Legacies…Which One Are You?
If you haven’t been in class since the first day of school…or when the project began…or when the contract was first signed, etc., these feelings make perfect and logistical sense.
Please feel free to go back to where all of this began: