Bucket List vs. Legacy List — What Will You Be Known For?

Photo by Emma Matthews Digital Content Production on Unsplash

When you get the news that your condition is terminal and your days, hours, or minutes are numbered, what will be your greatest regret?

While tens of thousands of people find themselves impacted by COVID-19 and the standard public health issues continue to plague us, many people are finding themselves in this very situation.

Personally, in 2020 I experienced a minor health crisis, and my dad was diagnosed with cancer. It’s scary to think about your mortality, but it’s also crucial to remember it so that you can live your lives with reverence for the sanctity of life.

Many of us are familiar with a bucket list — that list of all the cool things you want to make sure to do before you die, or kick the bucket. Things like, go skydiving, climb a mountain, travel to Europe, or go to NYC on New Years Eve.

The list has other worthy names, too: The 100 List, or your Ruckus List. Both I love dearly and have inspired me in many ways. I love being able to make plans to live life to its fullest and leave my mark on the world.

I believe it’s important to set the kind of goals in life that stretch you and keep you out of mediocrity and complacency. These goals are demanding, unrealistic, meaningful, and bold. As you pursue them, you start to master new skills, learn to be resilient as you face challenges and obstacles, and embrace failure as a normal part of life and an opportunity to grow!

Without these kinds of ideas to push you forward, it’s possible that you will look back over your life and wish that you’d taken more risks, focused on meaningful relationships, or created more memories.

There is this concept that you should focus more on what you put in your eulogy than on what you put on your resume. What they say about you after you’re gone is going to outlive you and become your legacy.

Your legacy is that powerful reputation you leave behind that others will not only remember you for but will possibly want to model and emulate. A legacy can be good or bad depending on the choices you make and the values you live.

To me, legacy stands for lifetime, endures, generativity, abundance, contribution, and yearning.

It takes a lifetime to cultivate a legacy. You know the saying, the best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago and the second best time is today. It’s never too late to start building a legacy but you do need to start.

A legacy endures beyond the mistakes you make and beyond lifetimes. It is resilient if you have integrity.

Generativity is a term from Erik Erickson’s stages of development. In your life, you will either achieve generativity or stagnation. Basically, you either leave your mark or you live selfishly.

Your legacy will be founded on your mindset being one of abundance. Recognizing that there is enough to go around, or that what you give up will come back to you is part of what it means to have an abundance mindset. Abundance and growth are synonymous. On the other hand, scarcity and having a fixed mindset are one in the same. This is a lot like being stagnant.

Legacy is contribution. What you give, the deposits you make, and the things you leave behind are all part of your legacy.

A legacy is something that you yearn for, something that puts fire in your soul and drives you in life. What you yearn for will manifest. What you focus on in life will become true. The things you obsess over will become your reality, good or bad. I’d rather focus on the good and have faith that those things will begin to unfold.

So, if you’re going to live like you were dying, make sure your to-do list is worthy of building a legacy. No one will care if you beat that video game, traveled the world, or checked off every item on your bucket list. What really matters is what you create and the impact you have on others.

Here are some things on my list:

1. Do something uncomfortable everyday until not doing something feels uncomfortable. It’s hard for me to start a new habit. Something like waking up early has always been a struggle. I’d like to get to the point where not waking up early feels uncomfortable. It takes some faith that it’s worth it, but the benefits will outweigh the costs.
2. Start recording your thoughts on whatever platform is most convenient for you. If you like video, use YouTube or Facebook. If you like to write, use Medium or some other blogging source. If you like to talk, start a podcast (I can help with that). Just start recording something every day. Document your journey even if you don’t feel like you have anything significant to share. You could teach a class, create a digital course, or just create tutorials. Your thoughts are needed.
3. Look into your family’s eyes every day. Have meaningful conversations with them. Make emotional deposits in your loved ones’ hearts every day.
4. Move your body and get a cardiovascular workout everyday so you can live a longer, healthier life.
5. Build automations into your business and your life so that what you create can continue after you’re gone. This also allows you to focus on your strengths and gives you time to do those things that are most important and interesting to you. Which leads me to the next thing on the list.
6. Become a specialist in something important to you. Personal mastery, and skill mastery are irreplaceable assets. While generalists are a dime a dozen, your specialization is worth millions.
7. Develop a healthy habit that replaces an unhealthy coping strategy. Stress triggers your default behaviors. Cultivate the habits that become the default behaviors you want to do when you’re triggered by stress. Your defaults become your norm which become your identity, and your legacy.
8. Make financial and service contributions to worthy causes.
9. The rich measure wealth in time. Create something that multiplies in spite of time, that’s scalable, or creates a residual income so that money will never determine how you use your time. Prioritize your time so that you let irrelevant things slide. Live your values — your true values — and don’t be swayed by false values or others’ values.
10. Listen to your heart guiding you to do something that feels risky (within reason). Question the status quo. Start now and follow your gut.