When creating a legacy for our lives, one of the most important concepts to grasp is how to leave your mark in the world. In others words, how are you showing up in the world. Leaving your mark comes from what you do every day for yourself and what you do every day for the world. Let’s look at three essential building blocks to leave your mark.
Building Block #1: Knowing Your Headspace
When you wake up in the morning, what are those first few thoughts that come in? Are they positive or negative? Your few thoughts set the pace for the day…
We all know this, so then the choice truly becomes a choice. Are you waking up with positive thoughts? If you are, you are well on your way to creating the space to leave your mark…daily. Are you waking up with negative thoughts (oh no it’s a Monday)? If you do, now is the time to take action and change those thoughts, shift them to positive thoughts. One of the best ways to make that shift to be able to show up every day is to create your positive mantra.
Building Block #2: Mantra Making
What are the different mantras you say to yourself when you show up in different spaces? For example, if you are about to go on national TV, do you verbalize your nervousness or do you say to yourself ‘let’s do this’? Flipping the switch to positive mantras is one key action that all successful people share. Most high level successful people have three to five mantras they tell themselves every morning when they get out of bed… and some even before they lift their head from their pillow. Imagine how different your day would be if when you woke up before anything else, you were in the habit of speaking your mantras into your day? This brings us to the third crucial block to leaving your mark…
Building Block #3: Your Physical Stance
Showing up in the world and leaving your mark daily means that in some way you were physically present somewhere. Take note to how you physically show up in situations. Are your shoulders down or are they upright? Do you sit with a slouched posture or with a straight back? Our ability to maintain confidence and handle the conflicts that arise throughout the day (which is truly the mark of creating legacy… walking through life with certainty) is directly proportional to how we physically show up. One client of mine who was dealing with a lack of confidence told me in a session that she was an avid fan of comic book superhero’s. Once she got into the headspace that she was a superhero, told herself that, she would walk into situations with a physical stance that internally was likened to one of her superhero’s. The result? Her state of being was changed and she exuded confidence. Her ability to handle conflict increased and she was able to stand in her own.
There Is No Limit – Except The One You Create
Think bigger! Ever heard that? Of course, we all have. When we push the needle to think bigger, we dream more. This also creates a different way to show up in the world, our world, others’ world. What happens is that we change our automatic responses to life when we think bigger and push ourselves a bit. This takes courage, it takes actions. We need to be willing to let go and become vulnerable. When we dream bigger, think bigger, show up bigger, we remove the impossibilities of the world and we become limitless.
“When the activities of today echo in the walls of eternity…”
Gladiator
Taking Action, Today!
The actions of today will show up tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade…. You get the point. Here is your challenge. Most successful people journal. Now it’s time to take journaling to the next level. Write a legacy letter to your future self that talks about the impact you have made in yourself, as well as generationally and globally in the next six months or year. Then, you have two choices: The first is to read it aloud to yourself every day for six months or a year. The Second is to tuck it away or give it to someone to mail to you at the end of the time.
The first way reminds you daily to take action to reach your goals. The second forces you to think about the action steps you need to take and then you get to see how you showed up when you read the letter down the road. Which road you chose is not important. What is important is that you take action daily to leave your mark! See you in six months!