If you Died Tomorrow, What would your Legacy Be?

I know. Kind of a morbid question. Think about it though. Do you know what your legacy is?

It’s such an important question. A difficult one at that. Death isone of our greatest fears. I get it. It’s time to stop fearing what we’re going to leave behind.

Why don’t we start living our legacy?

I get asked a lot why I started writing (and how I have time to do it with my corporate sales job and family affairs). I always default to this answer:

I had an epiphany a couple of years ago. My children, Gabe and Reese were born in 2007 and 2009. I realized that I wanted to influence their lives in a profound way. To teach them the right way to go about their life. To help them learn from my mistakes, although not sheltering them from the challenges and responsibility of life.

I started to think about my mortality and the fact that I wouldn’t be around forever. Maybe it was buying life insurance or developing a will and trust. Whatever it was, I felt a need to put on paper my lessons and philosophy on life.

What would I leave behind if I died tomorrow?

I now have thousands of words and thoughts (and many life lessons) that they can read if I wasn’t around.

If you’ve never seen the movie, My Life, I highly recommend it. Michael Keaton plays the role of a father who’s dying of cancer. He decides to video tape himself giving advice to his child b/c he knew he wouldn’t be around. There’s a great scene where he talks about shaking hands with someone and looking them in the eye. He plays it out. That has stuck with me to this day. It makes you think, that’s for sure.

If I died tomorrow, I want to make sure my children know how much they’ve inspired me.

Thank you, Gabe and Reese, for making me a better person and helping me strive to do great things.

To those who are new to The Catalyst Project, thank you for joining the movement. To all who’ve been here for a while – I greatly appreciate the support. You all inspire me more than you know.

To living our ultimate life,

Jon