Life is fragile and we are guaranteed nothing.  Aside from being grateful for the lives we have and honoring our gifts, we need to ask what we want from life.  The answer to that question determines how we spend our time and sets the stage for the course we take.  Life moves quickly and things change so it’s important to have a constant, a sort of North star.  We have to ask ourselves some key questions to help us navigate.  The biggest question is do we need status and accolades or are we looking for freedom and impact?  Those are very different things, very different courses in life.  I can’t say one has more merit than the other because that is a personal choice, but what I can say is that the answer to that question gets us different results in life.  I do know that as I’m getting older, I understand our greatest gifts are to be loved and remembered.  The way we feel about ourselves and the way others feel around us is far more impactful than asking what we can get from people.

We look for immediate gratification and we look to see our names in neon lights because we are told that is the ultimate goal.  There is a saying that people will forget what you said and what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel.  So having the attention for a brief time is fleeting.  Our legacy is the feeling we left in people, the courage we gave people to pursue their dreams, the light we leave behind that we ignite in others.  Legacy is nothing without meaning—it all becomes moot if we simply take the action without intention behind it.  When we consider how we use our gifts and how we spend our time, the intention makes a difference. With all the distraction today, it’s easy to misinterpret our intention.  We think that attention is what we need or that we have to have the big house.  The reality is most of us are actually looking for the freedom to call our own shots and spend our time how we want to.  The ability to create something lasting is more impactful than our five minutes in the spotlight. 

It’s important to note that things like status and accolades can be taken away.  Money, houses, cars, pretty much any possession we have can be taken away.  The love we have, the love we leave, the lessons we share, the advice we lend, the conversations we have, the beliefs we impart, the hope we instill, the trust we build, the time we spend, the more we see others and hear them—all of that is lasting.  I’ve mentioned before that we don’t necessarily have to change the whole world in order to have an impact—we may change the world for one person.  We create ripples in this life that we may never see the end of, we are in a web so intricately woven that we are all connected and we may never see all of the intersections.  Our choices matter, our lives matter, our actions matter.  It’s the small things that are the big things—our values and character are far more lasting than anything we can buy.  Choose the type of impact we are looking to have and no matter the events of our lives, we can say we gave our best and our actions mattered.