How to Define your Legacy

What I love about helping entrepreneurs and business owners define their legacy, is that at any moment you don’t know where a conversation might go.

You see, as far as I’m concerned, every human is looking to define their legacy even if they don’t use that particular language around it. And in this context, we are talking about legacy future, once our souls are no longer on this planet.

Some are under the impression that legacy is only to be found in material circumstances. Some are carrying the presuppositions from family as to what a legacy should look like. Some are only focusing on the external shifts that need to happen to create a future legacy rather than shifting their own internal experience.

And for some, which is where we are focusing today, they are struggling to define their future legacy from their present mindset and legacy.

Story Time...

Let me share with you a story from my upbringing as to how defining our future legacy from the present moment can show up. I come from what would be categorised as a lower-middle-class family. We went on package holidays and stayed with relatives, but we didn’t stay in hotels and certainly not five-star hotels.

So when a previous mentor asked me to describe the best holiday I could think of, I could only describe it from my present state based on my past legacy. I didn’t know luxury hotels.

I couldn’t make it real, or feel real in my soul that this could happen as I didn’t have any emotional markers in my past or present legacy to assist me.

And as such it was an exercise that didn’t land with me, that is to say, it didn’t make a transformational impact on my desired legacy.

You see what I was experiencing, like so many of my 121 clients, is cognitive bias related to creating a legacy goal.

Cognitive bias is systematic thinking that occurs when you are processing and interpreting information in the world.

Cognitive bias is the brain's way of simplifying information processing, like trying to speed up a computer. 

And whilst it might speed things up, it can also lead to a bias in how you make sense of the world and reach decisions regarding legacy.

Erroneously Defining our Legacy

If I was to ask you, friend, what would be your dream legacy that you want to create?

I’m just going to leave a pause there, just for a second or two, as you might be trying to process that question. And to your unconscious mind that I know is trying to process the question, it’s okay to sit and be with that question at a later date if you want to.

Okay so back to my question. If I was to ask you, friend, what would be your dream legacy that you want to create?

The only option available to you is to answer the question from your present state.

Using all that you know.

Using all that you perceive is possible.

Using all that you’ve seen those before you create as their legacy.

And therein can be why we can erroneously define our legacy.

Because what if you don’t know what you don’t know?

What if your legacy is beyond your current scope of perception?

What if the problem with the Walt Disney quote “If you can dream it, you can do it” is that we can’t dream it, because we have no reference point or knowledge from which to dream?

Can you feel the weight of that one? What if your dream future legacy is beyond your current scope of knowledge?

For me, this is where the power and the fun starts.

Because for my clients, as well as being their biggest cheerleader and biggest challenger, I’m also going to add to that their Chief Inspirer. 

Well, I can’t take credit for that one.... one of my 121 clients who defines themselves as a visionary, asked that when they signed up for their last 12-month program with me, they were specifically hiring a Chief Inspirer to enable them to dream bigger.

And that’s part of my role when you are creating your future legacy, including the impact that you want to have in the world; to inspire you and hold your vision as truth, maybe sometimes even before my clients can see it.

So in a later episode, we are going to be talking in different stages about how to define future legacy, but right now I want to focus on how you can expand your future legacy, thinking as to extend your knowledge base from which to dream from.

Hacking your Reticular Activating System

The 1st exercise I want to do for you, which is against my usual style of coaching, is to hack your reticular activating system (or RAS for short).

Your RAS is a bundle of nerves at your brainstem that filters out unnecessary information so the important things can go through, more or less like a sieve.

It also has other functions related to sleep.

As I mentioned, I want to hack your RAS to consider areas regarding future legacy that you may or may not have considered before.

A note to your ego-mind that legacy exists in the present and the future, for you and others, and no judgement exists when considering what legacy you want to create.

Here are some examples from myself, from clients and for you to consider:

• Set up a charity
• Invest in property for those after you
• Visit new countries around the world
• Enable your children to emerge from college/ university debt-free
• Donate % of the profit of your business
• Pay off mortgages for family members
• Establish your company as a b-corp
• % of your work is pro-bono
• Visit your dream luxury hotel/ resort
• Talk on the largest platform about your mission
• Buy a family vacation house in cash for the whole family to use
• Become the lead in a reality show about female-owned businesses
• Be a leader in your community
• Write 3 books that are published
• Create a scholarship each year for new entrepreneurs in your industry
• Engage in collaborative philanthropy on the issue of clean water and sanitation

So as you read that your mind will have absorbed or let go of those which may resonate or those to expand your knowledge base from which to create your legacy. 

Taking them on board, how can you easily and efficiently gain rich knowledge to enable your legacy to seed from?

1. Stay curious
2. Reading – read novels and outside of your expertise zone
3. Listening to a podcast such as this and others that focus on future legacy
4. Observe those creating legacies
5. Self-reflection on what your soul desires to create legacy wise
6. Creativity – allow yourself to be open and experience creativity in a wide range of forms
7. Connect – with others, with yourself and with nature for the lessons that the original mother has for you
8. Learn something for no purpose other than for pure enjoyment

Remember my story about the luxury hotel? The only way I could stay curious to see if this was something I wanted to do was to immerse myself as much as I could in one, without physically being there.

I visited hotel websites, watched films especially those that toured hotels and when I could I physically went to luxury hotels just for coffee, to smell them and bring them to life.

Then I could work out, by doing, whether this was something that I desired, without even achieving.

It’s the same premise if you are considering moving or property being part of your legacy; go and tour houses, visit local areas and try the legacy on, like a rehearsal to see how it feels.

You see the truth is that highly successful people spend time getting curious about their legacy, before defining it.

Love,

Laura

When you’re ready to explore your legacy, success and impact on the world, here are ways to start the journey:

1. Wielding Legacy - weekly audio insights from Laura to help you build a legacy for you and your family. Gifted to you by Laura. Download the Kajabi app to have the weekly insights delivered straight to your phone. Limited to 100 active members.

2. Your legacy as an entrepreneur is rooted in your ability to sell your offerings to those to who you can be of service. Persuasion £93 is the entry point course allowing your business to thrive. 

3. Stop being the best-kept secret in your industry. Brand Seduction will get you seducing your ideal clients in integrity to desire your services, and becoming sought after. 

If you are looking to create a hugely impactful legacy, my one-to-one success coaching will change everything. The next available spot is August 2021 and is an £11,000 investment in your legacy.