Living Your Legacy

In a world where racism, violence, illness, and poverty can feel so overwhelming that we often close our eyesand our heartsto the suffering around us, we may not believe we have the power to change things. As Barbara Greenspan Shaiman shows us in Live Your Legacy Now!, this simply isnt so. This part memoir and part how-to guide provides the tools and strategies to help you create meaningful change in your own life as well as in the lives of others. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Shaiman shares stories from her family history and over thirty years of her own life experience as a successful educator, business woman, and social entrepreneur to inspire and guide you to create a vision and plan for initiating a personal legacy. Shaiman details her effective ten-step approach by helping you: Identify your core values, interests, and skills Reflect on how you can use these assets to create meaningful projects that make a difference locally or globally Share these experiences with family, colleagues, and friends to create cultures of caring at home, at work, and in your community Live Your Legacy Now! provides a simple formula to help people of all ages and backgrounds live richer, more meaningful lives by creating projects for personal growth and social change.

No matter what stage of life we find ourselves in, we may wonder if what we've done with our time on earth bears any significance. But this question becomes especially important when our expectations for lifelong achievement and ability in later years come face to face with a reality that may not meet those lifelong hopes. It's common to ask, "Who am I now? How should I invest these years? Must I redefine myself, and if so, how? Can I still make a difference?" Dale and Sandy Larsen found themselves in this place of uncertainty, and they longed to move beyond it into something fruitful and hopeful. Here they offer wisdom born from their experience of finding new, often surprising ways to use their gifts and interests to serve God and those around them. They discovered that even though former roles defined by work and family may be gone or become very different, God still has plans and purposes for their life. And he has plans for your life too. Join Dale and Sandy in discovering the exciting ways in which God can use you no matter what your age or circumstances may be. Through interaction with personal narratives, Bible studies, connection points with biblical figures, prayer and exercises designed to help you explore new possibilities, you will learn that there's much more to life now than you expected. Rather than just living out your later years, you can learn, with God's help, to live your legacy.

The purpose of Living Your Legacy Now! is to bring out the best in every person that reads it and help them apply the life lessons contained in it! Its audience is multi-generational. Countless books have been written about human behavior, leadership, success, positive life balance and spirituality. This is a different kind of book in its content, format, and purpose. The reader will not be overwhelmed with long chapters of text and commentary, but instead exposed to brief life lessons, some only one page in length, that are designed for the reader to think through the topic at hand and make needed changes in his or her life! Many lessons serve to validate that the reader is on course with their intended life purpose. So, Living Your Legacy Now! is not complex, but easy to understand. It will educate and inspire the reader to live a successful, healthy, and fulfilling life. It will definitely "bring out the best in yourself!"

"Create your legacy offers a simple formula--LGGC (pronounced Legacy, a formula for creating and leaving a lasting legacy). Topics include shifting life, accepting oneself and others, having unconditional love, being honest, balancing work and relationships, being truly present, being generous, and cultivating gratitude. Create your legacy seeks to help the reader visualize and make conscious life decisions."--Page 4 of cover.

What if your legacy isn't what you leave behind, but something you create, every day of your life? What if you started acting the way you want to be remembered--right now--and shared your unique gifts with the world? In Everyday Legacy, Codi Shewan inspires readers to redefine how they live and embrace the idea of living--not leaving--a legacy. His message is simple, yet powerful: In each moment, you have the ability to change yourself and those around you, in profound ways. This book is for anyone who wants to rethink their own legacy and start living it now. Everyday Legacy shares vital lessons for living, informed by Shewan's experiences as a funeral director who developed a deep understanding of the reality of death. From tales of unexpected friendship as a young volunteer in palliative care to what he learned through his estranged father's funeral, Everyday Legacy shows us what it means to be deeply human, undeniably mortal--and how to choose a life that matters.

For over 30 years Alan Weiss has consulted, coached, and advised everyone from Fortune 500 executives, state governors, non-profit directors, and entrepreneurs to athletes, entertainers, and beauty pageant contestants. That’s quite an assortment of people, and they run into the thousands. Most of them have had what we euphemistically call "means," and some of them have had a lot more than that. Others have been aspiring and with more ends in sight than means on hand. Alan Weiss states: I’ve dealt with esteem (low), narcissism (high), family problems, leadership dysfunctions, insecurities, addictions, and ethical quandaries. And I’ve talked with them through the coronavirus crisis. But don’t get the wrong idea. About 95% of these people have been well-meaning, honest (to the best of their knowledge), and interested in becoming a better person and better professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be talking to me. I found the equivalent of the "runner’s wall" in their journeys, where they must break through the pain and the obstacles and then can keep going with renewed energy and spirit. But runners know how far they must go after the breakthrough, be it another half lap or another five miles. There is a finish line. I’ve found that people in all positions, even after the "breakthrough," don’t know where they are in the race, let alone where the finish line is. They do not know what meaning is for them. They may have money in the bank, good relationships, the admiration of others, and the love of their dogs. But they have no metrics for "What now?" They believe that at the end of life there is a tallying, some metaphysical accountant who totals up their contributions, deducts their bad acts, and creates the (hopefully positive) difference. That difference, they believe, is their "legacy." But the thought that legacy arrives at the end of life is as ridiculous as someone who decides to sell a business and tries to increase its valuation the day prior. Legacy is now. Legacy is daily. Every day we create the next page in our lives, but the question becomes who is writing it and what’s being written. Is someone else creating our legacy? Or are we, ourselves, simply writing the same page repeatedly? Or do we leave it blank? Our organic, living legacy is marred and squeezed by huge normative pressures. There is a "threshold" point, at which one’s beliefs and values are overridden by immense peer pressure. Our metrics are forced to change. In an age of social media, biased press, and bullying, we’ve come to a point where our legacy, ironically, is almost out of our hands. Yet our "meaning" — our creation of meaning and not a search for some illusive alchemy — creates worth and impact for us and all those with whom we interact.

We worry about what we will be our heritage when we leave this world, but what if that legacy is something we have to share here and now? What if we build that legacy through our presence, actions and decisions? We have now the best we can leave: living being the person you truly want to be. Amélie Yan-Gouiffes is convinced that the purpose is essential for people's growth and can even boost business and economic success. Through Speak and Live Your Legacy, she seeks to inspire us through stories of different exceptional people that she found traveling through Colombia, Guatemala, Cameroon, Bosnia Herzegovina, Afghanistan, and North Korea. If the ultimate goal of our lives is to shine, what better time and place than here and now?

Craft a meaningful life story! A written legacy of your life--one that encompasses experiences, lessons learned, failures and triumphs--is a gift your family and friends will cherish for years to come. Writing this story may seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Writing Your Legacy is a step-by-step guide to chronicling a life story that reflects your true self. Through a series of 35 guided themes, as well as supplementary exercises, you'll explore milestones, relationships, career paths, and major choices, and leave an eloquent record of your life for future generations. You'll also learn how to: • Become the hero of your story • Employ vibrant sensory details • Discover your unique voice • Dig up memories from your childhood and teen years • Overcome writer's block, address common fears, and stay motivated • Prepare your story for publication Writing your life story can grant you insight and clarity, help you heal past wounds, and serve as a treasured account you'll be proud to share. Your story deserves to be told. Capture the spirit of your life with Writing Your Legacy.