“Your eulogy will reflect not just the impressive achievements you’ve amassed but, more importantly, the hearts you touched and the stories you shaped.”
-The Daily Coach
What matters most to you: the personal and financial achievements you have achieved over the course of your lifetime or the level of impact that you have had on those you have come in contact with? As today’s quote emphasizes, it should be the latter. It focuses on our eulogy which is a speech or writing paying tribute to or praising someone who has recently passed. I have been a part of more than I’d like to count and I can’t help but to think about what others, whether it be friends, family or both would have to say about me. For me this type of thinking allows me to readjust what matters most to me in my life and that is the people around me. This way of thinking brings forth a high level of self awareness. It will become quite clear which pathway you are headed legacy wise (possessions or impact) based on what was easier to write about.
I came across one eulogy that President Barack Obama had done a few years back when Senator John Lewis had passed. This is a primary example as to the type of impact that is possible if we focus on what really matters:
“The life of John Lewis was, in so many ways, exceptional. It vindicated the faith in our founding, redeemed that faith; that most American of ideas; that idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation, and come together, and challenge the status quo, and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals.
What a radical ideal. What a revolutionary notion. This idea that any of us, ordinary people, a young kid from Troy can stand up to the powers and principalities and say no this isn’t right, this isn’t true, this isn’t just. We can do better. On the battlefield of justice, Americans like John, Americans like the Reverends Lowery and C.T. Vivian, two other patriots that we lost this year, liberated all of us that many Americans came to take for granted.
America was built by people like them. America was built by John Lewises. He as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals. And someday, when we do finish that long journey toward freedom; when we do form a more perfect union — whether it’s years from now, or decades, or even if it takes another two centuries — John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.”
-Barack Obama
At no point did President Obama speak of his personal accomplishments but rather spoke on the level of impact that he had on Americans and on his country. To me there is no better way than to serve and give back to the people. It was evident that John Lewis did that.
It is my sincere hope that when it is my time, there is not a struggle by anyone on what to say as it is at the forefront of their minds and the type of impact I had on them and others. The level of impact fuels the flames of our legacy.
What does this quote mean to you and how can you apply today’s message towards improving your self awareness?
Becoming The Change 