What Do You Want To Be True Because You Lived?

I do not find “legacy” a very useful word.

It feels too grand. Too marble. Too much like someone has commissioned a portrait and is standing near a fireplace looking serious.

But I do find this question useful:

What do you want to be true because you lived?

In 2009, Laura King, Joshua Hicks and Justin Abdelkhalik published work in Psychological Science suggesting that thinking about death can increase the perceived value and meaning of life. That makes sense to me. Scarcity clarifies. The fact that a life ends is part of what makes a life matter.

This is not morbid. It is focusing.

Most of us spend a lot of time acting as though there will be infinite Tuesdays. Infinite chances to repair the relationship, write the thing, change the habit, make the call, do the brave work, stop pretending not to know what we know.

There will not be infinite Tuesdays.

That does not mean every day must be maximised. What a hideous thought. Some days are for soup, admin, and staring vaguely at a wall.

But it does mean our lives are asking something of us.

Not necessarily something enormous. Not everyone needs to change a law, start a movement, write a book, or burn down their life and move to a mountain.

Sometimes the answer is smaller and harder.

Raise the child well. Tell the truth. Build the company without humiliating people. Care for the parent. Make the work more humane. Leave the room better than you found it. Refuse the easy cruelty. Apologise properly.

A meaningful life is not necessarily a dramatic life.

It is a life in which something good is more true because you were here.

Emily Hunt-Adiletta OBE is a bestselling author and keynote speaker.

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