Are you leaving a Ripple Legacy? (Hint: The answer is yes.)

If today were your very last day on earth, how would you feel about the legacy you’re leaving?

For many people, the answer to that question would be a resounding, “Meh.”

We all want to feel like our lives matter. It’s just part of how we’re wired. But with all the demands of life – its commitments, deadlines, and ever-expanding to-do lists – too often we put off any substantial efforts to make a difference until “later, when I have more time.”

But what if there were another way of looking at the difference you make, one that expands the picture beyond the stereotypical view of add-on activities like volunteering and charitable giving to one that encompasses your entire life?

And I don’t mean some fantasy life where you chuck it all and join the Peace Corps, but the one you’re living right here, right now.

Your Ripple Legacy^TM

It all starts with how we think about the legacy we create. If the way we think about legacy is some variation of an answer to the question, “Will they remember me?”, it’s what I call Ego Legacy thinking. And the sad truth is that – aside from a very few ultra-famous people – the best any of us can hope for is a generation or two of people remembering.

Being remembered is a poor measure of our life’s mattering.

A better perspective is what I call Ripple Legacy thinking, which asks, “What is the net impact of the ripples I have set in motion with my life?”

Ripple Legacy (n): The cumulative impact – both immediate and ongoing – of the choices you make and actions you take, day in and day out, throughout your entire life.

Every day, for better and for worse, you are adding to that legacy.

And while some of the ripples you create die out or get lost in choppy seas, others will keep creating more ripples. Long after you are gone and forgotten, the echo of those ripples will still be heard.

Here’s the thing – you can’t NOT make a difference. You’re already creating a Ripple Legacy.

Every day you’re alive, you have an impact on the world in some way. You are always creating ripples. A choice to compliment someone, flipping someone off in traffic, recycling, and giving a young co-worker helpful advice all create ripples.

Some of those ripples are positive, others negative. Taken altogether, they add up to the Ripple Legacy your life creates.

Mind-boggling potential

I’m willing to bet that you have no idea of the size of the Ripple Legacy you have already created. Not because you’re clueless, but because so much of the impact we have comes from ripples that occur beyond our view’s horizon.

I’m also willing to bet that you underestimate the potential you have for making a long-lasting positive impact, even if you never make it into the history books.

When you take into account the successive generations of ripples any initial impact can set in motion, far beyond the immediate impact you see – even beyond your own life span – your potential to make a difference is mind-boggling. I think about it all the time, and I still can’t get my brain around how enormous that potential is.

Ripple Legacy planning

Looking at life through a Ripple Legacy lens can be a helpful tool for increasing and amplifying the positive ripples you create as well as reducing the negative ones.

It helps bring the difference you’re making into focus and shines a light on both where the positive ripple opportunities are and how creating negative ripples can be avoided. It lets you be more conscious and intentional about the day-to-day difference you make.

Think of it as Ripple Legacy planning.

Try this: Starting today, ask yourself, “What ripples am I creating?” Sit down and make a list of ways that you have been the source of positive ripples in your life. Keep adding to it over time as instances occur to you. Then ask yourself, “What ripples do I want to create?” Keep your eyes open for ways to start those ripples, large or small. Weave ripple generation into the fabric of how you approach your daily life.