From the desk of Jamie Hass – Guest Blog!
At 99 years old, my grandmother went to heaven.
In writing her obituary, her professional accolades were so few, but she was known throughout the town as baking the best cinnamon rolls, we all remember her pies from the local café…
And there was not a soul that didn’t know her kitchen table was the place to go for coffee, cookies and refueling one’s soul.
The thousands of lives she touched and impacted can never truly be counted, but when it comes to legacy, defined as the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life.
Well, she left behind the ultimate legacy.
In this modern world so much of legacy and impact is connected to dollar signs and the professional accolades – the paychecks, the titles, the followers and views.
But in God’s kingdom, is that what He is looking for? I don’t think so.
Our ability to create a legacy and make an impact starts with ourselves and within our own homes. If the greatest work one does is to build a home where others want to be (from the neighbor next door to the high profile CEO), raising up kind children who notice others and living a life of service to others – that is the ultimate impact.
It may not get millions of views or lead to social media followers, but it doesn’t go unnoticed.
Our time on this earth is unique to each and every one of us. If our impact is to raise up strong, intelligent, faith-based children, that is a cause equally as significant as building and operating a 6 or 7 figure business operation.
We aren’t meant to do it all individually, we’re meant to do it all collectively…
We’re meant to lean on each other, lean on our faith and ultimately, lean on God. In doing that we create an impact and legacy that lives far beyond the latest trend or business challenge.
The ink fades, the algorithms change, but the stuff of value, that will always withstand.
And staying focused on that allows us to celebrate those who are getting the professional accolades, celebrate ourselves when we create those accomplishments, and always keeping perspective of what our ultimate goals truly are.
Some tips I have found to keep this balance and perspective at the forefront of the work I do:
1. Know my priorities – when setting goals, set goals for each area of your life: personally, professionally, family, friends, community, faith, etc. If you only focus on one area in your goal setting you will inevitably set yourself up to be imbalanced as you lose focus on certain important areas.
2. Plan your time – when looking at my schedule each week, make sure there is time spent focused on each of your goals. For some, this means making each day a different priority, for others it’s making sure there is some of each priority in each day. There’s no one right way to plan, just find the system that works best for you. In fact, when I first began this process, I used a different colored highlighter for each priority and highlighted them in my schedule – this allowed for me to visually see if there was an imbalance and adjust accordingly until it became a habit.
3. Give yourself grace – whether you are at the peak of your career, you are a new momma or you are a seasoned pro that suddenly finds yourself clueless on how to parent teens, have patience with yourself. It’s a journey – my grandmother didn’t make it through 99 years without making mistakes and she often shared those mistakes with me. But, ultimately, her legacy wasn’t built on her mistakes, it was built on the grace she had for herself and the grace others showed towards her. And that same grace is available to each of us – we’re going to make mistakes, we’re going to learn from them and we’re going to make each day better than the ones that came before.