This week would have been my father, Sandro Paternostro’s 100th birthday.
An epic number.
100.
As I mopped my kitchen floor, I began to think about legacy. Not legacy in the financial sense, but as in contribution to this world.
Here is a man who for 40 years beamed into people's living rooms with interviews from Colonel Gadhafi to Duran Duran, sharing world news and events in his uniquely entertaining way, changing the course of Italian TV journalism... And yet on his 100th birthday, there was tumble weed rolling down the corridors of history.
Don’t get me wrong, he didn’t invent the wheel, nor discover penicillin. I am not saying there should be a national holiday celebrating his life. I just felt that for someone who was so ‘successful’ (whatever that word might mean) you'd expect there to be a little something 100 years later.
I then thought ‘if I were to shuffle off my mortal coil, what would my legacy be?’ The answer left me baffled because it felt a little threadbare. I don’t even know what I would want my legacy to be, let alone if I have one at all.
Googling a legacy….
When I started to investigate further suggestions of legacy or contributing to the world, I found:
• Be mindful
• Explore & express your purpose
• Make kindness a daily practice
• Choose to be happy
• Have meaningful conversations
Which is all great stuff, but doesn’t feel epic enough.
I also found a step by step action plan:
• Find your focus
• Consider where you may have the greatest impact
• Educate and inform yourself
• Inform others about your knowledge and causes
• Create happiness
And I found ideas around the importance of giving back:
• Donate supplies
• feed someone
• become a mentor
• pay if forward
• pick up rubbish
• volunteer
• tutor someone
• recycle
• donate clothing
• donate blood
• use apps that give back
• volunteer your dog
• run errands…
As I mopped my kitchen floor, I realised that life is sailing past and if I want to etch my mark "Sandra was 'ere" then I need to get a wiggle on before it's too late.
What is your legacy?
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