Chris Gill - Redefining Legacy

Insight and inspiration for flying higher in the difference only you can make from guests who have appeared on Creative on Purpose Live.

This week's wisdom comes from Christopher Gil, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at Exeter University. Tune into the entire conversation here.

[SCOTT] What's the significance of legacy, if any.

[CHRIS] Well, I think... Well again, perhaps I can refer to Marcus on this, to Marcus Aurelius. Because he wonderfully brings together the sense that, in a sense, we all live now. We all have to live now, at this very moment of time.

And it is by living now, and by doing all we can now, by trying to live up to our the best selves we can now, that we can also confront, really, our mortality. Because that's the best way to... We have... Death occurs, of course, it will come. But the best way to confront it is not to dwell on it but to live life as fully and well as you can.

And that's also the best legacy that you can leave. Because the most effect you have on people really is by who you are. It's not exactly what you do, it's what you are.

And if you can share that in a way then that's really the most you can do. Though it isn't anything extra. It's just trying to live well.

That's what matters.

[SCOTT]I think that is a profound point, and at the half-hour mark, I think that that is the point at which we'll leave things.

Chris just shared a perspective on legacy that dissociates it from the future and places it firmly in your lap in the here and now. How are you living your legacy today?

Scott Perry, Chief Difference-Maker at Creative on Purpose.

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