Legacy is Becoming A New Trend

Used to be when I used the word legacy, people cocked their heads to one side like a curious puppy hearing a new command for the first time. Huh?

It gives me great joy to see the concept out from under the wraps of heads of state and philanthropists with enormous financial estates. While these folks may or may not create great legacies, it seems more and more people are stopping to consider what their lives really mean, and what difference it will make for them having been on this planet. And, oh boy, that’s where it starts.

I read a great post by a guy named Chris Guillebeau in Seattle, Washington, USA. Chris has a great take on his own legacy and his post inspired the comments of a great number of kindred legacy spirits including me. If you’re interested in these notions, you may well find it a great read too!  I couldn’t have said better what he did if I’d written it myself, and I swear I didn’t hire him to write about it. These notions of giving back and social entrepreneurship are springing up spontaneously all over the place. I am so glad to see the trend forming.

I am struck how common the concept of creating a legacy project seems to be among Gen X, Gen Y and the Millennials - even more than it is with people often of considerably greater financial means in the Boomer and beyond generations. There is a legion of humans developing on this planet with a penchant to give forward (as well as give back) and make a difference. And it is from that mindset they will find the means to get it done. You don’t have to start with a great deal of wealth or power to ‘leave a legacy.’ You just have to care about something and decide to act on it. Money can be raised to support something worthwhile.

What would you throw yourself into, whole-heartedly, that would be a joy to promote and even raise funds for if you had to because it did so much good and made you feel incredible?

American Labor For Sustainability - Woo Hoo!

Mainstream America is coming to an understanding of the need to get behind efforts to clean up the planet.  The American labor movement has for some time supported expanding “green jobs” that will help create a cleaner, renewable energy economy and address global climate change.  Three unions recently took additional action and announced their support for the science-based targets called for by the IPCC to reduce greehouse gas emissions that cost us all, and future generations, far more than any savings offered (to anyone) by maintainining the status quo in our current fossil fuel based economy.  More on this story here: http://www.labor4sustainability.org/post/unions-call-for-science-based-reductions-in-greenhouse-gases/

Learning the issues and taking action to be for the right kinds of change, are legacy level leadership activities! Right on!

The Solar Race Is On - Now There’s a Developing Legacy to Get Behind!

Many of you know my personal legacy is devoted to environmental protection, conservation and support for the development of clean, renewable energy technologies. Now that folks seem to be getting the sense that global climate change is happening, addressing it is important and that it is economically and common sensically viable to do so (not only crucial to life as we know it on Earth), it seems the race to innovate and initiate new solutions is on.  Yea!!

From the Las Vegas Sun news online comes the story of the race between Nevada and Arizona to be the first to employ solar energy production and storage.

Imagine: what would the world be like if we all were racing to create better solutions, especially to environmental problems?  From my perspective, it would allow us to eventually get away from fossil fuel based energy production, which is important why?  Again, from where I live on the ocean it would stop us from killing the ocean and a crucial food chain all us Earthians depend on.  The ocean is not the vast resource we once thought, that we can treat as a giant dumping ground (and unfortunately have).  Between doing that and adding carbon to the atmosphere, which the ocean tries to help moderate by absorbing it and creating carbonic acid (H20 + CO2 = carbonic acid), not to mention unsustainable fishing practices, the ocean and its resources are dying. 

Here’s a picture of where we’re going if we don’t race to find solutions.  This is not just a scary story, we’re already actually on our way to this end:

Coral reefs and climate change, a message for Copenhagen from Earth Touch on Vimeo.

It was a video shown in Copenhagen as part of the effort to urge global solutions to climate change (of which the ocean acidification I mentioned is part).  Consider your children and grandchildren and the world they will inherit from the current generation if we don’t get behind efforts to change things for the better. 

Knowing this, what solution could you race toward as part of your consciously chosen life legacy?  Let us know how we can help you!

And The Winner Is …

As we venture into the new year 2010, various media provide us with run-downs, top 10’s, count-downs, etc. of the most notable events of the past year.  My favorite was contained in an electronic greeting card I received from Kate Klaus Kelly, a delightful virtual assistant I’ve had the pleasure to work with this past year.  Here’s the link:  http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=505648072&m=9050&rr=y&source=ag999 

In fact, Kate is the overall winner this past year in the greeting card category, getting all three major year end events spot on in my book (Christmas, my birthday and the New Year greeting) - timely, and in absolutely hilarious form, each one.  They were so fun, I just had to share them all.  (Didn’t know American Greetings had it in ‘em …!!)  Here are the other two  for you to enjoy as well:

My birthday greeting : http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=504979802&m=9050&rr=y&source=ag999

Christmas (the best by far):  http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=504563311&m=9050&rr=y&source=ag999 

Wish you had been so cleverly funny, too, don’t you?  (THANKS KATE!)

May you all have a meaningfully fulfilled and - especially - an incredibly enjoyable new year!

In 2010 - On Enrichment and Being Rich

There’s a great new, free, ebook circulating on the web.  And if you haven’t seen it yet, get a copy and peruse it here at year end as you think about what you want to create in your life and work in the coming months and years … and how you intend to approach that. 

It’s called What Matters Now - download it as a pdf from Seth Godin’s blog.  Turns out what matters now, is what has always mattered really.  It’s like re-discovering an old classic, finding that old, soft ,warm, cozy sweater you thought you’d lost. 

My favorite line of advice? This:   You are only as rich as the enrichment you bring to the world around you.  So, if being richer is important to you, how will you go about bringing more enrichment to the world?  A good question to ponder as we close out this calendar year and, as we do at “new year” - consider fresh beginnings.

More Alternative Holiday Gift-Giving Ideas

I recently wrote about Legacy-Level Holiday Gift-Giving Ideas.  (If you missed it, you can read it here.)  What makes something legacy-level gift giving?  Much like  legacies themselves, this level of gift-giving makes a positive difference - particularly, hopefully, a sustainable or long-term one and/or one that keeps on giving.  

A number of the gift ideas in that article may not have seemed to make a tangible, sustainable difference directly.  The point was to give with a small environmental footprint. So the legacy aspect of it was in what the gift ideas don’t do - they don’t add to waste and overconsumption, so they help promote long term environmental sustainability. 

While ultimately practical and maybe not what folks would think of as really “sexy” or “magical” gifts, I just found a similar article that provides some additional alternative holiday gift ideas - as in alternative energy approaches.  See Great Green Gift Ideas That Will Save You Money and Help the Environment to check out these practical, alternative gems.

So maybe you don’t want to use one of these gift ideas to that fabulous new person you’re dating and whose heart you’re trying to win.  They may still be great for family members, those people on your list who “have everything” — or even as gifts for yourself (and that fabulous new date may well be practical and environmentally minded …).  Since these gifts are good for environmental protection and ultimately help create a more sustainable planet, you may well be regarded as a real visionary and trend-setter - indeed, an impressive enlighted leader in your own right - through a very practical approach to legacy-level gift giving.  That demonstration of leadership might just create a following, with people replicating your example, making your gift idea one that keeps on giving as well.

Legacy-Level Holiday Gift-Giving Ideas

This holiday season, remember the 4 R’s: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle and Rot. Not words you think of when it comes to the holidays? You can easily begin to incorporate these terms of environmental conservation into your gift-giving plans.

What do the 4 R’s really mean? Many people understand them to be equal alternatives, when really they form a hierarchy. The best first step is to Reduce the amount of material consumed, and therefore the energy used and waste produced in making it. Next in line is to Re-use goods and material that no longer serve their original purpose, but can serve another one with minimal process until their useful is exhausted. This is the one that is probably the least used or most mis-used in what has become a worldwide throwaway society. How many one-use items will you throw away today alone (think coffee cups, other beverage and food containers plastic bags)? Recycling is only third in line — its benefit only kicks in when it’s not possible to avoid consuming new materials to begin with or to re-use them. And while a great thing to do, recycling requires use of additional resources for transportation to processing facilities and for the recycling process itself. Think: “an ounce of prevention vs. a pound of cure.” Finally, Rotting (composting organic materials) is always available but is primarily an activity of the agrarian age gone-by that too few of us utilize. It happens naturally in landfills and our water supply, with little benefit and the need to expend energy to clean or reclaim those resources after compostable items are discarded or washed down a drain. That valuable organic matter could instead be going back into the soil to enrich it.

So, how can you make a difference in this arena, especially during the holidays? Here are some suggestions:

Reduce by just limiting the amount of stuff — plain old consumer goods and consumables — you purchase and interact with this holiday season. Your savings account and waistline will thank you. And you will reduce the amount of packaging and overall energy expenditures involved (including your own personal life energy). Let simplicity be the watchword — meaningful quality rather than quantity in gift-giving. The Story of Stuff also sheds some important light on issues of over-consumption and the true cost of things you may otherwise consider a bargain. When you think you’re getting a deal and can therefore buy more — think again about the hidden costs … and buy less.

There are many ways to Re-use other than to save wrapping paper and make last year’s paper greeting cards into gift tags (although those are good ideas, too). Gifts don’t have to be shiny and brand new to be significant and meaningful. They can be hand-crafted, one of a kind wonders (a different way to say homemade, but heck, what’s wrong with homemade?) Some examples are shown below.

Hopefully, you are already utilizing the environmental conservation practice of Recycling. Of course it’s hardly a new concept. Prior to synthetics, mass production, and particularly the end of WWII, conservation and recycling were the way we lived. Goods made from nylon, real rubber and many metals were rationed and reused. The environmental movement of the 1960s and 70s brought the practice back into “fashion” after the “throwaway society” heralded by Life Magazine in 1955 —. The invention of disposables was a way to free up the modern housewife (and baby, just look how encumbered we’ve become!) Fortunately, Earth Day and the movement that followed created a whole new (old) way to look at what it means to waste, and what we consider trash (which, as they say, is often someone else’s treasure). So when you shop for that holiday party, take your own cloth shopping bags, buy beverages in glass and aluminum containers that can be re-fashioned into new items, and consider using recyclable corn cups and bamboo plates for informal gatherings. The latter can go into your compost.

Which brings us to Rot. Don’t forget being generous to your compost bin or pile. You can easily create the gift some beautiful rich fertilized soil for your plants and garden beds when discarding anything organic — from the morning’s coffee grounds and eggshells to all your veggie and fruit trimmings and peelings. Bigger gatherings, more food = more of this precious organic matter that may go to waste without a consciousness of how valuable it is. Learning how to compost is easy. Even winter and snow don’t need to stop you. Think of it as your gift to the planet and future generations on a very basic level … because it is.

The 4 R’s are a back to the future, or maybe forward into the past (?!) concept at its best!

Here are some other specific gift ideas that can keep you in the holiday spirit in a down economy, as well as, add to your environmentally friendly practices:

1. Give Services instead of Goods. You can give a gift certificate for salon or spa services, a car wash, a gardening service (like tree-planting or mulching the planting beds around the house), or organic cooking lessons. You can also give the gift of your own time, energy and expertise. Giving someone a book of coupons representing anything from computer training to your help doing household chores can be a very meaningful … and useful gift.

2. Give the Gift of An Adventure or Event. This is my personal favorite. At this point in my life, I’ve got enough stuff. But sharing time and experiences with people I care about means a lot to me. A card redeemable for lunch with a friend is worth a lot. My husband and I create trips and adventures (from local to international) to share with one another — which also supports the economies of the places we visit.

Here are a couple of photos from our recent honeymoon / “staycation” in our hometown of Key West. We had great fun being hometown tourists. Yes, we’ve chosen to live in this paradise at the end of a long road (which has its trade-offs folks), but I’m guessing your hometown paradise has great things to recommend it, too. Re-watch the Wizard of Oz if you need more of a reminder.

Gift certificates in the form of tickets to the movies, a concert or a local playhouse can be great fun especially if you get to be one of the ticket holders. This is also true for local attractions — to play golf (or mini-golf), enjoy a water park or spend the day at a botanical garden or museum. Memberships in local nonprofit organizations — producing the gift of involvement — are also an option.

3. The Gift of Personal Treasures. You may have family heirlooms, antiques, collectibles, artwork or jewelry that someone else would treasure, too — especially since it once belonged to you. This is true also of crystal, wood carvings, geodes or similar pieces of nature as art. They contain part of your story and lots of sentimental value, two things you can’t buy anyway.

4. Special or Healthy Edibles. This is when “homemade,” or hand-crafted with heart, is something especially good. Pies, cakes and cookies, barbecue or hot sauce (perhaps complete with the old family recipe) or even fresh or dried herbs from your garden are easy on the environment and convey your heartfelt wishes through the effort you put into exercising your culinary skills. Making up a few batches as gifts probably won’t take more time than trudging to and through the shopping mall, and it will be time more pleasantly spent by you, especially if the weather outside is frightful. And you never know what the effort might produce – see our Legacy Story this issue.

5. Gifts of Social Good – another of my favorites. I decided a couple years ago to make gifts in the names of family, clients and friends, that make a contribution in the world. Farm girl that I am, one of my favorites is Heifer International, an organization that provides needy individuals and families with the gift of sustainability by providing them with numerous farm animals that can then be used to produce commodities like dairy products, wool, honey, etc. — not to mention offspring, which the beneficiary agrees to pass along to another member of the community in effect “sharing the wealth.” Some of the other organizations we support are:

• www.GENI.org — an organization focused on linking renewable energy resources around the world using international electricity transmission in attempt to answer the question: “How do we make the world work for 100‰ of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?”
• www.FINCA.org — which provides micro loans that give poor women the opportunity to work their way out of poverty; and
• www.WomenForWomen.org — which helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives. (This one is particularly special to me since my own mother was a survivor of WWII who came to the United States to rebuild her life and work).

Each one is an amazing legacy story of its own, and we’ll tell them here by and by. For this holiday season consider making a donation to one of them, or any other organization that moves your heart, in the name of someone you care about. You’ll be making an important difference at the same time.

Announcing The Creating Legacy Studio

The Studio is the collaborative brainchild of Dolly Garlo, founder of Creating Legacy and long-time friend, colleague, fellow coach and health care provider (among other amazing credentials), Elizabeth Crouch. Together, throughout 2010 and beyond, we’ll further develop products and services designed to provide you with tools, resources and customized support that

• Help you make your life and work magnificent and meaningful, so you feel truly great to be alive each and every day;
• Assist with making a transition from “been there, done that” (even if it was great and full of successful accomplishments) to that enthusiastic “what’s next?!” in your life’s adventure; and
• In the process, builds as many great legacies as possible to make an important, positive difference in the world.

To begin, we open The Creating Legacy Studio with free, twice a month open teleconferences. Here you can begin to explore with both of us what you want to do with your precious life and work to fulfill what in your heart and soul you know you’re capable of and truly want to do. No pre-registration needed, just show up, join in, and maybe even have your legacy coached out of you.

In December, The Studio will be open on the 9th at 16th at 10a PT / 11a MT / noon CT / 1p ET — just call in at the top of the hour from wherever you are, and plan to spend the hour with us.
Teleconference number: U.S. 1-218-862-1300 (long distance charges apply)
Conference Code: 534481
More Info Here

We look forward to getting to know you.

181 Investors Managing $13+Trillion Call For Strong Climate Change Action

Going into the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, which begins this coming week, I am feeling a bit dismayed, despite the fact that more and more common sensical and educated folks (like the 181 investors referenced in the title) are displaying a willingness to come forward in the climate change discussion and call on world leaders to get a grip and begin to do something about it. 

I am dismayed because telling the truth seems to be such a hard thing to do - because people are afraid of what will happen if they do.  Yet, as we are taught (just maybe not taught well enough how to practice), honesty is still the best policy.  It lessens the need for “spin” and opens the door to debate - hopefully honest debate without conniving trickery.  Having practiced law, I can, unfortunately attest to the existence of both conniving tactics and trickery in what is supposed to be high level honest debate built on a foundation of professional integrity.  Anyone who reads or watches any news also knows that people often read and watch whatever supports their underlying beliefs and attempted assertions - rather than staying open to and dealing directly with the sometimes not so pleasant actual truth. 

I say all this because in the past couple weeks thousands of emails and files were hacked from scientists inside East Anglia University, the British keeper of global temperature records, revealing at best a fearful reluctance among them to reveal all their scientific data and their efforts to disguise data that give rise to questions about human caused global warming.  Presumably, they do such things to divert the attacks of critics - when it would just be better to put it out there and well … honestly debate.   See more on that story here. (The hackers, of course, are still unidentifed and at large, and following their actions have been others who have attempted to post outright false information online to persuade people further in their beliefs that there is no environmental problem going on and we should stop making such a potentially expensive fuss about it).

Genuinely concerned scientists and environmentally minded citizens like myself have recently had to divert their focused attention from environmental protection, to defending the need for environmental protection.  This is despite plenty of real evidence that humans have seriously degraded the planet - jeeze just go to your nearest water body and have a look at it: wanna swim in that?  how about taking a nice long drink? 

And why and how did we get here? It’s a result of fear - it always comes down to fear even if it parades as greed and arrogance - of telling the truth in the first instance. That results in back peddling, having to explain, being diverted from the real, important issues, and feeling like you have to justify.  And worse, having to work harder to get a clear message to people whose beliefs cause them to be grounded in denial and avoidance to begin with. 

Yet, the truth, however it comes out - and it generally does - eventually leads to some level of honest debate among truly open and concerned persons, even though spinmeisters know that creating diversions can delay that debate.  Hence the old saying “justice delayed is justice denied,” a problem that ultimately be avoided if we would just do a better job of practicing telling the truth and treating each other compassionately. 

And the truth is that pumping carbon in the form of carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gasses, in to our atmosphere IS a problem and it needs to be corrected.  Even scientists who criticize alleged ”government by the few” or a handful of “elites” — like the members of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been called – conclude that hidden and hacked emails or not, global climate change (a lot more than mere “warming”) is still a problem.  It is not a matter of how much carbon based fossil fuel is left in the ground and how we can exploit every last drop.  It is a matter of whether we should continue to pump that carbon into the atmosphere and poison our planet - or begin to move, as rapidly as possible, into production of clean energy alternatives and more effective conservation efforts. 

Not surprising as a result of the East Anglia email hacking debacle, I heard a report on the radio this morning that some religious leaders have started speaking out against efforts to address climate change, claiming that our creator endowed us with an earth that is resilient.  I have no qualms with them.  But best I’ve been taught, our creator also gave us free will, and that free will may be causing serious harm and deterioration to this garden and paradise we were given in the form of the earth.  I agree the earth is resilient and will be just fine - what I question is what will happen to life on earth (humans and other species, which are so very threatened and disappearing at alarming rates as a result of humans’ exercise of free will).  While I don’t completely agree with George Carlin’s suggestions in his “The Planet is Fine” comedy sketch that we should do nothing to address it, I do agree with his underlying premise.  We may destroy our species and life on the planet as we know it, but the earth itself will be fine.  But I have serious questions about what will happen to ‘we the people’ – so many of whom are failing miserably at living up to being made in God’s image and likeness.

Yet, from the business world we have some enlightened leaders:  Ceres (pr. “series”), is a U.S. network of investors, environmental organizations and public interest groups with a stated mission to integrate sustainability into capital markets for the health of the planet and its people.  They recently reported some seriously good news:  the world’s largest group of global investors has issued a joint call for U.S. and international policy makers to take strong action to address global climate change.  

What a pleasant experience to find such enlightened leadership within the financial industry - which often takes a bad rap for greedily focusing on profit over anything else.  Head of one of the investment group members recognized publically that the human cost of inaction is unthinkable, and called for the development of sustainable business practices.  Just goes to show, there are reputable, high integrity professionals in all industries (even as there are those gripped by fear and acting badly …).

And from the religious world come some enlightened leaders, too, who see global climate change as a possible threat to peace.  Religions for Peace is the world’s largest and most representative multi-religious coalition. In September, the organization participated in the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.  Their purpose was to help promote a binding global climate deal at the UN Climate Change conference this next week.  Hallelujah!

The upside?  Dismayed or not, I can always find some good news.  I’m so grateful for that.

Blondes Take Note: Volkswagen’s Really Do Have More Fun

And it’s a great key to leadership and social enterprise. 

We’ve become a two Vee-Dub family.  Partly that’s because they really are fun to drive, and economical.  Small, but lots of room, and great gas mileage.  And did I mention zippy?  Remember Fahrvergnügen?  (Then you’re older than I thought). 

German car manufacturer Volkwagen used the term in a 1990 advertising campaign, with the slogan “Fahrvergnügen: It’s what makes a car a Volkswagen.”  I “got it” immediately probably because my first car during high school in the ’70’s was my brother’s hand-me-down 1961 VW Karmann Ghia.  It looked pretty much like this one, except that it was originally really close to that cool ‘British racing green’ color like the old MG’s.  Anyway, it’s a word that in German means “driving enjoyment.”

I guess I’m taken by all that because joy is one of my values.  And it’s clear that it’s a value this company has embodied. Since the original Ghia, I’ve driven two VW buses (actually one that my father and I repurposed from the best parts of two into one, as one of my summer home vocational training programs - can you say “Bondo”?), a couple different Beetles, a Rabbit, two GTI’s and now the new (1997) Jetta my sweet husband just bought in VW solidarity.   

 Remember Turbonium?  I’ve had that, too, do now and wouldn’t be without it:  a ‘whole new element’ of extra fun.

But back to leadership and social enterprise.

One element of leadership is knowing your mission, built on some solid underlying value - one you can really get behind and that motivates others.  While the VW company has many we could identify, I’ll just focus on fun, because it’s one that is fundamental to their mission.  To which has been added social responsibility in a much more visible way.  VW has now created a program of positive social change devoted to the notion that fun may just be the best way to change people’s behavior for the better.  It’s called The Fun Theory - check out the site devoted to it to see how the company has incorporated a social enterprise element into its business operations.  Now that’s what I call positive leadership to power sustainable change.

As for why my husband just bought a new-to-us 1997 VW Jetta just about to roll over 100,000 miles, that’s a whole different story for another time.  But for me, while I am devoted to the notion that transportation should be economical and likewise am committed to keeping a low carbon footprint (a hint to that “other story”), I still value driving fun. Here’s my current ride:

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