If you’re even contemplating this question, the answer is a resounding no! If you’ve messed some things up, don’t believe that it is too late to decide to make a change! Even if you’re nearing the end of your career, with focused determination, you can make a change to enhance the legacy you want to leave. You’ve heard stories of high-schoolers or university students who struggled academically, socially or behaviorally only to turn things around and be rewarded for their success. Is it time for you to spend your remaining years focusing on your personal Turnaround Achievement Award?.
Perhaps being remembered in a particular way is not that important to you. You’re not doing life and work for the accolades, but for your own sense of satisfaction. If you could make a positive difference in the life or career of one or two people, that’s all the fulfillment you need. In Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, generativity is the seventh of eight stages. It occurs between the ages of 45 and 60. Generativity is “making your mark” on the world by caring for others as well as creating and accomplishing things that make the world a better place. If you want to excel in this stage, you’ll be great at making commitments to others, developing relationships, mentoring others and contributing to the next generation. The alternative is stagnation, the failure to find a way to contribute, resulting in disconnectedness. Some characteristics of stagnation include self-centredness and no interest in improving oneself or anyone else. This could result in worsened health, a shorter life, lower quality relationships and a decreased life satisfaction.
Personal development coaching can get you back on track by helping you to create a personal development plan that clearly defines your legacy goals and how to implement them within your personal timelines.
Your legacy is unique to you. Your gifts and talents meshed with your years of experience are resulting in someone like no other.
Whether you want to finesse your legacy or work toward creating a better one, coaching can help you gain clarity on what’s important to you (values), what you’re great at (mission) and what you want to do with it (vision).
If you truly want to defeat stagnation and embrace generativity instead, you need to think about who stands to gain from the legacy you leave behind. Will your co-workers gain from your mentorship, or is it a community or certain age group you feel drawn toward helping? Either way, creating a legacy is less about you and more about who gains from your lifetime of experiences.
Often, fewer than 12 sessions is all you need to accomplish your goal of creating your lasting legacy.
A personal development coach will help you explore and define your professional career-related goals.
Through gaining clarity on your personal values, mission and vision, and how they align with your current work situation, you will discover a personal career path to pursue or the legacy you wish to leave behind. Learn more about what career coaching can do for you here
You’re welcome to book a Discovery Call on my calendar. This is informal and absolutely free of any obligation whatsoever. It’s an opportunity to get to know one another so I can gain an understanding of where you are and where you’d like to be.
In the meantime, take this short quiz to see whether your work and life are in balaance.
Brent Roy is an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC)—a designation held by fewer than 5% of ICF-credentialed coaches and the only MCC in New Brunswick, Canada. With 30+ years in communications and leadership, he coaches senior leaders and mentors aspiring ICF coaches globally from Fredericton.
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