What a brilliant idea. Legacy. Being a hinge for the next generation. Living each day to move my own life forward in such a way that it may catapult the generations that come after me. I dream of people living in such a way that they will be able to stand on my shoulders where I'm done and go further than I ever was able to.
I got this question from a TED talk given in April 2012 by Raghava KK. He discusses how every few years, he and his wife sit down and create a 200-year plan. They don't write it for others to execute nor for others to judge. They write it to give room to dream without restriction and create for themselves the idea of the future.
I understand that TED talks generally mark technology or business or leadership in this day and age, so the thoughts that this question spun my mind did not wander for very long within the realm of his talk. But it really got me thinking for sure. What would my 200 year plan look like? What can I be doing today that will impact tomorrow, next month, next year, ten years from now, etc...? What does it look like to live in such a way that leaves a real legacy? And perhaps most importantly, am I living in such a way as to steward all of these dreams and desires?
Raghava also discusses the past and the future and how they impact one another, or how we can recreate our past just as we create our future. He discusses the importance of forgetting our pasts in the process of creating our future. This argument is mostly where my opinions diverged from his. Although pasts do not limit the potential of our future, the past is what shapes us and equips us for the future - good or bad. Our pasts are our stories. The future is boundless, but the past cannot simply be forgotten or manipulated.
Yesterday, I was driving back to South Carolina from my family's cottage in Michigan. It's somewhere between an 11 to 12 hour drive. I drive it in one shot and by myself almost every time. Some people cannot conceive how I am able to make that drive on my own, but it is really quite enjoyable. I love people, don't hear me wrong. I am motivated and energized by people. I love to love them. I love to help them. I love to hear their stories. And aside from these 12 hour drives, I am almost always around people. So I take these drives to sing, dance, and think... a lot. Yesterday, as I was driving, I was paying attention to license plates as I always do. It's fun to imagine or guess where folks are coming from and going to. A few states particularly catch my eye all the time - Michigan (where I'm from), Tennessee (where the cars I have driven the last three years are from), and South Carolina (where I live now). So as I drive north and see a Michigan plate, I usually assume that they are also making the treck back to Michigan. And then, of course, as I drive south, if I see a Tennessee plate north of Tennessee I assume that is where they are headed or if I see a South Carolina plate, I assume that is where that car is headed. So I was driving and thinking about this yesterday when it hit me: why do I think that must be where they are going? Here I am, a South Carolina resider (not yet a resident, but soon!) with a Michigan license plate driving back to where I live but nobody by seeing my car would know that, so whose to say that all these other folks do not have similar stories. That's when the metaphor came to me: my license plate shows where I've been (or where I'm from) but it is not a determiner of my destination.
My past does not determine where I could end up in even 6 minutes from now, but it is still my past; it is part of where I have been that has led me to this moment in time. And in that realization is where or how I differ in thought processes from Raghava. I do not wish to forget my past - I did grow up in Michigan, play sports, sing in choir, experienced some crazy life events as a result of my parents' divorce, make incredible friends, get diagnosed with osteoporosis at a young age, go on mission trips, laugh hard, cry hard, get frustrated, excel in school, lose friends, attend the University of Michigan, transfer to Clemson University, have zero dollars, be financially above water, travel around the country, live in a Southern culture family in the North, etc... And those are just bullet points of my life so far. But the good, bad and ugly of my past is still mine. It has formed me to who I am today and given me a heart and passion for people who have been hurt in similar ways or celebrate with people who have accomplished similar things or given me the eyes to dream beyond my current scope because 3 years ago I would have never dreamed to be where I am today.
So what does it look like to dream up a 200 year plan to me? It looks like removing all restrictions of where I've been to be free to be 100% me in the present to grow exponentially for my future. What are some of your 200-year dreams?
(To see a few items I dream of currently visit: http://thechelseawinepress.weebly.com/dreams-and-hopes.html)
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