Ok – that may be somewhat of a morbid question; yet, it can also be quite empowering!
Recently, I ran across a fascinating article in Spirituality and Health, which offers the results from a survey they conducted in answer to the question – How do we want to be remembered? There were 17 ‘top life values’ for which the respondants were to rank as to how they wanted to be remembered. The top six were:
- Being a good friend – this was the top choice of both men and women
- Being a good parent – not surprising
- Care of family – this was measured not just for taking care of children, yet your parents, and extended family as well
- Helping others – offering a helping hand
- Faithfulness – to one’s beliefs and values
- Love of God – this even trumped love of fellow man and woman
Career success and making lots of money fell to the bottom of the list: less than 1% in fact wanted to be remembered for this. Not surprising to me at all – is it to you?
Weigh in. How do you want to be remembered?
It seems that people have 2 different value systems when they talk about morality or their relegion and another value system when it comes to work. When money is not an issue I suspect your survey ranking is correct. Add the almighty dollar and be careful!
It is nice to know that most people want to be remembered for the right reasons and qualities. But it would be more interesting to know what people do to work towards this goal of how they want to be remembered.Because it would be result of sum total of how you lead your life, how you interact with people around you and what are your priorities in life while at work or at home – every where.
In today’s scramble for money, status, career advancement does one really care for how he/she would be remembered ? Most of us are interested in immediate gains/ results and morality or principles can be the first casualty.
How about a survey asking people how they plan to achieve the desired objective of how they want to be remembered?