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Alan Watts has created a short video that is incredibly relevant and embodies Be Legendary.  Begin your Legendary Life today.  Don't be too busy and wait to build your life's legacy.

Watch the short cartoon below and think about how you will spend the next 20 minutes of your life.  Then do something that matters, no matter how small.

Dan Pink is the ex-speech writer for Al Gore and moved into researching motivation.  He published Drive, The Suprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

It is a great book that also provides the scientific background and evidence for Be Legendary. If you don't have time to read it or listen to the audio book, Dan spoke at TED and you can hear the premises directly from him in the video below.  If you don't have time to listen, but want the highlights, you can go to TED and read the interactive transcript.

Creating Legendary Culture, through leaders, teams and individuals, in your organization follows the exact same formula as he describes.  Learn something you already know in your heart that now has a factual basis:

This probably does not surprise you, but just in case you need the statistics, they are finding more and more connections between purpose and health!

In an article by Live Science, entitled 7 Thoughts that Are Bad For You', a study has found that,"If you lack a sense of purpose, your stay on Earth could be truncated."

The findings go on to say, "A study involving more than 1,200 elderly participants who didn't have dementia at the study's start found that those who indicated having a high  purpose in life were about half as likely to die over the study period,  which lasted up to five years"

"Persons with high purpose readily derive meaning from and make sense of  the events of their lives, and likely engage in behaviors and  activities that they deem important," said study researcher Patricia  Boyle of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago.

So, what is your purpose?  What activities did you do today that were important to your sense of higher purpose?  Not sure?  Did you miss opportunities today?  No problem!  We all get busy.

But what about tomorrow?  Are you going to miss opportunities tomorrow too?  Probably.  Unless you have a plan.

Put your plan together by thinking about what is important to you.  How do you want to make an impact?  Poverty?  Education?  What small acts can you do tomorrow to make a minute impact?

I have a friend who is a financial planner and one of her pet peeves is people getting hit with late fees and additional charges.  When she is working with a client, she helps them add up all the late fees and additional, needless charges in a single year and then 'invests' them, showing how much additional money the client would have when they retire if they avoided simple fees.

However, my friend could not think of small acts she could commit that would make her feel good and was frustrated all the time.  (Fretting is #5 Thought that is bad for you in the article).  So after a few short minutes of talking and me listening, she came to the conclusion that she would carry a few dollars in quarters and feeds parking meters for people in spaces that have run out of time.

I encouraged her and she created a small card that she now puts on the windshields as well, telling them how much the fine would make them for retirement in 20 years.

Initially she felt this was self-serving and therefore not a true Legendary Act.  I could not disagree more!  Just because she was doing something nice for someone else does not mean it cannot benefit her and she is also helping them understand what the true cost of the parking ticket is.  In my mind, if someone contacts her for some financial advice and she 'wins', both of them 'win' again.  I would argue that if she does NOT include the card, she is providing a disservice.

By committing these 'random' acts, my friend feels better and has a sense of higher purpose.  She also has something very tangible she can do every day that makes her feel good.

What plan do you have?  What are some of the cool ways you give back on a regular basis?

What are the other 6 Thoughts? Read the entire article.

Aren't there times you just want to be mean?  You want to punish?  You want to simply slam the door in someones face?

There are very few people in the world like the Dalai Lama and Mother Theresa.  And what we see is their public face.  They are, after all, human.

And occasionally doing the wrong thing is part of being human. It is what you do with that 'wrong thing' that will Be Legendary.

Do you apologize for what you have done?  Do you take responsibility?  Or do you simply hope it will be forgotten?

Everyone around you watches the way you treat others.  Being Legendary is about being the person your children believe you are when you don't want to be.  It is helping a stranger when no one you know is looking and the only person who will know the difference is yourself. 

Being Legendary is not about doing something positive for someone when you have the free time.

It's about creating a living legacy of the world you create around you.

In good times, your friends will find you.  In bad times, you will find you friends!

Make sure you are creating the legacy in your friendships.

Live to your values.

We spend more time grocery shopping than we do thinking about what we value in life.

If we are Living a Legendary Life, there is no need for work / life balance.  Work and life will balance itself naturally.

The video below does a great job explaining this.

When was the last time you sat down and REALLY thought about your values?

When was the last time you wrote any of them down? If you are like most people, you have NEVER written them down.

Take some time for yourself and think about what is most important. Then, look at how you spend your day. Do these two make sense to you? If not, you are probably experiencing some dissonance in your life. Now you may begin to understand where that is coming from and begin to make changes.

Really examining your values and behaviors every so often is a very important way to spend your time. Talk about your values with friends and family, especially your children.

Let your behavior be a model for the values you have.

Is it possible me to Be Legendary ALL of the time?

Recently I did something I believed to be Legendary. I uploaded a photo of two people I love to Facebook. I believe it is a great photo that captures the beauty in each one of them.

However, they both thought it was a terrible photo and that I uploaded it to have a bit of a laugh at their expense. I that were the case, I would agree, NOT Legendary.

They both sent me angry messages about the photo, throwing ‘Being Legendary’ in my face and using this positive idea as a weapon. I took the photo down, very angry with what had transpired.

They did not believe my intentions were good. In their defense, I do prank quite a bit and occasionally cross the line without meaning to.

Unfortunately, I believe that the quality of your communication is the response you receive.  In this case, VERY angry response.  So my intentions mean nothing.

It took many conversations and apologize, but eventually I was able to right the wrong I committed.  It took a great deal of patience on my end and continual reminder that my intentions do not count.  Eventually, I was able to make it right and our relationships were strengthened due to the effort I put forth.  I realized, much later, that this was the real opportunity to Be Legendary.  Becoming defensive or dismissing their response would NOT have been legendary.

Do you have any situations like this when a ‘Legendary’ action has gone wrong?

Sometimes your actions will be taken wrong - perhaps as a threat, an offer of help taken to mean I don’t think you know how to do your job.

It is this exact reason that it takes courage to be legendary. When you extend a hand, the gesture may be perceived differently than your intentions.

You cannot let this deter you from Being Legendary.  In fact, like me, you have yet another opportunity to Be Legendary. This may take much more effort, but I can tell you from personal experience, it is worth it!

What stories of your own do you have that are similar to mine? Has it stopped you from Being Legendary?

Keep at it, don’t give up, Be Legendary!

Is it possible me to Be Legendary ALL of the time?

Recently I did something I believed to be Legendary. I uploaded a photo of two people I love to Facebook. I believe it is a great photo that captures the beauty in each one of them.

However, they both thought it was a terrible photo and that I uploaded it to have a bit of a laugh at their expense. I that were the case, I would agree, NOT Legendary.

They both sent me angry messages about the photo, throwing ‘Being Legendary’ in my face and using this positive idea as a weapon. I took the photo down, very angry with what had transpired.

They did not believe my intentions were good. In their defense, I do prank quite a bit and occasionally cross the line without meaning to.

Unfortunately, I believe that the quality of your communication is the response you receive.  In this case, VERY angry response.  So my intentions mean nothing.

It took many conversations and apologize, but eventually I was able to right the wrong I committed.  It took a great deal of patience on my end and continual reminder that my intentions do not count.  Eventually, I was able to make it right and our relationships were strengthened due to the effort I put forth.  I realized, much later, that this was the real opportunity to Be Legendary.  Becoming defensive or dismissing their response would NOT have been legendary.

Do you have any situations like this when a ‘Legendary’ action has gone wrong?

Sometimes your actions will be taken wrong - perhaps as a threat, an offer of help taken to mean I don’t think you know how to do your job.

It is this exact reason that it takes courage to be legendary. When you extend a hand, the gesture may be perceived differently than your intentions.

You cannot let this deter you from Being Legendary.  In fact, like me, you have yet another opportunity to Be Legendary. This may take much more effort, but I can tell you from personal experience, it is worth it!

What stories of your own do you have that are similar to mine? Has it stopped you from Being Legendary?

Keep at it, don’t give up, Be Legendary!