*This article is free from all forms of artificial intelligence chatbot utilization*

 

A few years ago, I was pummeled with a haunting realization-

If I drive through an intersection and get smoked by a bus tomorrow, am I leaving a lasting legacy behind?

What have I done with my life to leave a worthwhile legacy to my loved ones and my species after my death?

I have no money saved up. I have zero investments. I have zero assets. I have none of my own children, nor will I ever.

Aside from pictures and stories within my small bubble of friends and family, my existence would literally dissipate like dust in the wind.

Life is so busy that most people don’t stop to consider what their legacy would be should their life suddenly end. Most assume that they have their whole life expectancy to build wealth to leave behind, right wrongs, and to raise children to carry on their memory.

But how many of us are prepared for an unplanned death that can happen any day at any moment?

Is your legacy all set and ready to take over in the chance of your unexpected croak?

Mine sure as hell wasn’t, and that freaked me the fuck out.

So I started legacy building right away. But before I share how to create an immortal legacy to influence the world, let me first break down the potential reach categories after one dies.

 

 

What are the reach categories of someone’s legacy?

Minimal: Immediate circle

Many humans around the world pass away on a daily basis with little to nothing left behind.

This involves the death of children, teens/young adults, those that are homeless/transients, those with few friends, or those with limited family around or alive.

In this category, there is usually no wealth or assets left behind. There are few memories beyond their immediate circle, and very little tangible evidence left behind to remember their existence for any significant amount of time.

Moderate: friends, partner(s), co-workers, children, family, extended family

Most humans will exist long enough to have a community of most (or all) of the above.

As social creatures, our communal lifestyle naturally passes on our legacy after death.

This can be memories of you, pictures of you, wealth passed down, assets or a business left behind, or offspring to carry on looks/genes and a family name or heritage.

While this reach is a much bigger bubble than our minimal category, one’s legacy in this category still fades away in a relatively short amount of time.

Friends, life partners, co-workers, and family will only remember the dead as long as their own lifespan allows, say around 90-100 years old.

For those that have children and even grandchildren, one’s legacy would continue a decent impression throughout those generations. However, the dead’s story and legacy significantly dilutes away from conversation or influence not long after great-grandchildren are born.

Sadly, most humans choose to leave a moderate legacy. The majority are content to pass away and become virtually completely forgotten after about 100 years post their death.

Maximum: All of the above + local or national or global

This is a legacy that has family, friends, children, co-workers, a community, a city, a state, a province, a nation, or the world not only mourning your death, but keeping your existence alive until nukes fall from the sky and flatten humanity.

This is a legacy that far surpasses a small family bubble and proclaims you in plaques, monuments, organizations, establishments, newsletters, honorable mentions, societal movements, online acknowledgement, documented history, halls of fame, posthumous awards, and much more.

For myself, I will not settle for any reach less than maximum. I will create a legacy to be globally remembered indefinitely after my last breath.

This blog piece is for those that desire the same.

The good news is that a maximum impact legacy is not just for celebrities, politicians, philanthropists, heroes, villains, and tik tok stars.

This type of reach is possible to attain for just about everyone that has passion, time, and access to internet.

With that, here are 4 ways to create an immortal legacy to influence the world long after your death:

 

1) Publish digital content

What goes up on the internet stays there for the world to see/read/learn and remember for as long as those nukes hold back.

Before the world wide web, the common civilian really had no other choice than to settle for a minimal or moderate legacy reach. But today, anyone can flood the internet with everything that pertains to them.

This is the easiest way to become immortal. Here are some examples:

• Social media– every time that we click “post”, we are publishing digital content that represents us. After death, social media will be the first place that people go to remember you. Your social media profiles can be used as a life bulletin board to leave behind pictures, self-help advice and links to other important content that you want others to engage in/remember.
• Create a portfolio website– jump online and make an “all-in-one” website dedicated to everything you. Flood it with all your social media links, pictures, blogs, vlogs, your art, your music, your journals, anything and everything! Set up decent SEO and organic traffic will stumble upon your legacy for generations to follow.
• Start a blog, vlog, or online journal– my worldly-minded blog was started out of one goal- to leave behind accurate, beneficial self-help advice for my siblings, my step sons, my wife, my friends, and the entire world after my death. Blogs, vlogs, and online journals are cheap to set up and not difficult to manage. These digital podiums are the most efficient way to continually influence the world after you pass away.
• Self-publish an ebook or audiobook– don’t overthink this one. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It doesn’t need to be a NY Times Best-Seller. Just self-publish a piece of your unique creativity for the world to have access to. You never know what corners of the globe that your work will reach, and you never know how many lives that your work will affect.
• Digitize everything– do you have pictures? Digitize them and store them on an accessible drive or publish them online to your own portfolio page or landing site. Do you have art that you’ve created? Digitize it and/or turn it into NFTs. Do you have music that you’ve written? Record that shit and put it onto your portfolio website or a streaming platform. Do you have any awards, certificates, notable documents of recognition? Digitize them and publish them on your portfolio website. Do you have a journal or diary? Scan it/transfer it to an online journal platform.

 

Do you want to be remembered beyond that moderate reach of 100 years? This is the way.

Publish as much digital content as you can and you’ll stay alive eons after you’ve decayed into an organic pile of human compost.

 

2) Do epic shit

History doesn’t document the mundane, the cliche, or the predictable lifestyles. History remembers extraordinary.

Here’s the bottom line-

If you choose to get up, go to work, and then finish each day with netflix or video games or similar, you will leave behind a minimal legacy.

If you choose a default lifestyle- do the schooling tiers, find a partner, create children, raise children, maintain a normal social circle, then retire, then die- your legacy will peak at moderate (remembered around 100 years tops).

But if you want to become fucking immortal, you have to choose to do epic shit consistently while alive:

• Backpack around the world, or periodically adventure travel or culture-focus travel
• Volunteer with humanitarian organizations- local, national, or abroad
• Invent something that benefits society
• Become an influencer with one of your passions and pursue creating viral content
• Start a business or non-profit that enhances human life or encourages social progression
• Publish digital content that will appeal to a global audience
• Pioneer new accomplishments or feats or trends- be it fitness, sports, adventure, or via any other skill based/creative avenue

 

There’s a classic scene in the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie where Admiral Norrington examines Jack Sparrow’s pathetic gear and says, “You are without a doubt the worst pirate I’ve ever heard of.”

With a smirk, Sparrow replies, “But you have heard of me.”

It’s alright if it’s sloppy, unorganized, or amateur in the beginning. Just do epic shit over and over.

Each adventure, accomplishment, contribution, and out-of-the-ordinary decision moves that legacy reach dial further and further away from “moderate” and closer to “maximum”.

 

3) Contribute outside your four walls

Most humans that choose to procreate assume that their children will carry on their legacy to that 100 year cap.

Most only invest in their legacy within their four walls.

Let me start with this- if you have a great relationship with your family and cannot wait to carry on their legacy, that is truly fantastic.

For myself, I will not carry on any legacy of some of my genetically closest family. Upon conversation with those in my closest social circle, I came to discover that I know others that have little to zero respect for some of their closest genetic family as well.

I then researched further, and found out that there are millions of us out there that will hardly blink an eye at the passing of some genetically close family members.

Young children of course think their family hung the moon. However, there’s a gamble that as they age they can become very ungrateful, heavily influenced by negative societal attitudes/habits, not give a shit about family advice, and as they get even older become aware of trauma caused by family, inaccurate childhood conditioning done by family, and just straight up not like some family.

The point here is that banking on your offspring to carry on your legacy is a wildcard of an investment these days.

So what’s a guaranteed return of investment?

Volunteering outside your four walls.

It doesn’t matter if you join an organization in your community or one that is 2,000 miles away. Your advice will be heard. Your sacrifice will be seen. Your contribution, to whatever extent, will always be appreciated.

Investing in your species outside of your four walls is a guarantee to keeping your legacy alive beyond that moderate threshold.

 

4) Type up a detailed (and accessible) exit letter and legacy roadmap

A will is meant to leave behind money and asset distribution. A will is important for a minimal to moderate legacy.

Today, as we move into a generation that is less concerned about assets and saving money, an exit letter is essential for a maximum legacy.

After one starts accomplishing the steps that we discussed above to become immortal, it is imperative to assemble detailed instructions to keep your roadmap logistically in tact.

To explain what I mean and also give you a template, let me summarize my own exit letter.

My exit letter begins with several paragraphs that leave clarification, challenges, and encouragements to my loved ones.

Next, I go into detail of wanting my body aquamated. My remains are to be divided out into travel-proof containers and given to certain individuals. These individuals are then to travel with me to an international destination they’ve always desired.

Further instructions follow once their international destination is reached, but we’ll keep some things to the imagination.

Finally, the last part of my exit letter leaves behind all the necessary information to keep the maximum roadmap going strong. This includes administration information to log in and manage all of my digital content published.

Websites, blogs, and other publishing endeavors require consistent maintenance, updates, and SEO enhancement to continue to influence the world. It’s important to entrust someone (or multiple people) to keep your digital presence alive.

To conclude this piece, the universal accurate reality is this:

We will be quickly forgotten unless we make sure that we’re not.

Every time that I drive by a cemetery I think to myself, “Who were these creatures? What was their story?”

And then I’m immediately haunted by the unfortunate statistic that 99% of them are most likely remembered no more.

It’s never too late to create an immortal legacy that will influence the world.

Let’s be the 1% that live on with maximum reach generation after generation.