Author, motivational speaker, and highly successful businessman, Charlie “Tremendous” Jones once remarked, “You are not really ready to live your life until you know what you want written about you on your own tombstone.” Now let’s think about that statement for just a moment. What would they write about you on your tombstone if, heaven forbid, we had to bury you tomorrow? What have you accomplished with the use of your life thus far that would be noteworthy or significant? How have you used your life to impact, influence, or bless other people’s lives up to this point in your own life? What are you doing right now to improve and benefit the lives of other people with whom you are working and/or living?

It just seems to me that there are a whole lot of folks who really don’t have a personal mission,…who don’t have an overarching purpose for the use of their personal lives,….who really don’t have a real reason for living, working, producing, and satisfying their own needs for living, or helping other people to live and achieve. You see, if you do not know where you are going yourself and what your purpose for living really is, there is a real good chance that you will not like where it is that you wind up.

The facts of the matter are that very few great leaders of people in the world, no matter their role or activities throughout all of history, get remembered for very much at all. The same is true for all leaders, not just the famous or well known ones. Very few such leaders ever get remembered for how they would like to be remembered. Why? Because they really did not actually do what they intended or attempted to do.They didn’t complete their mission. Their actual production was not nearly as much as they planned to achieve while they were in leadership positions. I personally believe they full well knew how short of the mark they fell with their efforts. Maybe that is the real reason behind why they, for the most part, are so eager to write their autobiographies before everyone totally forgets about them.

All too many leaders just seem to go about their duties or assignments doing the same things as did their predecessors. They almost always just wind up following the course of history rather than changing the course of history. There is a tremendously big difference between doing those two things, i.e. following rather than changing.

These facts about leaders apply to all of them regardless of their chosen fields of endeavor. Business leaders, political leaders, academic leaders, entertainment leaders, sports leaders,….you name it,…..all of them are usually forgotten about soon after they retire, step down, stop performing, or just expire. Only a very small handful of people in leadership ranks are remembered either as individuals or for their accomplishments.  No one, on a physical plane, appears to be that important or that accomplished as to be indelibly imprinted on most human being’s minds.

So the question has to be asked of you.  How will you be remembered?

If the facts be known, none of us are likely to be remembered for any of our great exploits in running a good business presentation, or donating the most stuff to a local charity auction, or coaching little league baseball teams. But….we still need to make our own mark and leave it on those with whom we participated. Right?

Here is just the straight fact of the matter. If you want to move up your chosen ladder of success, if you desire to progress up the leadership ladder, then you need to do something or several things that enable you to stand out and in front of all your associates and colleagues.

You see, to be remembered after you are through performing, you need to have accomplished something significant, something that gives you a distinctive claim to fame. It will not be enough just to have done well at your position,…to have done a good job at what it was that you were leading or running.

Such a claim to fame would be like always being remembered for doing all that was requested or required for you to do and then doing something more that caused you to go above and beyond your normal duties on a very regular basis. Another opportunity to doing something significant that others would not do would be like taking charge and successfully completing a large and highly challenging new project that had never been done before and guiding it through to a successful completion. Another event to provide you such a claim to fame would be like you personally developing a bold new innovative idea or a new way of working within your industry that cuts across all sections and/or categories of work related efforts that benefits the entire organization. In other words, you doing something new and great that positively impacts and benefits lots of other people. This can be said a little differently by merely stating that you need to make yourself more and more valuable to and within your organization.

Just be cautioned that it is much easier to be remembered for doing the wrong thing as it is for doing the right and good thing. It is and will be your own performance and accomplishments that will be the things that people will remember.

Appearances and personal behavior is what will gain the attention of your superiors and colleagues. Those are the things that will really count as you gain the attention of other people.

You will best be able to make your own mark and be positively remembered by being consistently positive, reliable, courteous, well mannered, considerate, and at all times conducting yourself with total honesty and integrity in all of your efforts and affairs. Insure that you are always action-focused and be extremely generous with your approbations and praises to all those with whom you work. Don’t be overly concerned about who gets the credit whenever a job is completed to everyone’s satisfaction. You just be the best performer and achiever within your entire operation.

Always, in all of your assignments or endeavors, within your activities and operations, make certain that you do or give your very best effort. Always go the extra mile. If you have a presentation to make at a conference or business meeting, or a proposal to submit, or a counsel session to give or receive involving information from other people, always over-invest preparation time so that your efforts will be made perfectly and superbly and the intended impact actually occurs and is achieved. That is the best way to be remembered for doing things the right way.

I once read and have since never forgotten these great words from a man of huge accomplishment and beloved by all who knew and/or worked with him while he was alive. He was the embodiment of the essence of these few words…..The best use of your life is to so live your life that the use of your life will outlive your life.

What a great way to live and what a great way to always be remembered.

Peace And Love To All Of You………………….Poppa Bear