Live Your Legacy Now!
Ten Simple Steps to Find Your Passion and Change the World
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About Live Your Legacy Now While this book starts with my story and the stories of people of various ages whom I have worked with over the years, it is really about creating your own story. It is about how you can take your passion and live your legacy now. This book demonstrates how you can live—and enjoy—your own legacy and fill your days with challenge and purpose. The book is divided into two parts. The first section is about my family history, the lessons I learned as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and how and why I started Champions of Caring. In each chapter, there are “guiding questions” that I hope will help you to reflect on your own story and life experiences and to find your inspiration. I suggest that you have a notebook or journal available to respond to these questions. The second part of the book focuses on you. It provides the guidelines and the tools to help you create your own legacy through self-reflection—to take action to improve your community, and to share this experience with others. Part II begins with examples of how others are living their legacies, and then offers strategies and suggestions for living your legacy at any age or life stage, whether you are a teen, young professional, baby boomer or retiree, and whether you have a lot of time and money or a limited amount of time and money. I will guide you through creating a Legacy Profile, a self-assessment tool to help you understand where you are on the path to creating your legacy. The profile asks you to reflect on your values, passions, and skills, and to determine how much time you can commit to this endeavor. Are you at the beginner level and ready to take the first steps to get involved in your community? Are you at an intermediate level, ready to create a project on your own? Or are you advanced, and eager to take on the challenge of establishing your own not-for-profit organization? I know that getting started is the hardest part. So often, we want to “do something,” but we don’t know what or how to begin. My Ten Simple Steps will guide you through the process of either getting involved in existing projects in your community or creating your own project. The steps will help you to stay organized and to gain the support of family, friends, and community members. For those of you who are ready to take on the challenge of creating your own not-for-profit organization, there is a section for you as well. One of the most important parts of living your legacy is sharing it with others. There is a chapter that pays special attention to working with youth and engaging them in projects. I share some of the best practices that I have learned through my experiences with Champions of Caring. Following the tips in this chapter will help you to create intergenerational projects and teach young people the skills to help ensure that service becomes a way of life for them. I also guide you through the process of writing Legacy Letters to share with loved ones—family, friends, colleagues—what you have accomplished and learned about yourself, and to acknowledge the role that these people play in your life. Finally, I present the idea of creating “legacy clubs,” where you can share your legacy with others, both within your community and through social networking and online communities. This will help create a network of legacy-builders who can support one another. So what are you waiting for? • Dream big and start small. • Be creative. • Be determined. • Be deliberate. • Be relentless. Now is the time to create a vision of what you want your life and your world to be. Now is the time to become inspired by your personal history and life experiences, to find your passion, and to use your skills to help change the world. Now is the time to Live Your Legacy.
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About the Book
In a world where racism, violence, illness, and poverty can feel so overwhelming that we often close our eyes—and our hearts—to the suffering around us, we may not believe we have the power to change things. As Barbara Greenspan Shaiman shows us in Live Your Legacy Now!, this simply isn’t so. This part memoir and part how-to guide provides the tools and strategies to help you create meaningful change in your own life as well as in the lives of others.
The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Shaiman shares stories from her family history and over thirty years of her own life experience as a successful educator, business woman, and social entrepreneur to inspire and guide you to create a vision and plan for initiating a personal legacy. Shaiman details her effective ten-step approach by helping you: • Identify your core values, interests, and skills • Reflect on how you can use these assets to create meaningful projects that make a difference locally or globally • Share these experiences with family, colleagues, and friends to create cultures of caring at home, at work, and in your community Live Your Legacy Now! provides a simple formula to help people of all ages and backgrounds live richer, more meaningful lives by creating projects for personal growth and social change.About the Author
Barbara Greenspan Shaiman is the founder of Champions of Caring, a non-profit organization that has empowered over 10,000 youth in the greater Philadelphia area and South Africa to become social activists. Her family legacy as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, coupled with her professional experience and work with Champions of Caring, has motivated Shaiman to create Embrace Your Legacy, an organization that provides speeches, workshops, and consulting services to help people to live their own legacies by giving back to their communities. As a national presenter, she inspires organizations and individuals to create social change.