Okay, oops, I hit the wrong button, sorry about that. So take two and I’ll probably delete the first one, so let’s start again.
Guess what I can do? I have power. So exciting. Washing dishes, fridge, all that stuff, hot showers are now actually happening at home. I know, I know. Brilliant, brilliant. Today I had the pleasure of singing at a 90 year old’s birthday party, and I sang a song that she had written and she played while I sang it. And there were speeches and family and friends and loved ones and people that had known her for a long time. She and her husband had known each other, been together for 70 years in April. 70 years. And they’ve been together rain, hail or shine.
Beside the point, in one of the speeches, her best friend summed up her life in a word and their friendship in a word. And I had never heard it done before. And I’ve talked previously about legacy and the meaning of your life that you’re leaving to people. I’ve talked previously about a word of the year. I’ve talked previously about having a theme for your year, or for your quarter, or whatever’s actually going on in your life, have this snippet that you can go “yeah, the moment my life’s all about…” Whatever it is. And her life was summed up with the word joy. And you don’t know Marjorie, so that’s not going to mean much to you, but for the 60 odd people that were in the room, when this was said, we were all like, “Ah, yes, That is Marjorie.” She is joy. She brings joy. She gives joy. It was the most perfect, perfect word for her.
And it got me thinking, if my life was to be summed up in a word, I’m going to touch wood here, if I was to you keel over tomorrow, which is not going to happen, touch wood. What would that word be? And if you’re gone, you don’t get to choose what that word’s going to be. People who’ve been around you, people who’ve experienced your life, people who have loved you get to choose that word. But what could you have done? What would you have done in life to steer people, to thinking that word about you? What would you want it to be?
We can go all, it’s Christmas, so I’m going to think that it’s all about love. And you can think those beautiful fluff… No, loves not a fluffy word, but you know what I mean? You can think those, I want people to just think of me as giving or as gracious or kind, or love. And they’re all very pretty beautiful words. But joy was perfect for her. And any of those words that I’ve just named, they don’t feel perfect to me. So what would I want people to think my word is?
And I think the exercise that I do at the beginning of the year, to pick my word of the year, and I’ve actually already picked my theme for next year, so I’ll go through the exercise with you at some stage this week. It’s a really important exercise to get that theme for the year. But for however long you’re going to be here, you get to set that tone. You get to direct people in the way that you want to direct them, in terms of how they feel about you, by your actions, by the empathy you show, by the love, by the caring, by the action you take, by the generosity, by the ambition, by the way you stick to your word, by the way you call people by any of that stuff. You get to pick how people think of you. You don’t get to control how they feel, that’s totally on them, but what you project and what emanates from you in terms of those feeling words, that’s totally on you, totally on you.
And if you’re grumpy pants, so-and-so every so often, they’re going to be standing there trying to sum up your life in a word and thinking, “oh, a little bit tetchy. Oh yeah, there were those odd moments.” Or someone gets to stand there like Margaret did today and go, “she is joy. That is her word. That’s what her life is.” And I’d love to know that my legacy is a word like that. I’d fricking love that. And I’d never thought of it before. I haven’t read about it before. I’ve never thought of it. I haven’t wanted it. I didn’t even know it was an option. And I’ve literally spent hours this afternoon going, “what would my word be?” What would I want my word to be? What can I do in my life in the next year, two years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 45 years, hopefully, 55 years. I’d like to make it to a hundred. What do I get to do that makes people think of a word? What is it?
So I’d like to know what your word is. If people could describe you, your legacy, your life, your meaning, what you brought to the world in one word, what would that word be? Let me know. Please tell me. Please tell me. And if you come up with a funky exercise as to how to work it out, let me know and I’d love to share that exercise. Otherwise, I will come up with an exercise as where can share that with you, because I think it’s really cool. I think it’s really cool.
Happy Saturday and don’t forget… Hang on, watch this, are you ready? I’m going to go to the light switch. I get to turn lights on and off again. Yay. And tomorrow do a really, really big grocery shop. Night night.v