Legend status

I am in the process of listening to an audio book by Paulo Coehlo called The Alchemist. In that book a concept is mentioned that I have heard elsewhere but it has been a few years. It is called personal legend. A great deal of the book is about a person discovering his personal legend.

In the beginning it seems as if it is about this person finding a great treasure during his lifetime. And while it is about that, that is only a small part of it, I think.  My reasoning for this is, if  you really think about a legend, it's a story, often one of huge proportions with many amazing details. So a personal legend would be this amazing story about a specific person.

To obtain the treasure in your personal legend requires a journey. It makes no difference if the treasure is gold, true love, enlightenment or some combination of all of them. A journey has both a beginning and an ending and a path way that bridges the two. All of life is a journey and adventure even if we never leave our hometown. We begin from wherever we are and we walk down many different paths, seeking the one that will bring us to the treasure at the end.

But our personal legend, that is the whole story from beginning to end.  On every step of the trip is the opportunity for us to learn and grow. While the treasure we are seeking may only be found at the end, an infinite variety of other treasures lay all about us on our way to that final goal.  Who we are at the end is often vastly different than who we were at the start.

And if you think about it, a legend is something that lives on long after the person is gone. So your personal legend is also the story that people who knew you will tell once you are no longer around.  Close your eyes and imagine for a moment. IF you died right this very second, what would the story that people told about you sound like? Would you be described as a poor miserly miscreant who never had a kind word to say about anyone? Would you be described as a mature, responsible, great leader who was a shining example for others to follow? Would the story fall somewhere in between? If you don't know and would like to, try asking a few people that know you.

If you are not happy with how your story would be explained by those that know you best then, you are not properly living your personal legend. Discover what it is that bothers you about the story others would tell and re-align your life. If you truly are living your personal legend, you will know in your heart that you are doing the right things and making the right choices. And while no sane man seeks death, you can be content when it comes knowing that you are doing and have done your best.