I believe there’s a seductive danger in thinking we must reach some future state of development before the wisdom inside can have real value for others, especially those we love.

The danger is we may never get around to sharing it, or quite frankly, we may die before we get the chance.

The practice of making Legacy Videos is one answer. It’s a way to “harvest” our wisdom at whatever state of personal evolution we may be. And as a practice, it may point out wisdom within we may be overlooking.

The idea of Legacy Videos is simple. The basic premise is to use our phones to record short conversational videos of ourselves (or those we care about) sharing two things: 1) the most interesting stories of our lives and 2) the most valuable pieces of wisdom we’d like to pass on.

Think for a moment of someone you love who is no longer with us. What would you give if today, at this very moment, you could watch them on video sharing stories from their life and the wisdom they learned along the way?

Many people would say “I’d give anything!” Well, that’s the gift we have the opportunity to give to those we love.

These videos won’t be perfect. And that’s okay. Perfection is the enemy of action. The beautiful thing is you can delete and re-record them as many times as you’d like. The goal is to get these valuable gems lurking inside you out in the digital world as soon as possible.

Here are just a few questions to get you thinking:

What’s one very fond memory you have from your childhood?

What was one of the smartest choices you ever made?

How did you meet your spouse/partner? Any tips for a healthy relationship? Any mistakes to avoid?

Is there anything in your life you’d do differently if you could?

One cool thing these days is the videos from our phones are backed up automatically in the “cloud.” This means future generations of our family - literally hundreds of years from now - will have the power to watch them.

And if just a few members of each new generation of your family make these simple little videos, by the time your great great granddaughters and grandsons come around they’ll have a vast library of Legacy Videos from dozens of their ancestors. Videos that will help them make wiser decisions as they navigate this grand and challenging adventure called life.

None of us know how much time we have left. Today is the day for us to take a few minutes, whip out our phones, hit the record button, and share our stories and wisdom.

Carpe diem.


Kevin Bates is an author, skier, surfer, and podcaster who focuses on meaning as much as possible. He has a free ebook on making Legacy Videos the easy way at LegacyTube.com.