It happened in an instant. One moment, I’m doing an energetic workout and feeling on top of the world. The next moment, I trip over my HOKA tennis shoes on a side shuffle and take a hard fall. Crash! I land on my right hip and shatter it. Ouch!!! In an instant, I’ve gone from top of the world to rock bottom. Life is a series of legacy-building experiences. Is there a legacy lesson in this experience?
Building a legacy isn’t solely based on what we achieve. It’s also built on how we endure. Sometimes showing up at 50% (or even less) when you only have 50% or less to give is every bit as admirable as showing up at 100%.
The legacy we leave behind is not a collection of perfect moments. It is the story of how we live through every season of life—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Some of the most important legacy-building may happen not on our best days, but on the days when we’re challenged and still choose to persevere, remain positive, and show up to give whatever we have to give in that moment.
So how do we do this?
In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl reflects on his experiences in Nazi concentration camps and observes that those most likely to survive emotionally were often the ones who found a reason to keep going—whether it was a loved one, a sense of purpose, or hope for the future.
The book’s central message is that while we cannot always control what happens to us, we can control how we respond. Frankl argues that meaning is not found only in success, achievement, or happiness. Often, meaning is found in how we face suffering, adversity, and difficult circumstances with courage and dignity.
As Frankl wrote, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
That lesson extends far beyond extraordinary circumstances. Most of us will never face the hardships Frankl endured, but all of us will experience difficult seasons. We will face setbacks, disappointments, illnesses, losses, and moments when life simply feels heavy.
During those times, it is easy to believe that our legacy is on pause until things improve. Yet the opposite may be true.
Our children, grandchildren, friends, and colleagues often learn the most from us during our struggles. They watch how we respond when things don’t go according to plan. They see whether we treat others with kindness when we’re frustrated, whether we remain faithful to our values when circumstances become difficult, and whether we continue moving forward when the path ahead is uncertain.
These moments rarely make headlines. No one receives an award for getting out of bed on a difficult day or showing patience when their own heart is hurting. Yet these small acts of perseverance reveal character. Over time, character becomes legacy.
In many ways, our hardest days can become our greatest teachers. They remind us that strength is not always loud and dramatic. Sometimes strength looks like asking for help. Sometimes it means admitting we don’t have all the answers. Sometimes it means simply taking the next right step, as much as that step may hurt.
Legacy planning often focuses on the valuable things we leave behind—our assets, our stories, our wisdom, our values. All of these are important. But perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can leave our loved ones is an example of resilience. When future generations encounter their own challenges, they may remember not what we accomplished during our easiest seasons, but how we conducted ourselves during our hardest ones.
The truth is that no one can build a perfect legacy because no one is a perfect person. Fortunately, building a meaningful legacy doesn’t require perfection. It requires giving from your heart, not with perfection, but with the best you have to give.
The goal is to live with purpose, integrity, and compassion through every season of life. It is to continue showing up, even when we feel less than our best. It is to demonstrate that meaning can still be found in difficult circumstances and that hope can survive even in challenging times.
In next week’s post, I’ll share messages from my heart–legacy lessons learned from my own broken hip episode and from the road to recovery that I’m now traveling.
So, the next time you find yourself operating at 50% or less, remember this: if you are giving your best with what you have that day, you are still building your legacy. In fact, you may be building some of the most important parts of it.
Marvin E. Blum
Marvin Blum (right) starting his day working out with "Coach Q" (Quinston), feeling fit and on top of the world.
A moment later, Marvin and his world came crashing down, shattering his right hip, and entering a chapter of life full of both pain and possibility.
In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl reminds us that while we cannot always control our circumstances, we can control how we respond to them. Perhaps some of the most important parts of our legacy are built not on our best days, but on the days we choose to persevere.