What Inheritance Are You Squandering?

I was listening to a talk recently where the speaker referenced his family history, pointing out that nine previous generations of ‘Reverends’ led up to him becoming ordained. That’s quite a legacy running down through the years. Maybe we are wrong to be surprised by it these days when you look at the way people behaved historically, where pretty much everyone passed on their trade to someone in the family – it was just the way it always happened.

Nowadays, we have so much choice what to do for a career, not to mention how to occupy all the other areas of our lives. Back then it came down primarily to what you inherited. Today we tend to think of inheritance more in terms of how much money people will receive (as opposed to rendering unto the tax man), who will get the house, or how the possessions will be divided up. Whilst this might not be insignificant sums in these days of vast amassed wealth, it will not be true for everyone. What does hold for all of us though is the idea that our parents or other people who brought us up have already given us an inheritance. We maybe can’t see it or touch it. In fact we might not even be aware of it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist though. Nor does it mean we should ignore it or its influence.

The skills and personality traits that previous generations of your family possessed may have been passed on to you. The values of the adults who brought you up (parents, other family or other close members of your society or sub-culture) will also have had an effect on who you have become what are the linearly dependent and independent vectors?. By recognising what has gone before, not only can you get a clearer picture of your own potential but you have the opportunity to then build on it. I recently read a debate about whether Lionel Messi is the greatest footballer of all time or simply of his generation. It pointed out that the likes of Pele, Maradona and Cruyff who have gone before have laid a foundation of skills that Messi has worked on and perfected. However, they did the hard work and he has been able to simply stand on the shoulders of these giants. We too can advance faster by recognising what potential we have been gifted with in our intangible inheritance.

Start to look at your forebears. If you knew them, write down anything you can remember about who they were, what they did, how they did it and anything you know about their motivation. Even something as simple as knowing what jobs they did might give an indication of what skills they exercised regularly. How they went about their business or leisure will tell you something about their personality. Did they willingly involve people? How swiftly did they work? What level of detail were they interested in? What drove them or motivated them will give you ideas about their value systems and what was important for them.

If you never met your ancestors or are too young to remember them, ask people that did know them. What can they tell you that is useful in your quest to discover your inheritance? A brief warning is pertinent here though. You are looking for the positive aspects of who they were. There may be damage, or broken relationships that cause skewed perspectives of what people were like. Filter out the negative thoughts, either from yourself or from other people’s memories. Yes, there may be less pleasant characteristics of who your (grand)parents might have been but look for the good aspects. For example, someone who was considered stubborn and difficult could maybe have been described as strong-willed, determined, self-confident, sure of what they knew or something similarly positive.

Once you have information on both sides of your family, stretching as far back as possible, look for common threads running through your notes. Are there skills, traits or values common to several people? Then add what you know of yourself into the mix. What do you now notice is common to you and some of your relations?