He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times.

Trying to be remembered is a poor guide to what to do today, since posterity is unpredictable and mostly indifferent. Doing the best available work for the people actually around you is the only version within your control, and it happens to be how most lasting things got made. Reach comes later, if at all, and never as planned.

So aim at the present problem rather than at the monument. Ask who is in front of you and what would genuinely help them this year. Whatever survives will be a side effect of that.