Legacy isn’t a statue. It’s the habit your little brother picked up from watching you.

What survives you is mostly behavioural and mostly accidental. Nobody is building monuments, but somebody younger is absorbing how you speak to waiters, whether you finish things, what you do when you lose. That transfer happens by observation rather than instruction, which means it records your ordinary conduct and not your intentions. Legacy is a large word for a daily and very small thing.

Pick one habit you would be glad to see copied and do it visibly this week. Then pick one you would not and interrupt it once. Being imitated by somebody younger is uncomfortable and extremely clarifying.