If you’ve ever lost someone, you know there’s a point where you have the piercing realization that you’ll never get to ask the questions you still wanted to. The sobering realization that the stories are forever gone brings further sorrow and emptiness. And there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

This realization sometimes also happens during family gatherings. Maybe while sitting around the dinner table, someone asks, "Did anyone ever ask Grandma how she felt when she met Grandpa?" or “Does anyone know what Grandpa really experienced during the war?” And the room goes silent, because no one ever asked. And now the only people who could give the answers are no longer here to share their stories.

All the possessions, property or money in the world can’t fill the void of stories forever lost.

THERE’S MORE TO AN INHERITANCE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK

We give enormous thought planning our material inheritances. We write wills, possibly set up trusts, figure out if the house should get sold or kept in the family, and wonder if our personal items will get to the right people. We might even worry about whether there will be "enough" left over. These things matter, of course. But we’ve been conditioned to think of inheritance as merely monetary or material wealth. Perhaps we don’t realize or just haven’t taken the time to consider passing on the things that are truly irreplaceable.

Your mom's recipe for the cake she made you every birthday. The story of how your grandparents survived through a war or immigrated to a new country. The seasons of real hardship and suffering you experienced and how you got through them. The values that quietly shaped every major decision you ever made.

These aren't small things. These make up the inheritance of your inner wealth that contains the stories of your life — invaluable not only to your loved ones but also to your future generations.

ONLY YOU CAN TELL YOUR STORY, YOUR WAY

Here's something worth thinking about: With a global population of over 8 billion people, you are the only person in the world who has lived your exact experiences and holds your specific stories.

No one else has walked your path of joys, successes, challenges and struggles. No one else experienced your excitement as you unwrapped that unexpected toy, or your heartache when you heard the news that changed everything, or your sense of accomplishment when you did that thing you thought you couldn’t do, or your concerns when you made the hardest decision that altered the course of your life and the ones you loved most.

When you don’t record your unique life stories and personal messages of love, advice and encouragement, they’re on their way to disappearing forever. Rather than your grandchildren and great-grandchildren just hearing about you, they’d benefit greatly from hearing from you. Second or third-hand versions retold by others often get diluted along the way, have missing or inaccurate details, or are layered with external interpretations. Leaving your stories behind ensures you get to tell your story, your way. Your perspectives. Your accounts. Your details.

You also get to make sure you aren’t edited to be a shiny version of yourself. Well-meaning descendants often only share the good as they don’t want to speak ill of the departed. The problem is that an incomplete, polished version of “you” wouldn’t be authentic and therefore wouldn’t build connection. Your humanness would. Now, it is important to pass along the stories behind your achievements and accomplishments and the things you are proud of. But also, sharing how you felt when you doubted yourself, or when others perhaps doubted you, or when you didn’t at first succeed yet somehow kept going — are the moments that make you real and therefore relatable to your future loved ones. Being genuine is a sure way to form a connection that will be felt and treasured.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE. BUT YOU DO HAVE TO TAKE ACTION

The inclination to put off a larger project like creating your inner wealth inheritance is completely understandable. After all, it can seem overwhelming not knowing where to start. Also, to some, talking about their life stories can feel strange, and maybe even a little uncomfortable. And sometimes, not feeling sure how exactly to extract the valuable lessons from key life experiences prevents people from even trying. And then we might even fool ourselves by thinking, who would even want to read my stories?

Your family and future generations would. Desperately! Your loved ones may not even know yet how much they'd one day appreciate you leaving them personal messages, interesting facts and fun tidbits about yourself and your family. And imagine your descendants meeting their great-great grandparent! If a caring and wise forefather from a different place and time, perhaps two, three or even five generations ago invested in leaving behind information about his life and advice and messages for you, how do you think you would feel about this heirloom?

Your life stories will have an incredible impact as your future generations will feel connected to someone who intentionally and carefully prepared something for them. Someone they will treasure as a wise, invested ancestor who left these wonderful words of love and wisdom. A piece of you will be carried forward into their lives and into a world that hasn’t yet been created.

You don't need to be a professional writer. You don't need to include every story of your life. And it doesn’t need to be perfect. But you do need to start if you want to touch the hearts of your loved ones and positively impact and empower your future generations.

And let’s just blatantly state the indisputable facts that life is unpredictable and that we all have only so much time left. Let’s use these truths not as fear-driven motivators, but as powerful inspirations to embrace the opportunity to create a magnificent true legacy gift of inner wealth while we still can.

You have that power — you just need to act!