Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 473 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Don’t Let Your Past Destroy You – Attitude Part 1

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 473 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they impact us in creating our living legacy.

Currently, we are in a multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors, such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book called The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I will be adapting it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We are getting settled in well with consolidating our homes. There are still items that need to be stored and a few pieces of furniture that we are giving away, but overall it is settling down. It has been a smooth transition, and we are glad that we made this decision. With most decisions that each of us make, the success or failure of those decisions is impacted significantly on our attitude about that decision. Attitude is one of the largest factors in how our lives turn out.

Today on our trek we are switching trails from developing a powerful personal philosophy, which is the foundation for our lives, to another trail, which is our attitude. If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and continue on the first trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Attitude Part 1

As a reminder, our overall extended trek will cover these five trails:

Philosophy

Attitude

Activity

Results

Lifestyle

Last week we finished up our primary trail, which covered all the steps needed to develop a Powerful Personal Philosophy. This is the very foundation on which your life is built. Your personal philosophy is the filter through which all of your decisions and choices are made. This is a very crucial element that you must establish in your life. As we continue our trek today, we will focus on your attitude and how your past affects that attitude.

Your life is greatly affected by what you know since what you know determines the decisions you will make. Just as you are affected by what you know, you are also affected by how you feel.

While philosophy deals essentially with the logical side of your life, that is to say, your information and thinking habits, attitude focuses primarily on the emotional issues that affect your existence. What you know determines your philosophy. How you feel about what you know determines our attitude.

How you feel about what you know determines our attitude.

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It is your emotional nature that governs most of your daily conduct in your personal and business worlds. It is the emotional aspect of your experiences that determines your behavior. How you feel about life’s events is a powerful force that can either freeze you in your tracks or inspire you to take immediate action on any given day.

Like thoughts, emotions have the capacity to propel you toward future fortune or future disaster. The feelings you carry within you about people, your work, your home, your finances, and about the world around you collectively form your attitude. With the right attitude, you can move mountains. With the wrong attitude, you can be crushed by the smallest grain of sand.

With the right attitude, you can move mountains. With the wrong attitude, you can be crushed by the smallest grain of sand.

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Having the right attitude is an essential prerequisite for your success and happiness. The right attitude is one of the fundamentals of a rich and satisfying life. That is why you must constantly examine your feelings about your role in the world and about your possibilities for achieving your dreams. The feelings that you have affect your prevailing attitude, and it is your prevailing attitude that ultimately determines the quality of your lives.

Attitude is a major determining factor in how your life turns out. Since everything in life affects everything else, you must make a careful study of everything and everyone that might be having the wrong effect on your current attitude. With these thoughts in mind, this week we will learn from the past, and then next week we will focus on the present and future. 

The Past

Having a healthy and mature attitude about the past can make a major difference in your life. One of the best ways to approach the past is to use it as positive training, not a negative weapon. You must not beat yourself up with past mistakes, faults, failures, and losses. The events of the past, both good and bad, are all part of the life experience. For some, the past may have been a harsh teacher. You must remember to let the past educate you and bring the value of its experience into your life. It is easy to allow the past to overwhelm you. The good news is that it is also easy to allow the past to instruct you and to increase your value.

Part of the miracle of your future lies in the past. Past lessons. Past errors. Past successes. The collective experiences of all that has happened to you can either be your master or your servant. That is why it is so important to gather up the lessons of the past and invest them in the future. If you can establish that kind of intelligent approach to the past, you can dramatically change the course of the next twelve months. You will be somewhere in the next twelve months; the question you must ask yourself is where will you be?

Developing a new philosophy about the past is the key to changing your current attitude. Until you have finally accepted the fact that there is nothing you can do to change the past, your feelings of regret, remorse, and bitterness will prevent you from designing a better future with the opportunity that is before you today.

How effectively you use the present is largely determined by your attitude about the past. Until you amend your philosophy, you cannot repair your attitude. If you cannot repair your attitude, your future is going to be filled with the same sense of regret, remorse, and bitterness that currently has you by the throat. You cannot move forward into a brighter future until you have closed the door on the darkness of the past.

You cannot move forward into a brighter future until you have closed the door on the darkness of the past.

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These concepts remind me of a familiar Bible passage that I have used before, which is found in Philippians 3:12-14, “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we hike now on the Trail of Attitude. This is not an easy hike to make. It requires not being held back by your past, but using what you learned to change your present and your future.

Next week on Philosophy Friday, we will continue on the Trail of Attitude and focus on your present and your future. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.

Our next trek will be Motivation Monday as we explore more trails of how to get and stay motivated to bring value to your world. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy these daily doses of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person when you meet with them and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Monday!