Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 231 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (3&4)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 231 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Just like our trek through life, we are making slow but determined progress on the concept of your life plan and how goals/objectives are integrated into your overall concept. Yesterday we started down the trail of 10 key principles or stepping stones for setting goals. We were able to explore the first two goal setting principles, which were:

1. Ensure congruency with your life purpose.
2. Ensure your purpose represents your wheel of life.

Today we will continue with additional key principles that are very important for setting and achieving effective goals and creation of your life plan. These 10 principles are part of the establish phase of what we refer to as our WESPER framework, which stands for: Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, Planning, Execution, and Review. I am assembling the daily journals of this series on Your Life Plan Blueprint into a downloadable course/workbook for your use. I will let you know when it is complete.

If you have any questions, or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com. Your Life Plan Blueprint trek spans many days, and the concepts build on each other as we climb towards the summit. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta. Friday evening we drove up to Marietta and arrived around 10 pm. The renovation contractors are making good progress but still have the back stairway area to complete. There is drywall and plaster dust all over, but we will get that cleaned up this next week. The two front rooms and downstairs foyer/hallway are looking great and are ready for me to start refinishing the woodwork and floors. I also have some rewiring of the light fixtures that I need to complete before they are rehung. We are very pleased with the results.

Let’s head on the trail for day twelve of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint^©

Let me start with a question today. Have you determined your purpose and overall goal for your life?  Have you written it down?  For an example, check back on Day 230 to review what I wrote for my life purpose and predominant goal. Remember that determining your purpose and overall goal of life is essential to create your life plan and establish your 7-year goals for each of the 7 areas of life.

Let’s move on to the next two key principles that are crucial in establishing your goals.

3. Understand your motivations.

Have you ever had an experience where you went full throttle at pursuing a goal only to find out that once you completed it that it did not bring the satisfaction expected or the cost to you personally was too great?

In today’s mad pursuit towards wealth and success and in the endless chase to validate one’s self-worth, we buy things we do not need with money we do not have to impress people who do not care.

There are some common symptoms which emerge when you set goals that do not align with your primary purpose and plan for your life. These goals will undermine your values. This will cause you to sabotage yourself in your goal pursuit. You will either lose interest during the goal achievement process and not complete it, or you will feel empty after the goal has been achieved.

As you set your primary goal for life and then subsequent goals, be clear on your underlying motivations. Your goals should be something that you really desire, are in alignment with your purpose and values, and are not what others want you to do.

A good practice to implement when setting goals is to ask yourself why. This practice will help you to drill down to determine your underlying motivations for the goals that you set. In most cases the first why answer is not the real reason for setting a goal. Ask yourself, why do you want this goal? Then you answer because…  Then ask why again, and keep asking “why” after each “because” until you get to the root reason for setting a goal. What will you achieve by completing this goal? Does the final answer align with your purpose?

Being clear on your underlying desires and “why” will drive you forward in the times when you face obstacles. Broad statements like “I want to be successful or earn lots of money” are not goals nor the why of a goal. Dig deep into the why of your goals, and make sure you are not pursuing goals imposed on you by others. Your goals must always align with your purpose and plans.

Psalms 20:4 – May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed.

4. Identify your objective goal first and then define your activity goals.

What is the difference between objective and activity goals? Objective goals are compatible with your purpose, your vision, and your life plan. Activity goals are specific end outcomes that you are more familiar with, such as to lose 10lbs or earn $10,000. Activity goals are the plateaus that you reach on the way to the summit as you scale your life plan mountain.

In our example of the Wheel of Life in the area of physical/health, your 7-year objective goal might be to be as healthy, vibrant, and energetic as you were in college. Your activity goals would be to eat fresh whole foods, exercise 60 minutes a day, lose 25 pounds, and to get proper sleep.

Objective goals are the visions you want to pursue long-term in your life. Within Your Life Plan Blueprint, these would be your 7-year goals in the 7 areas of your life. Activity goals are the means to achieve that vision. Objective goals are long-term plans and usually remain the same throughout seasons of your life. Activity goals change over time based on your progress towards your objective goals.

Always define your objective goals first, followed by the activity goals needed to achieve the objective goals.

By clearly articulating your objective goal first, you can determine which of the activity goals that you will pursue that are tied to your objectives. You develop new insights and open yourself up to many other routes toward achieving your objective goal.

As an analogy within our Wisdom-Trek scenario, your objective goal would be to reach a certain summit on life’s mountain. Your activity goals could take the form of several different trails that you could take to reach that summit. You are not locked into one path to successfully reach your objective.

Clearly differentiating between your objective and activity goals enables you to see the bigger picture. You stop getting hung up on the outcome of activity goals and instead focus on achieving your actual objective goal. You no longer have to obsess over your activity goals nor connect your success and self-worth to them. If your focus is on your life purpose and plan, then you will realize your activity goals are merely one of the many methods you can use to reach your objective. If one path is obstructed, then you choose a solution around the obstruction or choose a new trail to your summit. 

Proverbs 16:3 – Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

As we explore the 10 principles to establish goals within our WESPER framework, you are learning how to set effective goals within your life plan that fulfill your purpose. The framework integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will continue to dig into the precious nuggets of wisdom as we establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of your life based on the 6 step WESPER framework. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
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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 each day.

As we take this Trek 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 tomorrow!