Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 313 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Truths for a Successful Life #2
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 313 of our trek, and yesterday we looked at the first 5 of 10 obvious truths that we soon forget about on our trek of life. Today we will finish this current trail and explore the final 5 truths.
Thank you so much for coming along with me each day as we explore and consume these “nuggets of wisdom.” These bits of wisdom help us to live a rich and satisfying life while creating a living legacy. While some of our daily treks are a multi-part series, you can join us at any time and start along with us from that point on. If you would like to listen to any of the past episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play, so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.
We are broadcasting this podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a steady week of work without being overwhelming. We are also putting into practice our commitment to head to bed earlier, so we can get adequate sleep – a required practice that we have put off too long. Being able to get more sleep might be one reason why the days seem less overwhelming…I will have to analyze that connection over time. There are many truths that we know mentally, but until they become a heartfelt conviction, we usually fail to acknowledge them or take action. That leads us to the continuation of our trek today as we look at the final 5…
Truths to Remember for a Successful Life #2
As I mentioned when we started yesterday, we can hear truths many times in our lives, but until we apply them to our lives, they will not have any impact. There are ten fundamental truths for a successful life that become the foundation for a living legacy. We explored the first 5 yesterday, so if you missed yesterday it is advisable to go back and listen to it also.
Let’s get started today in exploration of the remaining 5 truths:
6. You don’t have to wait for an apology to forgive.
Life gets much easier when you learn to accept all the apologies you never received. The key is to be thankful for every experience – positive or negative. It’s taking a step back and saying, “Thank you for the lesson.” It’s realizing that grudges from the past are a perfect waste of today’s happiness, and that holding one is like letting unwanted company live rent free in your head.
Forgiveness is a promise – one you want to keep. When you forgive someone, you are making a promise not to hold the unchangeable past against your present self. It has nothing to do with freeing a criminal of his or her crime and everything to do with freeing yourself from the burden of being an eternal victim.
7. Some people are simply the wrong match for you.
You will only ever be as great as the people you surround yourself with, so be brave enough to let go of those who keep bringing you down. You shouldn’t force connections with people who constantly make you feel less than amazing.
If someone makes you feel uncomfortable and insecure every time you’re with them, for whatever reason, they’re probably not close friend material. If they make you feel like you can’t be yourself or if they make you “less than” in any way, don’t pursue a connection with them. If you feel emotionally drained after hanging out with them or get a small hit of anxiety when you are reminded of them, listen to your intuition. There are so many “right people” for you, who energize you and inspire you to be your best self. It makes no sense to force it with people who are the wrong match for you.
8. It’s not other peoples’ job to love you…It’s yours.
It’s important to be nice to others, but it’s even more important to be nice to yourself. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world. So, make sure you don’t start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don’t value you. Know your worth, even if they don’t.
Today, let someone love you just the way you are – as flawed as you might be, as unattractive as you sometimes feel, and as incomplete as you think you are. Yes, let someone love you despite all of this, and let that someone be YOU.
9. What you own is not who you are.
Stuff really is just stuff, and it has absolutely no bearing on who you are as a person. Most of us can make do with much less than we think we need. That’s a valuable reminder, especially in a hugely consumer-driven culture that focuses more on material things than meaningful connections and experiences.
You have to create your own culture. Don’t watch too much TV, don’t read every fashion magazine, don’t read too many newspapers, and certainly don’t listen to the nightly diatribe of talking heads that spew propaganda on both the left and the right. Find the strength to fill your time with meaningful experiences. The space and time you are occupying at this very moment is LIFE, and if you’re worrying about some celebrity, politician, or world leader, then you are disempowered. You’re giving your life away to marketing and media trickery, which is created by big companies to ultimately motivate you to think a certain way, to want to dress a certain way, look a certain way, and be a certain way. This kind of thinking is tragic. What is real is YOU and your friends and your family, your loves, your highs, your hopes, your plans, your fears…Live YOUR legacy each day. Don’t become someone else’s lemming.
Too often we’re told that we’re not important or that we’re just peripheral to what is. “Get a degree, get a job, get a car, get a house, and keep on getting.” And it’s sad because some day you’ll wake up and realize you’ve been tricked. And all you’ll want then is to reclaim your mind by getting it out of the hands of manipulative media that wants to turn you into the perfect consumer that buys everything that isn’t needed to impress everyone that isn’t important. It’s a hamster wheel, think about it.
10. Everything changes every second.
Embrace change and realize it happens for a reason. It won’t always be obvious at first, but in the end, it will be worth it. What you have today may become what you had by tomorrow. You never know. Things change and often change spontaneously. People and circumstances come and go. Life doesn’t stop for anybody. It moves rapidly and rushes from calm to chaos in a matter of seconds and happens like this to people every day. It’s likely happening to someone nearby right now.
Sometimes the shortest split second in time changes the direction of our lives. A seemingly innocuous decision rattles our whole world like a meteorite striking Earth. Entire lives have been swiveled and flipped upside down, for better or worse, on the strength of an unpredictable event. And these events are always happening to someone else right this second.
However good or bad a situation is now, it will change. That’s the one thing you can count on. So, when life is good, enjoy it. Don’t go looking for something better every second. Happiness never comes to those who don’t appreciate what they have while they have it. As Ecclesiastes 5: 19-20 says, “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past.” …and I might add let’s not worry about tomorrow either, no one knows what it will hold.
Today on our trek, we re-discovered the final 5 of 10 truths that will make for a successful life. Through these truths commit to the following: “Seize the day, make the most of every opportunity, and create your living legacy each day because when tomorrow arrives, it will already be today.” Speaking of tomorrow, let’s take a break and remain at camp as we dig for those nuggets of wisdom found in the book of Proverbs. We will continue with Chapter 10, which is a series of short contrasting statements that contain some real great insights for life. 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, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- 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!