Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 649 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Don’t Avoid Mistakes – Mindshift Monday
Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 649 of our trek, and it is time for our Mindshift Monday series. Wisdom-Trek’s primary focus is to assist you in creating your living legacy.
Creating your living legacy can only be accomplished by gaining wisdom in many areas of life. You can only gain wisdom by changing what you allow to go into your mind which is a result of changing the way you think. In other words, to create your living legacy you must choose to be in a continual mode of Mindshift, or “changing the way you think.”
It is easy to get stuck in a mindset that your current circumstances cannot be changed. This is not true, but you must understand this fundamental principle, “In order to change your life, you must change how you think and what you think about.” Our Mindshift Monday podcast and journal will be to provide you practical ways to make a mind-shift to a rich and satisfying life.
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. As mentioned in a couple of previous podcasts, I am podcasting and journaling the details of my July 8th accident and recovery on the Tuesday and Thursday Wisdom Nuggets. If you would like to follow along with me, the first episode is on Day 645.
Even with an unexpected major life event, we continue to positively look toward the future and what we can learn from them. Our mindset is very important with every aspect of life. If your first inclination is to think negatively, then a Mindshift is required. You cannot get trapped by your current situation and feel there is no way to change it.
Last week I encouraged you to Imagine Life as It Could Be. Imagination is great and needed, but imagination without action is pointless. You need to take action. You might be thinking, if I take action, I will make mistakes. That is very true, you will. So on our trek today I desire you to have a Mindshift that will allow you to realize…
Don’t Avoid Mistakes
In most western cultures we try to avoid mistakes and failures as if they were some sort of deadly plague. This may be based on the Judeo-Christian foundations of our cultures and for many of us reinforced by our Christian upbringing. Somehow we have twisted mistakes and failures to be equated to sin, which is falling short of God’s standards.
While it is true that we all fall short of God’s standards and need salvation, we cannot allow our failures and mistakes to be equated to sin. If we do, we will avoid seeking a Mindshift, which is changing how we think and what we think about. We will be stuck in the same ruts day after day and wondering why our lives do not improve. While we should learn from our mistakes and failure, they are by their very essence the stepping stones needed to create a Mindshift in our lives.
Here are three common misconceptions that leave most people stuck in the ruts of life.
1. Believing that mistakes are always to be avoided.
The reason people try to avoid mistakes is that they feel they are a sign of failure or weakness. Mistakes can be and should be learning experiences. If you haven’t made any mistakes lately, I question whether you are really pursuing the change that you desire in your life. You have not explored all the trails that lie before you on your trek of life. Not all streams have been forged, and summits have been conquered.
We learn from our mistakes. A person cannot grow and learn without making mistakes. Sometimes they will be big, sometimes they will be small, but all the lessons learned will be in proportion to the size of the mistake. Perhaps we would learn more from our mistakes if we were not so busy denying that we make them. Fear of making mistakes has kept many people from having a true life change.
When you make a mistake, you can resolve never to make another one. That is an impossible resolution if you truly desire a Mindshift. You can decide that mistakes are too costly and become fearful of them, but that fear will keep you from fulfilling your true potential. You can constantly think about your mistakes and live a stifled life of regret, but that is the same as self-torture. The choice you need to make is to learn all that you can from your mistakes and continue the Mindshift that will allow you to make the changes that you desire in your life.
The second misconception is…
2. Thinking that success comes naturally to those who are the brilliant and talented.
History has proven that people are successful not because of brilliance but because of persistence and desire. The story goes that there was a young man who was learning how to become a trapeze artist received some excellent advice from his teacher who said. “Throw your heart over the bars, and your body will follow.” No matter what you are pursuing if you throw your heart into it, you are more likely to achieve it.
The degree of success you achieve depends upon the amount of sincere desire you possess. Persistence is needed for you to become an achiever. Success is never instantaneous. It is never by accident, although it may be achieved through the lessons learned from mistakes and failures.
Success is a slow trek on the mountains and valleys of life. It takes growth and development. It’s achieving one level and using that as a stepping-stone to rise higher up the mountain of accomplishment. The true measure is not what status that you have reached in life, but what obstacles you have overcome to reach the desired goal. Obstacles are overcome by persistence.
The third misconception is…
3. Refusing to change when there is a need to change.
A humorous story I heard was about an old gentleman who was approaching his 100th birthday. A newspaper reporter went to interview him. Approaching the elderly man politely, he said, “Sir you must have seen a great many changes during the past 100 years.” The old man gazed steadily at him for a moment, then replied, “Yes, and I’ve been against all of them.”
While this story is humorous, this man’s attitude is the attitude of far too many other people as well. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut and let the world pass us by while we remain in the miserable comfort of our rut.
I grew up on a farm, and the tractor would make ruts in the lanes. Once deep enough, it was almost easier to allow the tractor wheels to remain in the ruts and just follow them without steering. The problem is that the ruts were much rougher and the more the ruts were used, the deeper they got.
Is it time to force yourself from your ruts of life onto a higher road that will actually take you where you want to go more smoothly and more quickly? People resist change because it takes energy, desire, and persistence to do something different. It is always easier to stay in the same ruts of life, but you cannot reach the higher ground that way. Just like it was difficult at times to force the tractor out of the rut onto the smoother ground, so we need to do the same for our lives. It takes a Mindshift to pull out of the ruts. 
Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them. We can grow only when we change. As the Apostle, Paul wrote in Romans 5:4, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.”
With these thoughts in mind, we will conclude our trek for today and as we do, don’t be afraid of mistakes because they are the teaching tools that will allow us to have a Mindshift. It all begins in your mind.
Next week we will continue our trek of Mindshift Monday. On tomorrow’s trek, we will continue with my journal of my recent accident and journal. I appreciate you allowing me to share my story so that we can all grow from Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way. Thank you for joining me on this trek called life. Encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe at iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.
Thank you so much 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:
- 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!