Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 312 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
Truths for a Successful Life #1
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 312 of our trek, and yesterday we discovered the rest stops for reflection on the Trail of Hardship. Today and tomorrow we look for the 10 obvious truths that we soon forget about on our trek of life.
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. The workload this week has been busier than expected as we provide remote software technical support for one of our clients. This has impacted some of the progress that we hoped to make. We hope to gain additional ground the remainder of this week with some of our other projects. Each day I strive to gain new information so that I can be continually improving. Certainly some days I make a lot more progress than others. Much of what I read, study, and learn is actually information that I have come across in the past, but it did not stick with me long term.
Today and tomorrow on our trek we will visit or likely revisit the…
Truths to Remember for a Successful Life #1
You know how you can hear something a hundred times in a hundred different ways before it finally gets through to you? The ten truths that we will visit over the next two days fall firmly into that category. These are life lessons that many of us likely learned years ago and have been reminded of ever since, but for whatever reason, haven’t fully grasped. This, my friends, is my attempt at helping all of us, myself included, “get it” and “remember it” once and for all…
1. The average human life is relatively short.
We know deep down that life is short and that death will happen to all of us eventually, and yet we are infinitely surprised when it happens to someone we know. It’s like walking up a flight of stairs with a distracted mind and misjudging the final step. You expected there to be one more stair than there is and so you find yourself off balance for a moment before your mind shifts back to the present moment and how the world really is.
LIVE your legacy today! Don’t ignore death, but don’t be afraid of it either. Be afraid of a life you never lived because you were too afraid to take action. Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside you while you’re still alive. Be bold. Be courageous. Be scared to death, and then take the next step anyway. James 4:14 tells us, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.”
2. You live the life that you create for yourself.
Your life is yours alone. Others can try to persuade you, but they can’t decide for you. They can walk with you but not in your shoes. So make sure the path you decide to walk aligns with your own life purpose, intuition, and desires. Don’t be scared to switch trails or create a new one when it makes sense. truths
Remember, it’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than the top of the one you don’t. Be productive and patient. And, realize that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard for what you believe in. This is your life, and it is made up entirely of your choices. May your actions speak louder than your words. May your life preach louder than your lips. May your success be your noise in the end.
If life only teaches you one thing, let it be that taking a passionate leap is always worth it. Even if you have no idea where you’re going to land, be brave enough to step up to the edge of the unknown and listen to your heart.
3. Being busy is not the same as being productive.
Busyness isn’t a virtue, nor is it something to respect. Though we all have seasons of crazy schedules, very few of us have a legitimate need to be busy ALL the time. We simply don’t know how to live within our means, prioritize properly, and say no when we should.
Being busy rarely equates to productivity these days. Just take a quick look at our schedules. Our busyness overshadows our productivity by a wide margin. We are rushing all over the place and running late much of the time. We’re heading to work, conferences, meetings, social engagements, and sports events. We barely have enough free time for family get-togethers, and we rarely get enough sleep. Yet, emails are shooting out of our smartphones like machine gun bullets, and our day planners are jammed to the brim with obligations. Our busy schedule gives us an elevated sense of importance. But it’s all an illusion. We are like hamsters running on a wheel, getting nowhere fast.
Though being busy can make us feel more alive than anything else for a moment, the sensation is not sustainable long term. We will inevitably, whether tomorrow or on our deathbed, come to wish that we spent less time in the buzz of busyness and more time actually living a purposeful life.
4. Some kind of failure always occurs before success.
Many mistakes are unavoidable. Learn to forgive yourself. It’s not a problem to make them. It’s only a problem if you never learn from them.
If you’re too afraid of failure, you can’t possibly do what needs to be done to be successful. The solution to this problem is making friends with failure. You want to know the difference between a master and an apprentice? The master has failed more times than the apprentice has even tried. Behind every great piece of art is a thousand failed attempts to make it, but these attempts are simply never shown to us.
Bottom line: Just because it’s not happening now, doesn’t mean it never will. Sometimes things have to go very wrong before they can be right.
5. Thinking and doing are two very different things.
Success never comes to look for you while you wait around thinking about it.
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do. Knowledge is basically useless without action. Good things don’t come to those who wait; they come to those who work on meaningful goals. Ask yourself what’s really important and then have the courage to build your life around your answer. And remember, if you wait until you feel 100% ready to begin, you’ll likely be waiting the rest of your life.
Today on our trek, we re-discovered the first 5 of 10 truths that will make for a successful life. Tomorrow we will finish this trail as we uncover the remaining 5 truths. So, encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along tomorrow for another day of 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!