Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 225 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – Goals #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 225 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. On this Trek, we are slowly mapping out the framework that will assist you in setting goals and creating a life plan for yourself. A simple but concise life plan is sufficient to achieve significant results in your life. Just like our trek of life, we will take the life planning trail one step at a time. As always, if you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, either leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com.

Yesterday, I introduced the concept of the Wisdom-Trek Wheel of Life that has our lives segmented into 7 areas, which we will explore as part of our life planning process. I will be utilizing our daily journals for this trek to create a PDF workbook which you can use to create your life plan. Once the workbook is completed, I will let you know how you can obtain a copy of it.

Since this trek on life planning will take several days, 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 Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After a busy weekend celebrating Christmas with our children and grandchildren, we are embarking on another busy work week. We are still involved with our own life planning for 2016, so this week will be occupied with some of those details.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint

As we continue to consider some of the preliminary concepts of setting successful goals that make up the life planning process, I thought it would be helpful to share some of my own experiences.

My Experience With My Goal Pursuits

I have set and pursued many different goals and goal programs throughout my life. While I have utilized some different types of goal setting processes, which I will discuss tomorrow, the processes really did not include all the information that was needed to create a blueprint for a life plan. They focused on action and habit changes without getting to the root of the need for changing the way you think, which is the only way to ensure lasting change.

I do tend to be disciplined and driven, so I was able to achieve many of my goals that I set out to complete. I was able to lose about 30 pounds from my heaviest weight. I do exercise extensively at least five days a week, and I generally eat healthy to maintain good physical condition. I also spend time each day in meditation, prayer, the study of the Bible, and positive business training.

All of these milestones that I have been able to achieve have been driven by a change in the way I thought about life and the legacy that I wanted to live each day. This is the reason why I have taken some of the best concepts of goal setting, life planning, and changing the way you think and have created the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint.

I fully acknowledge that much of the information that I will be sharing during our daily Wisdom-Trek is not new, or necessarily original, but as Issac Newton is quoted as saying, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

I have curated information from my mentors that have gone before me, added my own life experiences, and integrated a good dose of wisdom from the Scriptures to design the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint.

All of us should use the good advice of others when making plans as Proverbs 15:22 tells us, “Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.”

Also in Proverbs 20:18, “Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice.”

Although life planning may not be the same as going to war, in some ways, it is a great analogy. We are at war with a life lived in mediocrity and complacency, but we can have the victory of a rich and satisfying life where we create and live a legacy each day and make a positive impact on our world. We need to conquer the limiting beliefs that hold us back with the proper strategy and plans.

As a lifelong entrepreneur, I realized that there are certain strategies for companies that are successful long-term. The same basic strategic principles can be applied to all seven areas of our wheel of life mentioned yesterday to achieve the life that we desire.

With this framework, I then designed a blueprint to follow the same strategy. As a Christ follower, as I consider setting goals, which are an integral part of my life plan, the first step for me is to seek wisdom through prayer and meditation on God’s Word to ensure that my plans and desires will bring glory to God and not myself. If you are not a person of faith, I would still advise that you meditate and seek wisdom from others about the goals that you would like to set before moving forward. The next step is to establish a vision. From there a strategy needs to be implemented to achieve the goal.  After that, making specific plans is crucial. Once plans are in place, then it requires execution of those plans. The final step is to review the entire process to ensure that the end result is the same as the original objective.

After creating this six-step process for one goal, I realized as long as I use the same key principles and follow the same formula, I will see similar success for every goal as part of an overall life planning process.

Suddenly, goal achievement and subsequent life planning became much easier and more surmountable. The uncertainty that used to surround the successes of my goal pursuits withered away in the face of this process. As with our trek of life, there will be obstacles and detours that we cannot predict with certainty, but this, at least, provides a solid blueprint to follow. While time and energy still need to be invested, the process of goal setting as part of an overall life plan has turned into more of a predictable science than abstract art. I knew as long as I followed the same formula in all my goals, I would definitely face a much greater probability of success.

Eventually, I distilled down the key elements of what I was doing so that I could share it with others so that anyone, regardless of their position in life, would have the same success in goal setting and life planning. The output is what I refer to as my 6-step Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint, for which I use the acronym WESPER.

This planning process and acronym remind me of when Elijah was seeking God’s guidance in 1 Kings [19:12]. After many mighty cataclysmic events, God spoke to Elijah in the sound of a gentle whisper.

The Wisdom-Trek life planning process is not a quick fix process, but instead, it is a life-changing process. This process dovetails into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will explore an overview of WESPER the 6 step blueprint for life plan 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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4. Share Wisdom-Trek 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 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!