Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 578 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Two Choices We Face – Results

Hello, my friend, and welcome to Wisdom-Trek! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your Guide to Wisdom and Creating a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast.

This is Day 578 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

Currently, we are on an extended multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors, such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle.  I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I have adapted it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. It has been a rainy, but a mild week of spring. We are enjoying the warmer temperatures, the flowers that are in bloom, and our pair of hawks that are waiting patiently for their new chicks to arrive. The leaves on the smaller trees are just starting to show some green while the large mature maples and oaks will soon follow. With the passing of each new day, we see signs of new life that are expected in the season of spring.

As we continue on our extended trek today, we will conclude our 4^th trail, which is The Trail of Results. We would consider it odd if during the spring no flowers bloomed and no trees brought forth their leaves. These are expected results of spring. Yet with many people, we do not see the results in their lives that we would expect and they are capable of producing.

This will be our focus for today. If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and conclude the fourth trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Results Part 8

As a reminder, our overall extended trek covers these five trails:

1. Philosophy

2. Attitude

3. Activity

4. Results

5. Lifestyle

1. How Far Should We Reach?

It seems that every life form on this planet strives toward its maximum potential…except human beings.

A tree does not grow to half its potential size and then say, “I guess that will do.” A tree will drive its roots as deep as possible. It will soak up as much nourishment as it can, stretch as high and as wide as nature will allow, and then look down as if to remind us of how much each of us could become if we would only do all that we can.

Why is it that human beings, who are bearers if God’s image, and surely the most intelligent life form on earth, do not strive to achieve their maximum potential? Why is it that we allow ourselves to stop half way? Why are we not constantly striving to become all that we can be? The reason is simple: By God’s grace and design, we have been given the freedom of choice.

In most cases, choice is a gift. When it comes to doing all that you can with your abilities and your opportunities, choice can sometimes be more of a curse than a blessing. All too often you choose to do far less than you could do. You would rather relax under the shade of the growing tree than to emulate its struggle for greatness.

2. The Two Choices We Face

Each of us, including you, has two distinct choices to make about what you will do with your life. The first choice you can make is to be less than you have the capacity to be. To earn less. To have less. To read less and think less. To try less and discipline yourself less. These are the choices that lead to an empty life. These are the choices that, once made, lead to a life of constant apprehension instead of a life of wondrous anticipation, which is a life that is rich and satisfying.

What is the second choice? To do it all! To become all that you can possibly be. To read every book that you possibly can. To earn as much as you possibly can. To give and share as much as you possibly can. To strive and produce and accomplish as much as you possibly can. All of us have that choice.

To do or not to do. To be or not to be. To be all or to be less or to be nothing at all.

Like the tree, it would be a worthy challenge for you to stretch upward and outward to the full measure of your capabilities. Why not do all that you can, every moment that you can, the best that you can, for as long as you can?

Your ultimate life objective should be to create as much as your talent, ability, and desire will permit. To settle for doing less than you could do is to fail in this worthiest of undertakings.

Results are the best measurement of human progress. Not conversation. Not explanation. Not justification. Results!  If your results are less than your potential suggests that they should be, then you must strive to become more today than you were the day before. The greatest rewards are always reserved for those who bring great value to themselves and the world around them as a result of who and what they have become.

As a Christ follower, we all should fully utilize our God-given talents and abilities to impact our world for good.  To be the image bearers that we were created to be. 1 Peter2:9 puts it this way, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we finish our hike today on the Trail of Results. Today you learned that you must strive to reach your full potential in all that you do. You have two choices, to live to that full potential, or to fall short. The results are up to you.

Next Philosophy Friday we will begin our fifth and final trail. The Trail of Lifestyle where we will invest a few weeks exploring how our lifestyle is an integral part of our trek of life. 

So join us next Friday for these additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life. Our next trek is on Monday, and we will continue our series called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack as we equip you with the tools needed to impact the lives of others. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. You can also subscribe through iTunes or Google Play so that each day’s trek will be downloaded automatically.

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.

As we take this trek of life 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 on Monday!