Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 230 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (1&2)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 230 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Just like our trek through life, we are making slow but solid progress on the concept of a life plan and how goals/objectives are integrated into our overall concept. Today we are continuing our exploration of how to establish goals that are the stepping stones within our life plan. We are referring to this as our WESPER framework which stands for Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, Planning, Execution, and Review.  I am assembling this series on Your Life Plan Blueprint into a downloadable course for your use. I will let you know when it is complete.

If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com. 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. By the time this episode is initially released we should be back at The Big House and will be staying there for a little over two weeks. I will be speaking again at Putnam Church on Sunday and plan on teaching a lesson from day 104 of our Wisdom-Trek on Life is Life Brewing Coffee. There is nothing like a great cup of warm coffee on a cold winter day.  There is much to do with both our business and with the renovations while in Marietta. It is my hope that I will be able to make good progress on the woodwork and the floors in the two front rooms and downstairs foyer/hallway.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint^©

On our trek yesterday, I encouraged you to write down one major objective or goal that you desire to complete by the end of 2022 (7 years from now) in each of the 7 areas of your life.

Those areas are:

1. Spiritual
2. Family
3. Physical/Health
4. Mind/Intellect
5. Personal/Social
6. Financial
7. Work/Career

I realize it may be difficult to predict that far in advance, but we need to initially think long term or begin with the end in mind. From there, we will backfill our yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals or tasks that we must complete to reach our 7-year objective. Have you written down your objectives yet?

Within our life and life planning, we will be making a series of minor course corrections as we go along, which is understandable. Even knowing that, we still need to plan. Long-term planning is important. Proverbs 24:27 instructs us, “Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.”  This means to plan for the long-term outcome. While the crops are growing, then you will have time to build your house.  It will not work in the opposite. Otherwise, you would have a shelter but no food.

As we embark on establishing a 7-year goal for each of the 7 areas of life, there are 10 fundamental principles that we need to set for these goals and objectives. These principles are what will guide you to set the right goals so that you can pursue them.

Setting Your Goals

1. Ensure congruency with your life purpose.

Your goals need to be defined in the context of your life purpose which becomes your plan. Everything in your life flows from your purpose. Your purpose stems from your values and is the guiding direction for everything in your life. It sets the stage for what you do every day.

For example, my primary purpose is “To live a rich and satisfying life each day by impacting my world positively, which will allow me to live a legacy in a manner that brings glory to God.” My overall goal, which is taken from Proverbs 1, is “to learn wisdom and discipline, to understand the insights of the wise, to live a disciplined and successful life, and to always do what is right, just, and fair.” My goal is a subset of my purpose to achieve my highest potential. Both are congruent with each other.

You may ask, “So where do specific goals like losing weight or eating healthy fit in this bigger purpose?” For me, living a healthy lifestyle, which includes specific goals for maintaining my weight, exercising for an hour each day, eating healthy foods, and getting seven hours of sleep each night, will allow me to have the energy, mental clarity, and a long life to fulfill my purpose and life plan.

If your goals and your purpose are not congruent with one another, it either means…

• Your goals are not in line with what you really want to do. If this is the case, determine what your underlying motivations are for listing them.
• You have a limited definition or an unclear understanding of your purpose. If this is the case, try to expand the definition of your purpose. 

So a question for today…“Do you know what your purpose is?” Each of us has a God-given purpose in life that no one else can fill.  If you are unsure of what your purpose is the same three steps that we explored during the past two days for gaining wisdom apply to determining your purpose.   First, seek wisdom, and then use the same principles to determine your purpose:

1. Through the study of the Bible and other information that will direct you
2. Through your network of family, friends, and mentors
3. Through asking God directly to  find your purpose via prayer and meditation

Your purpose sets the right context and background for your goal setting. By identifying your purpose, you then have absolute clarity on your direction and focus in life. As an analogy, the last thing you want to do is to spend your whole life trying to grow oranges when you actually wanted apples.

2. Ensure your purpose represents your Wheel of Life.

Let’s use another analogy to help us grasp this concept.  Your Wheel of Life is your purpose or life plan.  You will have a primary life goal that is congruent with your purpose.  Now let’s drill down a bit further. Your Wheel of Life is divided into 7 sections or areas.  In each of these 7 sections, you want to establish a long-term, 7-year goal. The 7 long-term goals when connected together should match to your primary life goal or plan. As much as feasible, these 7 goals should be in balance because you desire to have your life in balance.

By first focusing on the overall Wheel of Life and its associated goals, then when you start setting your yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals, it will be much easier to keep them in balance. You won’t always balance perfectly on a daily basis, but over the course of the next 7 years, your life plan will be in balance as we trek one day at a time.

We are just now forming the WESPER framework and are now investing a few days on the 10 fundamental principles of establishing effective goals within your life plan that fulfill your purpose. The framework integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will continue to dig into the precious nuggets of wisdom as we establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of your life based on the 6 step WESPER 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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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!