Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 528 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

There Are No Shortcuts to Success – Activity

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 528 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 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 will be adapting it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. When this day originally airs, I should be wrapping up my week in Arizona. As I have the opportunity, I will share some of the highlights of our progress on the project.

On major construction projects, there are no shortcuts to success, and inevitably there will be issues and cost overruns that are not anticipated. With each issue that comes up we have a choice to do it quick or do it right. This ties into the topic of our trek today on the Trail of Activity, as we will explore why “The Danger in Seeking Shortcuts to Success” and why “Change Begins With Choice” as we choose our response to every issue and situation.

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 continue on the Third trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Activity Part 4

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

Philosophy

Attitude

Activity

Results

Lifestyle

1. The Danger in Seeking Shortcuts to Success

Some of your friends would have you believe that positive affirmation is more important than activity. Rather than doing something constructive to change your life they would have you repeating various slogans to yourself that affirm that all is well. You may have heard this one and told that you should repeat it. “Every day and in every way, I am getting better and better.” While I agree that self-talk is very important, talk without action is as useless as faith without works.

You must remember that discipline is a requirement for progress, and that affirmations without discipline is the beginning of delusion. There is nothing wrong with affirmations provided you remember two important rules. First, you should never allow an affirmation to replace action. Feeling better is no substitute for doing better. Second, whatever you affirm must be the truth.

If the truth of your circumstances is that you are broke, then the best affirmation would be to say, “I am broke.”  That would start the thinking process. Spoken with conviction, these words would drive any reasonably prudent person from ease into action.

If your life is spinning out of control, then you must confront the harsh reality of the truth, and then discipline yourself to express that truth rather than disguising it in false and misleading pronouncements. By doing this, it will be the beginning of positive change that will inevitably result in action. 

Reality is always the best beginning. Within reality is the possibility of your own personal miracle. The power of faith starts with reality. If you can bring yourself to state the truth about yourself and your circumstances, then the truth will set you free. Jesus stated in John 8:32 when referring to faith, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Once you finally understand and accept the truth, the promise of the future is then freed from the shackles of deception, which held it in bondage.

Sooner or later you must stop blaming your government, your pay schedule, your banks, your taxes, your neighbors, your boss, your company policy, high prices, and your co-workers. You must stop blaming your past, your parents, the traffic or the weather for your failure to capture your share of the joy that comes from progress. You must come to understand how you really got to be where and how you are. It is the subtleties of your repeated accumulated errors that are responsible. It is then the embarrassment of that final truth and your willingness to admit it that will start the process of going from pennies to fortune.

2. Change Begins With Choice

Any day you choose, you can discipline yourself to change it all. Any day you choose, you can open the book that will open your mind to new knowledge. Any day you choose, you can start a new activity. Any day you choose, you can start the process of life change. You can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

You can also choose to do nothing. You can pretend rather than perform. If the idea of having to change yourself makes you uncomfortable, you can remain as you are. You can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are yours to make. While you curse the effect, you continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, “The fault…is not in the stars, but in ourselves.”

You created your circumstances by your past choices. You have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today. If you are in search of the good life, you do not need more answers or more time to think things over to reach better conclusions. You need the truth. You need the whole truth. You need nothing but the truth.

You cannot allow your errors in judgment, repeated every day, to lead you down the wrong path. You must keep coming back to those basics that make the biggest difference in how your life works out. Activity is one of those important basics that you cannot afford to neglect. As Proverbs 16:3 tells us, “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.”

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek, as we continue our hike on the Trail of Activity. Today we learned of the danger of seeking shortcuts to success and know there are none. We also learned that if we want our lives to be different, then ultimately it is our choice.

Next Philosophy Friday we will continue on the Trail of Activity and explore that we need more than just activity. We need intelligent activity that is planned. Join us next Friday for additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.

On our next trek on Monday, we will continue our series called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack, where we will equip you with the tools you need 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.

That will finish our trek for today. If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com.

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!