Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 493 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
It is a Matter of Choice – Attitude
Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 493 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.
Currently we are in a 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 called 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 episode originally airs, we will be in Mesa, Arizona, working with our partners on our construction projects there. We have some crucial decisions to make as we plan for 2017.
There is a needed balance between planning, analyzing logically and realistically, and remaining optimistic. Attitude plays a big factor in the choices and decisions that we make. While our attitude needs to be positive, we also must be realistic.
One crucial element that we often overlook is that how we feel about ourselves is a matter of choice. How we feel about ourselves is strongly influenced by who we invest time with. These are the areas we will explore today as we continue our trek on the Attitude Trail.
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 second trail of this extended trek as we cover…
The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Attitude Part 5
As a reminder, our overall extended trek will cover these five trails:
Philosophy
Attitude
Activity
Results
Lifestyle
How You Feel about Yourself Is a Matter of Choice
How you see yourself is a matter of choice, not circumstances, and the major determining factor in how you feel about yourself lies in your personal philosophy.
If you were to ask some people why they feel the way they do about certain issues, you would probably discover that the reason why they feel the way they do is because they really don’t know a great deal about those issues. Lacking all of the information, they form conclusions based on the bits and pieces that have come their way. With their limited knowledge, they often make poor decisions about how things are. If they knew better, they would think better. In other words, they would reach better conclusions simply by increasing their knowledge.
Here is another part of the equation: If they knew better, they would feel better. Why would they feel better? Because they would begin to make better decisions, and from those better decisions they would start making better choices, which would produce better results.
Your attitude is shaped by decisions and choices you have made based on the knowledge you have acquired. Imagine the artist who wants to paint a masterpiece, but who has only a few colors on his palette. He may have the desire to create a masterpiece, but he lacks the variety of colors, which the painting of a true masterpiece requires. This is what happens to human beings with limited knowledge. They lack the “mental colors” with which to create a complete picture.
If there is one area in the knowledge department where you cannot afford to be lacking, it is knowledge and awareness of our own uniqueness. You do not feel better about yourself for the simple reason that you do not really know yourself. For if you truly knew yourself – your strengths, your abilities, your resources, your depth of feeling, your sense of humor, your unique accomplishments – then you would never again doubt your ability to create a better future.
Each of us is unique. There is no one else in the world quite like you. You are the only one who can do the special things you do. What you do is special. You may not win great awards or public acclaim for your deeds, but you make the world a better place because of the deeds you do. You make your family stronger, your offices more efficient, and your community more prosperous because you are who you are.
Changing how you feel about yourself begins with developing a new philosophy about the value of each human being, yourself included! Most of us are so busy living our lives that we never pause long enough to appreciate all that we do in a given day. You have no appreciation of yourself simply because you have no awareness of yourself. Self-knowledge is a critical part of the life puzzle. As you learn more about who you are, you begin to make better choices and decisions for yourself and about yourself. If you have joined us on our Wisdom-Trek previously, you know I personally gain significant knowledge from the book of Proverbs and in chapter 1:3-5 it instructs us on gaining wisdom and knowledge.
3 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
4 These proverbs will give insight to the simple,
knowledge and discernment to the young.
5 Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance.
As I have already suggested, as your knowledge improves so do your choices, as your choices improve, so do your results, and as your results improve, so does your attitude. Another key area that you need to recognize is…
How You Feel Is Influenced By Your Associations
The people with whom you choose to associate are a major source of what you know and how you feel. There are three major questions that we will answer next week, which those in search of a better life must constantly ask themselves:
1. Who am I around?
2. What affect are they having?
3. Is that acceptable?
We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we continue to hike on the Trail of Attitude. Today we learned that how we feel about ourselves is a matter of choice, and those choices are largely influenced by our knowledge in many areas of life.
Next Philosophy Friday we will explore how we feel is strongly influenced by that we associate with. Join us next Friday for additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.
Our next trek will be Motivation Monday when we explore more trails of how to get and stay motivated to bring value to your world. Encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.
That will finish our trek for today. As you enjoy these daily doses 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 when you meet with them and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek so each trek will be downloaded to you 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:
- 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 on Monday!