Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 103 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life is Like Hiking

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 103 of our Trek. Yesterday we used the simile of how life is like a river. As rivers start with a single drop of water and eventually help to fill the oceans so our lives go through similar cycles. I hope that it was a helpful comparison that allowed you to gain wisdom. Today we are exploring the 10 lessons of How Life is Like Hiking Through the World.

In celebration of our 100th day of our Wisdom-Trek, please check out Wisdom-Trek.com, and sign up for our drawing for a free Wisdom-Trek t-shirt that will take place on October 5th.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. I am continuing to work on finishing the woodwork in our dining room and made additional progress this morning. It certainly will look nice once it is finished, but I probably will not reach my goal of completing the room before we leave for Charlotte on Sunday. If not, I will continue when we come back to The Big House at the end of this month.

As we start out on our Trek, let us think about some of the small blessings that we experience when hiking and allow them to remind us to be thankful for the small blessings that we experience each day on our trek of life. As we hike through the woods today, visualize and enjoy feeling the soft earth on the path, the crackling of dry twigs under your feet, having your mind blown by the perfect sunset, and feeling the humbling exhaustion of a day’s hike as you finally approach a long-awaited viewpoint.

Hiking on a trail is a powerful, active force that teaches important life lessons. The trails, like life, have an undeniable ability to drive home simple but often overlooked truths as you trek into wild forests, persevere through mountains and rocky coastal paths, and venture out of your comfort zone.

Here are 10 truths I have come across for how life is like hiking through the world.

1. Slowing Down Is Important

As you travel through life, you need to experience what it means to follow a path for the love of the journey and not in a mad rush to get to the end, or you will miss out on life’s simple pleasures. Hiking teaches you to slow down, observe the world around you and to listen to your body. When your feet can no longer trudge the path ahead, you learn the power of slowing down and gain a new appreciation by realizing that not every path will take you where you intended.

2. Perseverance Pays

Life is like a long hiking trail in various ways. Far too often, we give up on our hopes and dreams, overcome by dejection or disappointment. On the trail, you learn that as long as you put one foot in front of the other, you’re getting somewhere. “Keep moving forward” is a simple lesson, and when it’s applied to other aspects of life, it can produce major results. That crazy dream of yours that no one else believes in can come true if you just persevere and keep walking toward it.

3. Nature Is Powerful and Teaches You Humility

If you’re suffering from an inflated ego or far too much vanity in your life, take a long hike. God’s creation is a raw force, unfettered and unforgiving, that can take your breath away with the magnificence of a landscape or bring you to your knees with the ruthlessness of a freak storm. In the mountains, where the weather changes without warning and the vistas of river valleys get more rewarding the higher you get, a hike is a thorough lesson in humility and respect for those things that our outside of your control.

4. Solitude Can Be Inspiring