Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 138 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

11 Life-Changing Lessons

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 138 of our Trek. Yesterday we hiked the 7 trails of creating opportunities. Today we will search for 11 mile-markers to creating a living legacy. If you have any of your own observations, comments, or questions as we explore these nuggets of wisdom, please share them in the comment section of our daily journal pages.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a pleasant week in the Charlotte area – sunny with temperatures in the mid-70s.  Although I do love the work that we are doing, during weeks like this I yearn to be outside enjoying God’s creation and communing with nature. As we continue on our Trek through life, we will have to consciously choose to take more time for short excursions each day. 

When we are hiking and in our daily lives, it is imperative that we enhance our power of observation. The more we increase our ability to observe, learn, and understand, the wiser we will become. Let’s continue on the trail of opportunity that we began yesterday and observe the 11-mile markers that will teach us some life-changing lessons. Once we have mastered these lessons, we will be able to more effectively impact the lives of others, which will allow us to create a living legacy that ripples through our world and through generations to come. I have gleaned these lessons from one of my virtual mentors, Zig Ziglar, who has impacted millions throughout the world.

The trail will be a little longer today, but it is a beautiful day for our Trek. As we meander down the trail, we are looking for the mile-markers that should be along the trail. We must use our keen sense of observation otherwise we may miss the markers, which at times are hidden in the underbrush. In the same way, many important markers in our lives become hidden with all the stuff that we buy or the activities we do, and we miss very important lessons. Finally, the first of 11 mile-markers comes into view.

Mile-Marker #1 - First, Help Others

· “You will get all you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.”

It’s possible to get ahead in life by taking advantage of other people. But it’s far better (and easier) to get ahead by understanding what people want and then helping them get it. Once you’ve gone out of your way to solve somebody’s problem, they’ll go out of their way to help you achieve your goals. The goal of every successful person is to help as many people as possible as much as possible. When you create something that’s of great value to many people, your life or business is assured of success.

Mile-Marker #2 - Success is Lived

· “Success is in the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph.”

Seeing success as an end goal is one of the biggest misconceptions of success. Success is actually an ongoing journey, more about enjoying the trail than the destination. According to Zig, the most rewarding part of becoming a successful person is the actual becoming. He said, “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

Mile Marker #3 - Keep Moving

· “Remember there is plenty of room at the top — but not enough to sit down.”

To be a difference maker in this world, you must continue moving forward until the very end. A strong work ethic is a key to success. “Get rich quick” schemes will never work. “The elevator to success is broken, but the stairs to success are always available.”  Many people have negative associations with hard work.