Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 185 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

7 Stepping Stones to Success

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 185 of our Trek, and yesterday we stopped by the 12 Mile-Markers for building your character, which resulted in 6 character traits that you possess as a result. Today we will explore how success is achieved by giving to others. 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 The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. In addition to a full workload, today we were able to have Elizabeth and four of our grandchildren over. Elizabeth and Paula made split pea and ham soup with the ham that was left over from Thanksgiving. Homemade split pea soup is delicious.

On today’s Trek, we are hiking the trail of success. I think that everyone desires to be successful, but what many people do not grasp is that the trail to success is paved by helping others obtain what they desire from us.  One of my virtual mentors, Zig Ziglar, said it best in his famous quote, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

So let’s get started on our hike of the…

7 Stepping Stones to Success

A major part of the process of achieving success and living the kind of life that you dream of is to give. Many people think that to get what you want you have to take it. There is a universal truth, though, that the true trail to get what you want is to give. When you give, you get. What you plant, you will harvest. The Bible mentions this correlation numerous times such as in Galatians 6:7, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

If this is true, then what is it we must give? I'll show you the way…

Give others your honesty. The world we live in has a simple rule that most follow: Lie when you have to. Unfortunately, this may make some people wealthy, but it make us humans poor. To achieve success is to become wealthy not only in money but in character. To be successful, truly successful, is to be able to attain your goals and keep your character at the same time

How about you? Are you honest in all things? The problem with little lies is they become big ones. Lies spin out of control. You get caught in one lie and you lie to get out of it, etc. In all things and at all times, give others your honesty.

Give others your respect. Most of the time we give people respect based on what they have done or what they have accomplished. We gauge whether or not they are "worthy" of it based on what we know of what they have achieved or who they know or are related to.

But I believe we should have a higher standard. We respect people not for what they have done or for who they are related to or for what they can do for us. Instead, we respect people for simply being themselves.

Give others your vulnerability. We are taught to "be strong." And yes, we should be strong. But we have also embraced something that I think keeps us from having the kind of life that we long for. It is an idea that keeps us from experiencing the kind of relationships that would bring deep meaning to us. It is the idea of vulnerability.

"But Guthrie, make yourself vulnerable, and people will step all over you!" It is true that this will happen. But I have also seen that most people will be drawn to you. They will help you. They will open up to you. You see, we are all broken people inside. We all have secrets. Yet everyone plays the poser.