Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 384 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Realization of Happiness

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 384 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday we hike the trails of life that will encourage and motivate you to live a rich and satisfying life this week. Today we are continuing our trek and will hike the trail called The Realization of Happiness.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We arrived back from the Podcast Movement 2016 conference, and I have to say it was worth every minute and dollar invested in it. I realize that the information learned and the connections made will return many times the investment.

The PMx talk I gave on Wednesday was not quite as polished as what I had desired. But, the feedback I received from the audience was good, and I learned some lessons for the next time. Although Wisdom-Trek was not chosen for the Academy of Podcasters Award, just to be nominated was such a privilege. We are honored. Andy Stanley’s Leadership Podcast won the award in the Religion and Spirituality category, which was well deserved. It is an excellent podcast.

While at the event, we were able to reconnect with existing friends and establish many new friendships. The bonds and connections made this past week will last a lifetime.

After all the renovations on The Big House, a very enjoyable and successful family reunion, and then a great Podcast Movement conference, it will be nice to relax a little and then get back into our normal routine of client work and podcasting. I do have a few projects left that I was unable to complete before the reunion but will be able to leisurely complete those over the remainder of the summer. I plan to make a video tour of The Big House renovations once I get settled back in this week. I will let you know when that is completed.

With a new week facing us now and after some intense and exciting events, it is easy to fall into a lull period where it is hard to stay motivated. We do not want to fall prey to this, so today let’s hike the trail called…

The Realization of Happiness

Clinical psychologists believe that happiness is a product of realization. You must allow yourself to go through a process to realize happiness. While we may not experience happiness all of the time, we can take steps to ensure that we are happier in all aspects of life. It all boils down to the choices that we make in the following 14 areas:

Accept the pains. You must realize and accept your situation for what it is. Sometimes people deny their hardships, thinking that if they don't face them, they will be happier. But it's the other way around. Allow yourself to go through the pains. Live life how it really is today, not what you hope it to be. Joy is an even greater sense of happiness because it defies circumstances. The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:4, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!"

Choose not to stay in pain. This is self-choice or could be called "self-empowerment." You can either be bitter about the pains and feel very powerless, or you can make a choice to do something and feel powerful enough to handle them. It's your choice to live with or without pain.

Forgive yourself and other people. Before forgiveness comes in, think about how other people hurt. Then realize that you can see yourself for who you actually are and not how others want you to be. So finding happiness is never rooted outside, but it's inside you—what you see, how you view things, what you want. Then it leads to your choice: to live your life with yourself. Learn to accept all of the apologies you never receiv...