Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 464 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

It's Your Choice

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 464 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 let us explore the trailed called, “It’s Your Choice.”

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. The unpacking and cleaning continues indoors while wood cutting and leaf pickup goes on outside. The weekends do give us an opportunity to focus on non-client work. It is always great to be able to work outdoors and enjoy the cool fall weather. The choice to invest the time doing what we enjoy and what will help us to grow personally is important.

What you do in life is based on the small choices you make every day. How your life turns out is a direct result of these choices. There are consequences to every choice that you make, that will affect all of your tomorrows, both positively and negatively. As we break camp and head out on our trek for today keep these words in your mind…

It’s Your Choice

We’re all confronted with countless choices each day. Some have minimal consequences, such as whether to have our ice cream in a cup or cone while other decisions can be life changing.  While some of these choices may impact our lives today, other choices may not affect us for years to come.

We are a product of the choices we make. Each decision helps to define who we are and how we’re different from everyone else.

Unfortunately, some people prefer to make their decisions in a haphazard fashion. They “shoot from the hip” or flip a coin rather than reviewing their options in a deliberate manner. Others make decisions in a vacuum without taking the time to collect the facts or consider the consequences. Still, others simply follow the crowd to avoid taking personal responsibility, or they base their decisions solely on the advice of another person, rather than on an idea’s true merits. Lastly, some individuals are more interested in checking an item off their to-do list than in making a sound choice. In this case, expediency trumps effectiveness.

Of course, not every decision requires in-depth analysis. Some should be practically “automatic,” like stepping on the brake pedal when the traffic ahead begins to slow down. Another choice is to apply the lessons learned from your past experiences to help make the decision process more automatic and less traumatic. Poor choices and good choices do have their consequences, and being fully engaged in the decision process is a good practice in itself.

· It’s Your Choice: Values Matter

Personal values should serve as your guiding star in making good choices. Values are like a pilot’s flight plan…without them, you’re flying blind. Unfortunately, some people don’t take the time to define them, so by default, their values may not be ethical. Take a moment and ponder the following questions. Each question is designed as a continuum, so your response doesn’t have to be limited to one extreme, or another.

Remember, there’s no right or wrong answer to each question. The answer that you provide should be the right one for YOU.

Work/Life Integration: Do you put more effort into building your career and becoming wealthy or investing time with friends and family?

Self-Satisfaction: Do you invest more time trying to please yourself or to satisfy others?

Willpower: Do you try to eliminate bad habits or simply give in?

Risk: Are you risk averse or would you gamble to win big?