Wisdom-Trek ©

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 244 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Final Summary #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 244 of our Trek. Today and tomorrow we will finish up our 24th and 25th day of our Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Since our life planning series has covered many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We are finishing the week strong by accomplishing a significant amount within all areas of life. Life at times is challenging but also enjoyable as long as we maintain a good mindset.

The contractors have also made good progress in the upstairs hall and front stairwell. Hopefully their part will be completed before we return in the middle of February. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to focus most of Saturday on the woodwork in the library. We will then head back to Charlotte on Sunday morning.

As we finish up our Life Plan trek today and tomorrow with a recap, this is day twenty-four of the hike which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

As I started planning for the recap of Your Life Plan Blueprint, I found it more challenging than I initially thought to encapsulate the blueprint concept into a short overview. There is just so much valuable content. So, let’s move on.

Begin With the End in Mind

Using a statement that was popularized by Steven Covey in his 7-Habits book, this is the context that we begin with Your Life Plan Blueprint. While the plan is simple and easy to implement, it is radically different than traditional goal setting programs. The concepts are not necessarily new, but the structure of Your Life Plan Blueprint changes the paradigm of most goal setting systems. The Wisdom-Trek system begins by looking at life holistically and from a long-term perspective. This foundational mindset will ensure that all objectives and goals set are working in harmony with each other and supporting your life’s purpose.

1. Determine Your Life Purpose

Determining your life purpose is the first step in creating a dynamic and effective life plan. Your purpose could also be called your mission in life, which is a word that is used in most goal setting systems. I prefer the word “purpose” because it reflects more of a mindset and the reason for being, which is much more holistic. A mission reflects a finite task that is to be accomplished. Your purpose for life continues until God transforms your body to be with Him.

2. Determine Your Life Objective (Your Legacy)

Once your life purpose has been established, next determine your overall objective for your life. Your life objective could also be called your vision for life, which again is a more commonly used term in most goal setting systems. I prefer the word “objective” because it creates a mindset of something that you will definitely complete in a practical and holistic manner. A vision reflects more of a dream or something that you hope for and, therefore, is not as tangible.

3. Understand Your Wheel of Life

While your life must be viewed holistically to effectively set objectives and goals, your life is separated into 7 distinct areas,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 243 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Goal Review #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 243 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we started on the 6th phase of the WESPER framework which is review. While it is the last phase of the WESPER process, review is a continual process throughout Your Life Plan Blueprint. As with all steps of WESPER, the review process is extremely important. We will invest today focusing on the final aspects of the review process within the WESPER framework. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. After spending Thursday on-site with one of our Marietta clients, we are finishing up today with a full agenda. Paula continues to refine and tweak the course workbook for Your Life Plan Blueprint, and hopefully, our initial version will be available soon.

Saturday’s plans are to focus most of the day on the woodwork in the library, so if nothing interrupts the schedule, we should be able to make some good progress. We will then head back to Charlotte on Sunday.

We are continuing on our trek today as we hike the trail for day twenty-three of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

2. Review Process

Our trek today we will complete the review process that we started yesterday.

· Key Points to Consider When Reviewing Goals

As you review the results of your actions throughout the process, ask yourself the following questions:

How are you progressing against your targets? Are you exceeding your expectations? Are you barely meeting your expectations? Are you falling behind?

What is helping you in your goal? Why is it working? How can you focus on this to further increase your results? Are there any opportunities to improve on what has been working?

What is not helping you reach your goal? Why is it not working? Can you do anything about it to turn it around? Should you abandon the task instead? What can you do differently in the future? How can you incorporate the lessons into your plan to maximize your chances of success?

When you meet/exceed your targets, give yourself a reward to congratulate yourself. Consider whether you want to increase your targets at this point. After all, there is nothing better than to keep the momentum going while it’s high!

If you are not meeting your daily and weekly activity tasks and goals, it is likely that something was not set properly in your strategy and/or plan. Reassess and revise them accordingly, then proceed to execute your revised plan.

3. Continuous Evaluation

Considering that Your Life Plan Blueprint is a long-term plan, continuous evaluation is built into the plan. That being said, you do have opportunities and checkpoints to monitor your achievements with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks, goals, and objectives.

· Goal Achieved

As you achieve your short-term checkpoints, congratulations! Occasionally take some special time to celebrate your accomplishments.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 242 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Goal Review #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 242 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint.  Yesterday we explored the 5th step or phase of our WESPER framework which is execution. Today we will start on the 6th phase which is review. While it is the last phase of the process, review is a continual process throughout Your Life Plan Blueprint. As with all steps of WESPER, the review process is extremely important. We will spend the next two days focusing on the review process within the WESPER framework. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We are making good progress this week on both the house and our client work. Our plans are to head back to Charlotte on Sunday, so I hope to invest Saturday on the woodwork in the library. The woodwork is in great shape but needs an old coat of varnish removed so I can seal it with a new coat of polyurethane. Reviewing the results is always rewarding.

Reviewing the results is the focus today of our trek as we hike the trail for day twenty-two of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

1. Importance of Review

Review serves two important objectives:

Accountability

Feedback

Accountability: Review strengthens accountability to yourself. When you review, you make yourself answerable to your goals. You take ownership of and responsibility for your actions. If you don’t review, how will you know how you are reaching your goal? This is especially important if your progress is not immediately observable, such as how much weight you are losing or how much savings you generated in a month. You can always operate under the assumption that you are on track to meet your goal, but you will never know for sure until you review. Within Your Life Plan Blueprint your 7-year objectives are broken down into small daily and weekly tasks that are easy to track and hold yourself accountable.

Feedback: Review is where you get feedback on everything you have strategized, planned, and executed. Reviewing lets you understand what’s working, what’s not working, and how you can improve. Without review, you will have no clue on whether your actions are leading you toward or away from your goals. You will be stabbing in the dark, blindly repeating the same steps, wondering why you do not seem to be getting closer to your goal. Measuring your progress against your daily and weekly tasks will provide a continual feedback loop.

2. Review Process

Reviewing occurs from your daily tasks through your 7-year objectives. The frequency of review corresponds to the time frame of the task, goal, and objective.

Within many goal setting systems, the review process does not provide adequate accountability and feedback to make the necessary adjustments throughout the process.

Review should be an ongoing process that happens daily with your daily tasks. It serves as your constant feedback loop on the effectiveness of your acti...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 241 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Goal Execution

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 241 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we finished the 4th step or phase of our WESPER framework which is planning. We focused our exploration on how best to schedule your tasks to ensure they are consistent with your strategy. Today we have reached our 5th step or phase of our WESPER framework which is execution. Although all steps are very crucial, if we do excellent on the first 4 steps, but fail to execute then we have accomplished nothing. Execution is paramount for success. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. The contractors are making good progress on the upstairs hallways and front stairs. It will look great once the project is completed. On the business side of life, we have a heavy workload this week, so it is requiring our full focus to accomplish everything. I do enjoy working, so the key is to keep it all balanced properly between the various tasks that need to be completed.

Let’s focus on the execution of our trek today as we hike the trail for day twenty-one of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

So far on this trek, we have traversed through the first four steps of the WESPER framework.  Those four steps are Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, and Planning. Today we will focus on execution and then move on to review. All six steps of WESPER are important, and no step should be missed or marginalized. If we have one step that is absolutely imperative, it is execution.  Execution is where your boots hit the trail, or as Thomas Edison put it, “Vision without execution is hallucination.” It could also be said that “Execution is all that the world sees.”

Execution is the 5th  step of the WESPER framework. This is the step where your objectives and goals really get brought to life in physical reality. Let’s see how the WESPER framework ties together into this execution.

When you were seeking wisdom you searched for it:

Through the study of the Bible

Through your network of family, friends, and mentors

By asking God directly for wisdom through prayer and meditation

Wisdom provides the seeds of hope that are being planted in your life to help you determine what your life purpose is and how you can fulfill that purpose. This is the foundation on which to build Your Life Plan Blueprint.

When you were establishing your 7-year objectives and goals in each of the 7 areas of your life, you began the creation of Your Life Plan Blueprint. You started to see the virtual image in your mind and on paper of what you would accomplish it. You projected forward to what you would be and would accomplish in 7 years.

As you formed your strategy, you developed the building blocks of key activities and principles you need to build your plan on. This is like taking the blueprints and determining the list of materials and processes needed to complete building the structure,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 240 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Planning Goals #3

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 240 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we remained on our trail covering the 4th step or phase of our WESPER framework which is planning. We examined fitting your daily and weekly tasks into your schedule using a daily calendar, identifying the best times each day to work on your tasks, and learning to invest your time wisely.

Today we will focus our exploration on how best to schedule your tasks to ensure they are consistent with your strategy. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, please leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Our renovation contractors were back on Monday, and they started to drywall the ceiling and skim coat the walls. It will add to the dust and clean up but will be well worth it when finished. I am also making slow but steady progress on the woodwork in the library. On the outside, temperatures are moderating a bit this week, but it will take some time for the current snowfall to melt completely.

Let’s head out on the trail for day twenty of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

We started developing a plan for your long-term objective goals and short-term activity goals two days ago. These goals need to be based on your pre-planned strategy for proper execution and completion of those goals. You must allocate the time required to ensure success, which leads us to the trail that we will continue to explore today.

2. Fit Your Plan Into Your Schedule

c. Schedule your weekly and daily activity goals/tasks.

After you have identified the best available times to work on your goals, schedule your goal tasks:

Schedule your key activities of success. Start filling your available time slots with your key activities of success first. These are the most important tasks in your goal setting and need to be placed first. As part of your long-term life plan, it is important to complete all activities, if possible, but focus on the tasks that will have the most impact first.

Schedule your remaining tasks. After giving priority to your key activities of success, fill in the other tasks. These are the remaining tasks that need to be done in the course of your goal pursuit. They are not necessarily all that critical in the bigger picture of your goals but need to be done anyway as part of the activity goals and your life plan.

Ensure you spend disproportionate time and energy on your key activities of success. Ideally, the majority of your time is allocated to your key activities of success. Your other tasks should be disproportionately skewed toward the former. The ratio will be dependent on the context of the activity goal to your overall life plan, but the general principle is to spend as much time and focus on your key activities of success as possible.

As you work on your schedule, here are some tips that can help you build a more robust schedule.

Batch/Schedule similar-tasks together.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 239 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Planning Goals #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 239 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we began the 4th step or phase of our WESPER framework, which is planning. We explored the five steps to success as you are planning your goals. These steps are easy to follow and repeatable across all 7 areas of your life. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy-to-use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Due to the snow event from Friday and Saturday, it was advised not to be on the roads unless necessary. We took advantage of the opportunity to relax this morning and listen to a podcast message from our church in Charlotte. After that, we spent the remainder of the day working on several client projects that needed to be completed and also made plane reservations for a trip in February to visit our construction project in Mesa, Arizona. It is coming along well, but there are always a lot of details and moving pieces to keep track of.

Let’s head on the trail for day twenty of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process, which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

Developing a plan for our long-term objective goals and short-term activity goals is crucial. These goals need to be based on your pre-planned strategy for proper execution and completion of those goals. You must allocate the time required to ensure success. This leads us to the trail that we need to explore today which is…

2. Fit Your Plan into Your Schedule

Once you set your 7-year objective goals and detailed activity goals in each of the 7 areas of your life, your weekly and daily activity task should be clear. Now you need to fit them into your schedule and integrate your plan into your daily life. Be proactive in allocating the time required. This will create certainty that the whole plan will be acted upon.

a. Get a daily calendar.

You will need a daily calendar and task list, which lists the hours as you schedule in your tasks. Depending on your preferences, you might like to use a web-based calendar, a calendar in your email client, a manually created calendar, or even a hard copy calendar.

I use Gmail and Google Calendar. It is web-based, so it can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or smartphone, making it extremely convenient. I find it extremely helpful in keeping me organized. Keep in mind that whatever you use, it is just a tool. Use what works best for you.

b. Identify the best times to work on your daily activity goals.

You must be clear on when you can work on your objective and goals. There are two factors that determine this. The first is your time. Determine when you will make available time for your goal-specific tasks. The second is your energy level. As you are allocating for those tasks, choose a time when you will be in a proper frame of mind to work on your goals.

Be realistic and do not run into the situation where you overcommit yourself with your tasks that are not part of Your Life Plan Blueprint. Learn to say “No!

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 238 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Planning Goals #1

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 238 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we completed our trail of how to effectively set strategies for your objective and activity goals using the 10 guidelines. Today we are moving onto the 4th phase of our WESPER framework which is planning.

As a review, the Wisdom-Trek life planning system is built on the six-step WESPER framework. Those steps are Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, Planning, Execution and Review. Since our life planning series does cover many days, if you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

 

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We did end up with about 10” of snow on Friday and Saturday, and it is beautiful. The temperatures were not too cold, so it was a perfect winter snow.

 

On Saturday, we were able to remove the ceiling tiles and wallpaper from the upstairs hallway and front stairs, so that area is ready for our renovation contractors to begin on Monday. Hopefully, they will be able to finish up their part in the next couple of weeks.

Let’s head on the trail for day nineteen of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

Now that you understand why strategy is such an important part of goal setting which creates your life plan, you are now ready to move into the planning stage of Your Life Plan Blueprint. Planning is primarily the organization of your long-term objective goals broken down into your short-term activity goals.

As A. A. Milne wrote, “Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”

Proverbs 21:5

Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.

Planning is the fourth step of our WESPER framework.  In the strategy step, you identify the overall principles to effectively complete your objectives and goals. In planning, you use the strategy principles to develop a fully structured plan, complete with all the specific details. In this step and the next, which is execution, you will find that your organization skills play a very important role. Even if you do not consider yourself an organized person, organizational skills can be developed and effectively implemented by following the Wisdom-Trek WESPER framework.

 

The objective of developing a goal plan within your overall life plan is to:

Organize your tasks

Allocate your resources accordingly

This will allow you to achieve your specified activity goals within your desired time frame. It will give you a clear understanding on how you invest your time and energy. If your plan is well developed, it will keep you organized in the pursuit of your objective and activity goals. If your plan is not well organized or if it is messy and haphazard, you will find your tasks get thrown into disarray and you lose focus when you are pursuing your goal.

As you proceed with planning, below are the key guidelines to use.

1. Develop Your Plan, Five Steps to Success

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 237 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Strategy Guidelines 6-10

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 237 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Two days ago we started our exploration of the third phase of the WESPER framework which is strategy. Yesterday we examined the first 5 guidelines for implementing an effective strategy, and today we will discover the remaining 5 guidelines. As you are creating your life plan that fulfills your life purpose, you must establish goals as part of your plan. Setting a goal does nothing by itself. Strategy is the core of your blueprint which enables you to do planning which leads to execution and review.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected].  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. It started snowing about 2 pm Friday afternoon, and by the time it is finished on Saturday we should have between 6-9 inches. This was not the blizzard predicted for the eastern seaboard, but it is a very nice amount.

We met with our renovation contractors this week, and after how nice the two front rooms and downstairs hallway/foyer looked, we have decided to move forward with renovations on the upstairs hallway. My plans are to remove the ceiling tiles and wallpaper on Saturday so they can continue this next week. Here is a before picture.

Due to time and budget limitations, this will probably be the last area we renovate for a few months. Of course, I still have a lot of work to do refinishing the massive amount of woodwork and hardwood floors, which will take me well into springtime.

Let’s head on the trail for day eighteen of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

Two days ago we explored three points about strategy which were:

What is strategy?

Strategy is underutilized.

Develop your strategy.

Yesterday we examined the first 5 guidelines for creating an effective strategy which were:

1. Understand your goals thoroughly.

2. Pre-plan for obstacles so you can address them.

3. Identify the best route, but plan for alternatives.

4. Identify key activities or best actions for success.

5. Remain faithful and focused on your daily activity goals.

On our trail today, we will discover the remaining 5 guidelines for creating a successful strategy for any goal or objective that you set.

6. Do something different and something extra.

Even if you have tried some of your objectives and goals previously without success, using the Wisdom-Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint will allow you to approach the goals from a new perspective and mindset. This is required if you expect to be successful in creating your life plan. As the saying goes, “If nothing changes, then nothing changes.” Your Life Plan Blueprint is much more than a goal setting system. It is a life changing system. If you want to get different results, you need to do something different. By adopting the Wisdom-Trek system with the WESPER framework, you are taking action to do something different and something extra. You are proactive on setting a strategy and taking responsibility for your lif...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 236 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Strategy Guidelines 1-5

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 236 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we started our exploration of the third phase of the WESPER framework which is strategy.  As you are creating your life plan that fulfills your life purpose, you must establish goals as part of your plan. But, setting a goal does nothing by itself. Strategy is the core of your blueprint, which enables you to do planning which leads to execution and review.

I am incorporating all of these daily concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete so that you can download it. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected]. 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. It looks like we will be receiving a few inches of snow in southeastern Ohio on Friday night into Saturday - not nearly as much as the northeast but a decent amount. Even with all of the sophisticated radar and weather equipment available, you can never predict with certainty, so we will see. It is nice that on our virtual hike of Wisdom-Trek we can remain indoors during bad weather and visualize much warmer days.

Let’s head on the trail for day seventeen of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

Yesterday we explored three points about strategy which were:

What is strategy?

Strategy is underutilized.

Develop your strategy.

On our trail today and tomorrow, we will discover the 10 guidelines for creating a successful strategy for any goal or objective that you set.

1. Understand your goals thoroughly.

Start with each of your 7-year objectives, and then I will ask you the following questions. What will you need to have completed by the end of year 1 to meet that objective?  Then drill down. What do you need to be completed at the end of month 1 to stay on schedule?  What will you need to complete by the end of week 1?  What tasks do you need to accomplish each day for that week?  Do you have all the information needed for the goal to create this strategy?  What is the gap that exists between you and completing the 1st week of daily tasks? You must understand the overall objective including the information and knowledge needed to reach your short-term activity goals.

2. Pre-plan for obstacles so you can address them.

Visualize that you are now pursuing your goal. What obstacles do you anticipate standing in your way of success? Write all these obstacles down and rank them in order of magnitude. The bigger the obstacle is in diverting you from the goal, the higher the rank.

Pre-plan for how you will handle each obstacle so if they do crop up they won’t derail you from completing your tasks or goals. Don’t leave life to chance, use the Boy Scout motto of “Always be prepared.”  This concept should be applied to all areas of life. When you do this, you will have a set of ready solutions at your disposal when you face these obstacles later on. Instead of getting distracted in the middle of your goal pursuit to troubleshoot those barriers, you can easily brush them aside with the solutions you have developed.

3. Identify the best route, but plan for alternatives.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 235 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint - Goal Strategy

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 235 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Yesterday we explored the four checkpoints needed after establishing goals based on the 10 key principles. It is now time to head out on a new trail which is the third phase of the WESPER framework which is strategy.

As you are creating your life plan that fulfills your life purpose, you must establish goals as part of your plan. An important concept that you must understand is that establishing goals does not complete them. Strategy is the core of your blueprint which enables you to do planning which leads to execution and review.

I am incorporating all of these concepts along with worksheets into an easy to use workbook, and I will let you know when it is complete. If you have any questions, or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at [email protected]. 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. Temperatures remain quite cold, and we are having some light snow today. It is not predicted that we get any significant amount, but it is really pretty. I am thankful that I can work indoors and enjoy the view from our 2nd-floor office with its large windows.

I am making slow but steady process on the woodwork in the library. Since our work schedule is quite heavy during the day, I am using my hour exercise time first thing in the morning to work on it. There is a lot of movement while I work, so I am still able to get in a workout while completing the work.

Let’s head on the trail for day sixteen of our Wisdom-Trek Life Plan process which we refer to as…

  Your Life Plan Blueprint©

I mentioned earlier that our next step in the WESPER framework is creating a strategy for your goals. It is the catalyst for planning, executing, and reviewing those goals. Let me ask this question…

1. What is strategy?

Strategy refers to a game plan that enables effective pursuit of a specific goal or result. It is a set of underlying principles which determines your action plan toward achieving your end goal or objective. WESPER itself is the framework or underlying strategy for successful goal achievement. The “S” in WESPER refers to the specific strategies that pertain to your goals.

Strategy is a core part of Your Life Plan Blueprint for a rich and satisfying life. Think of strategy as the compass, trail map, or your GPS that shows you the best trail to lead you to your goal or plateau.

In war, generals gather together to devise strategies to secure an ensuing victory. In the world of business, companies invest millions in research to develop strategies to win in the marketplace. In stock markets, the most successful traders spend years studying market trends of the past, identifying strategies and applying them.  If you were to trek up Mt. Everest, you would need a detailed strategy to ensure success. It is really not much different when it comes to any of your goal achievement.

Strategy is the one step that most people completely miss in the process of life planning and goal achievement, which then leads to their failure. Remember that for every goal, there is always a certain strategy or blueprint underlying it that guarantees its success. If you are able to identify and create the proper strategy,