Wisdom-Trek ©

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 74 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life Is Not a Spectator Sport

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 74 of our Trek, and yesterday we finished a two day series on how we can overcome fear when we choose to focus on love. Today we want to look at why "Life Is Not a Spectator Sport."

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a very busy day of client work today, which included a great meeting with a couple from Florida about being involved in a potential technology project. This is a project that I wrote a business plan for nearly three years ago, but the timing was not right then. It is still in the very early stages, so we will be seeking God’s wisdom and guidance on moving forward. Tonight we have the privilege of watching our grandson Kiprono while his parents are involved in other activities, so that is always a blessing for Granny and Gramps.

While our life seems to be very full most days, I have to admit there are some days when I wish it were a bit slower. I can’t help but feel like a slower pace would allow me to check out and not have to deal with what appears to be competing demands. I remind myself, though, that most of these activities are of my own choosing, and that if I had to do it all over again, I would probably make the same choices. But, that does not stop the desire to step back and become a spectator in life instead of being so actively involved. However, I know "Life Is Not a Spectator Sport" and to fulfill my destiny in life I must be actively involved. This applies to you and those around you as well. For some people, this will be on a large, grand scale impacting thousands, but for others, it will be on a small intimate scale, impacting a few. Both are equally important.

Although I am very much an optimist, I am also very much a realist. I understand fully that it’s not always easy to get through this thing we call life. If we allow it, day after day we are bombarded with constant negative images. We are told we are too fat, too lazy, too dumb, too old, too ugly, too far behind the rest of the world, and so on. And sadly, there are people in this world who derive pleasure from keeping others down.

For those who allow it, the world can be a scary, cold, and unwelcoming place. The world can be a place where we are afraid to take on challenges, try new things, express who we really are, or act like ourselves. As a result, it is important, imperative even, that each of us takes an active role in determining how our life is going to play out, and specifically, what role we are going to play in it – a starring role, a supporting role, or that of a spectator. The first two are equally admirable; however, the third role is one that requires us to have a change of mindset.

Growing up, one of the highlights of our weeks that were otherwise filled with work and school was our Sunday nights when we would all sit around the TV, eat popcorn, and watch The Wonderful World of Disney. We rarely missed it.

That memory got me thinking of another Disney story The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its main character Quasimodo . We learn that he views life from the cathedral bell tower high above the village square too afraid to be a participant in the festivities and everyday happenings going on below and all around him.

His conscious decision to be a “spectator,” due to his various insecurities (most resulting from the abusive behavior of the reprehensible Judge Frollo) and a major deformity. That decision means he is missing out on even the most trivial joys that may be found “out there.”

That is until Laverne,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 73 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Choose Love Over Fear (Part 2)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 73 of our Trek, and yesterday we reviewed the first 6 reasons why we should choose the trail of love over the trail of fear. Today we will continue with reasons 7-12 discussing how we can overcome fear when we choose to focus on love.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a steady day of work, and we have completed a variety of tasks. It just seems like each day races by, and before I know it, I am out of time, with only a fraction of my list of tasks completed.   I do tend to be very task oriented so that I stay on path of what needs accomplished each day. Certainly learning the nuances of producing a daily podcast has added a bit to my schedule, but my hope is that you enjoy coming along our Trek each day and that you are learning as much as I am. Thank you again for joining me today.

As we set out on our Trek for today, we are once again faced with a choice – "Do we take the trail of fear or the trail of love?" Yesterday, we looked at 6 reasons for choosing love, so let’s finish the remaining six today.

12 Reasons Why You Should Always Choose the Trail of Love Over Fear

Each day of life brings with it new trails of opportunities and challenges.  Some trails are steep and rugged. Other times the trails are flat and smooth. While still other times, we are on a downhill slope. Each type of trail has its advantages and disadvantages. We could choose to be fearful, and never take the risks in life that will help us to reach the summit where we can see for miles, but that wouldn't get us very far. Instead, let’s ponder the 6 remaining reasons why we should always choose love over fear in order to create a living legacy that will light the path for others to follow.

So, let’s get started.

7. Recognize that fear is an emotion.

Fear is to be expected when something huge is taking place, but love will allow you to push through those obstacles. Fear is a natural human emotion, and you should understand that everyone becomes afraid at different times in life. You’re normal and healthy if you encounter fear from time to time. But moving forward under the visage of love shows you that fear only creates obstacles through our own choosing. You have the capacity to look past those obstacles when harnessing love.

Famous basketball player Michael Jordan shares his own thoughts on overcoming obstacles, “If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

8. Take a chance by doing what you love.

In the words of Jim Carrey, “You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance at doing what you love.”

Jim Carrey delivers an excellent point about the battle between love and fear. Fear can keep you constrained within the belief that many things are “impossible.” Love is the key that unlocks the cage, showing you that it’s okay to mess up even when you’re pursuing what you love.  I know that I mess up plenty, but we must continue on.  Zig Ziglar puts it this way, "Failure is an event, not a person. Yesterday ended last night and today is a brand new day."

9. Love frees you to act with confidence and courage.

Love will be the driving force that activates courage and confidence during your journey. These two characteristics are not experienced or delivered when acting through fear.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 72 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Choose Love Over Fear (Part 1)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 72 of our Trek, and yesterday we learned that we can overcome negativity by filling our minds and life with positive habits.  Today we will learn that we can overcome fear when we choose to focus on love.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina.  We are back in the swing of our routine this week with a significant amount of client work on our plates, as well as meeting with a potential new client and watching our grandson Kip one day. Even when life is busy and hectic, we try to make sure that life is also rich and satisfying.

As we set out on our Trek for today, we are faced with a choice. We have to consider, "Do we take the trail of fear or the trail of love?"

12 Reasons Why You Should Always Choose the Trail of Love Over Fear

Life is like an unpredictable whirlwind of activities, people, thoughts, and feelings. The trails of life are rough for everyone at some point, and it can be all too tempting to want to stay at camp in our tents and give into the lies of fear. We imagine the great obstacles ahead of us and think, “I’m never going to make it. I will stumble and fall.”

 

We are each given the chance to choose between two trails at various milestones and seasons in life – the trails of fear or love. The way to live a rich and satisfying life of freedom is through love, and today and tomorrow we will explore the 12 reasons why you should always choose love over fear.

1. Love is a natural pathway and provides motivation to travel towards something you can gain.

If you’re excited about an opportunity ahead of you, it shows you recognize there’s something to gain from it. This opportunity to gain – whether it’s a new job, a valuable business partner, a new place to call home, or a romantic relationship – will be fully realized when you are acting through love. Embrace the sacrifices necessary to achieve your goal, and forget that fear was ever there.

Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach, reminds us that in order to be successful, we must embrace the kind of hard work that we love. He says, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”

 

2. If you truly love something or someone, you will continue working towards success.

Despite the appearance that some people have it all together, life’s trek is not easy for anyone. The truth is anyone who has established long-lasting success in life had to continually fight for it until it arrived. The exact same will be true of your story. Nothing that lasts comes easily, and nothing that’s easy will last. Allow your love for your quest to keep you fueled as you encounter hardships and rigorous trails.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once remarked about the need to collectively continue working towards success, saying, “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

3. Love requires sacrifice, and if you are willing to sacrifice for what you love, you will grow exponentially.

When we find something we love in life, it requires sacrifice. The magnificent summits, people, and trails that we traverse in life are almost always the result of intentional sacrifice. We need to give something up in order to get something greater. Henry Ford once said, “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 71 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

10 Signposts for Establishing Positive Habits

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 71 of our Trek, and yesterday we learned that affirmations must always be connected to action before any progress is made on our trek of life. On today’s trail, we will focus on overcoming negativity by filling our minds and life with positive habits.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Jarvis family gathering at The Big House this weekend was a real blessing and a great time with family.  Paula and I are very fortunate and blessed to have close family ties on both sides of our family. After cleaning up Sunday morning, we headed back south to Home2 in Indian Trail, North Carolina for the next couple of weeks. As we split our time between the two locations, we find ourselves enjoying the different aspects of both locations. Each has its special benefits and nuances.

As we think about traveling, let’s break camp and move out on our Trek today. We will study the 10 signposts along the trail that will help us to infuse positive habits in our lives. These habits will benefit us when we face the difficult and rough areas of life’s trails. As these habits are woven into the fabric of our lives, they will help us navigate the rough parts of the trail that we encounter with less difficulty and stress.

 

10 Signposts for Establishing Positive Habits

It's tough to argue against the power of positive habits that come through consistent positive thinking. A multitude of studies, data, and anecdotal evidence support the notion that optimists experience less stress, possess stronger immune systems, and have overall better health than their Debby Downer counterparts. But it's not always easy to look on the bright side. In our overbooked and over-connected lives, getting caught up in a cycle of worry, anxiety, and negative thoughts is a norm in many of our lives.

One of the many wonderful things about positive habits is that anyone can acquire positivity with consistent and persistent practice of these habit traits, and a good sense of humor always helps.

As a start, we need to practice not taking ourselves too serious. Most other people in our lives don’t either. It is certainly worthwhile to visit the 10 signposts for establishing positive habits each day. Take control over your thinking, your habits, and your own happiness.

1. Practice Gratitude

Remembering all the good things that you have makes it a whole lot easier not to focus on what you don't have. Be thankful and appreciate the abundance in your life rather than dwelling on what feels lacking. Practicing gratitude is rule #1 for shifting your thinking from negative to positive.

Ephesians 5:20, "And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

2.   Surround Yourself with Supportive People

Do all that you can to minimize your interaction with anyone who is a "Negative Nancy" or a "Negative Ned." Creating an inner circle filled with support and encouragement is the next step. Having people around who see the best in you will help you see the best in yourself.  Jesus had his own inner circle, even among the small group of the 12 apostles.  Many times Jesus took Peter, James and John alone with him.  Two of the most memorable times were at His transfiguration in Matthew 17:1 and during His hours of anguish before his trial and crucifixion in Matthew 26:37.

3.   Ditch the Drama

Separate from your toxic friends and associates. Say goodbye to those friends that always have drama in their lives and suck you into their manufactured iss...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 70 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Affirmation without Discipline

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 70 of our Trek, and now that we have gotten the pebbles out of our boots from yesterday, we are once again ready to make progress on our Trek.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We are having a blessed time at the Jarvis family gathering. Celebrating life with family is really enjoyable as we are able to get together and share stories and good times together.  Sharing faith and family ties is great, and I am blessed to be part of the Jarvis family also.

As we head out on our Trek today, we are facing the steepest trail yet. It is going to be a grueling experience. You try to remain positive as you face this trail and draw on your past affirmation training, saying to yourself, "I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!" and similar incantations to focus your thoughts towards success.

As you prepare to leave camp these affirmations are meant to create a mindset of accomplishment. Think about this for a moment, though. If you just chanted the affirmations but never left camp, how far up the trail would you get? The problem is when you have an affirmation followed by no action, you are only deluding yourself. You must resolve to do something and then follow it up with action.

Jim Rohn said it best in this quote, "Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion."  He is saying you cannot just talk your way to success; you need to discipline yourself with action to make it happen.

Since we have Jim Rohn's quote above, let’s add another of his statements along the same vein, "Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment." Once you have your affirmations for success and discipline yourself to take action, it is then you have just made the connection between dreaming and reality.

Discipline takes you from wishing for success to achieving it. When you stay on track for a long period of time you can achieve any goal you set for yourself.

1. Action vs. Self Delusion – What’s the Difference?

Knowledge fueled by emotion equals action. Action is the ingredient that ensures results. The principle is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The key is there must be action taken.  Only action can cause reaction. Further, only positive action can cause positive reaction.

Action – The whole world loves to watch those who make things happen, and it rewards them for causing waves of productive enterprise.

I stress this because today I see many people who are really sold on affirmations, but don’t necessarily have the discipline to go along with the affirmation.

Let’s look at affirmations as our faith, and action as good deeds, which reminds me of the discourse Jesus’s half-brother James mentioned in his letter in James 2:18, "Now someone may argue, 'Some people have faith; others have good deeds.' But I say, 'How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.'”

How true!

I have nothing against affirmations as a tool to create action. Repeated to reinforce a disciplined plan, affirmations can help create wonderful results.

But there is also a very thin line between faith and folly. You see, affirmations without action can be the beginnings of self-delusion. And, for your well-being there is little worse than self-delusion.

The man who dreams of wealth and yet walks daily toward certain financial disaster and the woman who wishes for happiness and yet thinks thoughts and comm...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 69 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Remove the Pebble from Your Boot

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 69 of our Trek, and yesterday we looked at the 6 essential components for a rich and satisfying life and realized that it is the simple and small things of life that make a difference. Speaking of small things, today we will look at what we should do when we get a pebble in our hiking boots.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. When this podcast originally airs, we will have about 30 family members joining us for the weekend. It is always a great time of fellowship and fun. Although The Big House is always in some state of renovation, we did get most of the rooms back into a livable order for the weekend, as we will be having all six of the bedrooms occupied. Everything will fall into place as it should.

As we now shift our focus to our Trek today, we want to learn why we need to take care of the small details when they occur to prevent them from turning into major details.  When we hike the rough mountainous trail of life, it is very important that we have the proper boots or shoes on for the type of trek we are taking. We need to make sure they fit correctly and are laced up snugly.

Boots and other types of shoes have always played a role in history and culture. Everyone knows the story of Cinderella and the glass slipper or the tale of Puss and Boots. Remember Dorothy's magic ruby shoes in the Wizard of Oz?

Language is littered with references to shoes. We wait for the other shoe to drop, or try to experience life in another person's shoes. One has big shoes to fill when he takes on a new challenge. There is the phrase, "If the shoe fits, wear it."

Shoe design can indicate a person's wealth and social position, as reflected in the quality of material or the complexity of the workmanship used to make shoes. Shoes can show membership in a particular group, like cowboy boots or motorcycle boots. High heels make a social statement, as do a sensible pair of Oxfords. Celebrities are known for the number of pairs they own.  For me, my favorite pair of shoes are my Birkenstock Super Noppy Sandals.  They have small nubs on them which massage my feet all day.  Since I use a standing desk at all times, I find myself on my feet for 10-12 hours each day, and these sandals are the only shoe that allows me to do so.   My mom got me hooked on these in my early adult life, after she had purchased a pair for herself and I tried them out.

What one does with shoes also makes a statement. Mine is for comfort, but in Middle Eastern counties, for example, throwing shoes at someone is an insult.

Wearing the correct shoes or boots for the situation or occasion is important.  This is especially true when you are hiking through rugged terrain over many miles. Even when you do have the correct boots and make the proper preparations, you can still get small pebbles in your hiking boots. At first it may not be noticeable and not present an issues, but let us look how the small, seemingly insignificant issues in life can create a major problem.

The following parable should help you to understand. A man was hiking on a steep mountain the other day when a tiny pebble about the size of a grape nut kicked up and landed in the heel of his boot. At first the pebble was barely noticeable, so he kept going. Then it began to be more and more noticeable and started hurting badly until eventually the pain subsided and his heel was numb. When he got home from the hike, his heel was bleeding, and it took a while for his foot to recover.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 68 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

6 Essentials for a Rich and Satisfying Life

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 68 of our Trek, and yesterday we set up the framework to establish habits for "Creating Positive Results in our Lives." We move on down the trail a bit today and look for the 6 essential elements to live the good life.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We did find out today that our contractor was delayed returning to town, so our final trim work won’t be completed before our Jarvis family gathering. While we are a bit disappointed, we realize it is trivial compared to the time we can spend together with around 30 family members on Paula’s side of the family. We love hosting family activities at the Big House and are fortunate to be the managers of the family home. We have also been enjoying watching the mama deer and her twin fawns grazing in our back yard the past few days.  The babies are growing, and it is great to take the time to enjoy watching them.

It is now time to break camp today, armed with the knowledge of overcoming self-limiting beliefs that allows us to create results in our lives each day.  We not only want to live life, but we also want to live it fully. Jesus put it this way in John 10:10, "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give you a rich and satisfying life."

I have adapted this journal from one of my mentors, Jim Rohn, and want to share 6 essential elements that will help you to live a rich and satisfying life. You might think of them as the values that make up the foundation of a life well lived — and, no surprise, money isn’t one of them.

The ultimate expression of life is not a paycheck. The ultimate expression of life is not a thing or outward trapping. The ultimate expression of life is not even a million dollar bank account or a large and fancy home. The ultimate expression of life is living a rich and satisfying life.

Here's what we must ask constantly, "What, for me, would be a good life?" And you have to keep going over and over the list — a list including areas such as spirituality, economics, health, relationships and recreation.

So, what would constitute a rich and satisfying life?

The Six Essentials for a Rich and Satisfying Life

1. Productivity

You won't be happy if you don't produce. The game of life is not rest. Yes, we must rest, but only long enough to gather strength to get back to productivity.

What's the reason for the seasons and the seeds, the soil and the sunshine, the rain and the miracle of life? It's to see what you can do with it — to try your hand to see what you can do.

2. Good Friends

Friendship is probably the greatest support system in the world, so don't deny yourself the time to develop it. Nothing can match it. It's extraordinary in its benefit.

Friends are those wonderful people who know all about you and still like you. A real friend is someone that would go to any length of pain and discomfort to help you out. A friend will laugh with you and cry with you.

And we've all got casual friends, who if we called them, they would say, "Hey, if you get back, call me, and we'll have a party."

Proverbs 18:24 puts it this way, "There are 'friends' who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother."

You’ve got to have both real friends and casual friends in life. Enjoy both for what they are.

3. Your Culture or Heritage

Your heritage and culture with its language, music, ceremonies, traditions,

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 67 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Creating Results in Life

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 67 of our Trek, and now that we have learned how to overcome our self-limiting beliefs during the last two days, we are shifting our focus to "Creating Results in Life."

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. We have plenty to accomplish this week before heading back to Charlotte on Sunday. Just so that you realize that we are just simple ordinary folks dealing with the same issues as you do, this week we have had to spray and knock down a large hornets nest under the eve in the front of our house, discovered the ice maker in a fairly new refrigerator is not making ice, and realized the lawn mower is not functioning properly which prevented me from mowing this week.

I am sure all will be taken care of, but if I had my choice, I would prefer not having to deal with any of these issues. But, that is the stuff that life is made of, and I am very thankful that the issues will be resolved. In the middle of this we are finalizing our plans for the family gathering this weekend and are looking forward to it. Please feel free to share with us through email or in the comments on the daily journals, so that we can help each other along life’s trails.

Over the past two days, we have conquered the trails of self-limiting beliefs in our lives. Now that we recognize and are in the process of overcoming those limitations, we will now head up the trail with vigor and explore the possibility of creating great results in life.  This does not imply that it will be easy, but we are not going to allow any limitations to hold us back.

Creating Results in Life

There are some basic principles that you will need to adopt to achieve success and happiness in life. Additionally, there are some fundamental processes that will shape your reality, and you have the power to use and control those processes to create happiness, success, and peace, at least on a daily basis. There is a chart in today’s journal that shows the flow that I will discuss on Day 67. Here is how I believe your reality and the results you get in life are shaped.

 In life, we receive endless information input, or what we sense with our bodies. These inputs have massive influence on our thoughts and on how we perceive reality. This perception of reality shapes our attitudes, or how we feel about and relate to reality. Our attitudes have a huge influence on our actions, or what we do in the world, which ultimately drive the results and shape our reality. This reality then becomes input which perpetuates the cycle. (This cycle is adapted from Joel Gardner, Ph.D.)

Using The Cycle for Success and Happiness 

We have the power to take advantage of this cycle and use it to achieve goals of happiness, success, and peace. Each of these elements – inputs, thoughts, attitudes, and actions – can be used to our advantage.

Inputs – We can choose to place information that is positive and true into our minds. It should be positive and provide motivation to act in a proactive manner. It should be true or based on what is real and useful.Here are a few tips.

Do:

Read motivational, empowering books by authors such as Stephen Covey, Zig Ziglar, and Jim Rohn.

Read sacred literature – the Bible.

Surround yourself with positive people who have similar goals and ambitions in life.

Listen to music and spoken words that are positive and uplifting.

Don't:

Spend time with people who are negative or who complain excessively.

Watch mindless television or waste time excessively on the internet.

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 66 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Train Your Fleas

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 66 of our Trek, and we will spend another day considering the obstacles and self-limiting beliefs that we face each day. Many times these obstacles are in our mind, and we need to learn to overcome them so we don’t continue to bang our heads on the false barriers that we impose on our lives. Let us not be like fleas that are so easily trained to limit themselves. We are certainly smarter than fleas, so let us break free from self-imposed limitations and jump to new heights in our lives.

 

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. The preparations continue for our family gathering this weekend as we clean inside and out. Our contractor who is helping with some renovations for The Big House is also in this week, finishing up some trim work in a couple of the rooms.

If we were to hike on rough trails with chains and shackles on, it would make the hike nearly impossible. At best, the progress that we would make would be very slow, and the danger of harm would be great. In the same way, if we allow the chains and shackles of our past to hold us back in our trek of life, any progress that we do make will be significantly limited.

As we start on our trek today, we make some good progress as we have removed the chains and shackles from yesterday. We come around a sharp curve in the trail to discover that a boulder rolled into the path last night and has completely blocked the trail before us. Since the path is so narrow at this point, we wonder how we will continue. The boulder is too large to climb over, and we can’t go around without falling off the cliff. Is it time to give up?  We know that this path is now blocked "forever," so we turn back.

For most people in life, once we run into these types of roadblocks, we never try again. We become fleas with the limiting belief that once we run into a block we can never get through it, so we adjust our expectations to the lower level. Let’s take a look at how this type of thinking can really stifle our potential in life.

Yesterday we looked at training the largest of animals, the elephant. Today we are looking at training one of the smallest of insects, the flea.

Your beliefs about yourself have a profound influence on your success in learning and your success in life. Your beliefs are the foundation upon which you build many of your thought patterns, your attitudes, and your actions. Unfortunately, these beliefs, particularly self-beliefs can be limiting in nature.

The Scenario

We can learn about this principle (surprisingly) from a jar full of fleas. If you fill a jar with fleas and place the lid on the jar, the fleas will jump and hit their heads on the lid. But leave them for a few days, and the fleas will adapt to their environment. To avoid the pain of hitting their heads, eventually they will not jump as high as the lid. A very interesting phenomenon with the fleas is that once they have learned to jump only so high, even their offspring that are born after the lid is removed will not jump any higher than their parents.

The Lesson

So, what do we learn from these fleas? Just as the fleas began with the capacity to jump higher than the lid of the jar, we as human beings have the capacity to accomplish great things. However, through your experiences and your own reasoning, you sometimes come to believe that your ability to succeed is limited. As with the fleas, many times our children and grandchildren will not excel further than we do.

Paula and I have had the opportunity to work with many busin...

Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 65 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Unchain Your Elephant

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 65 of our Trek, and today we are going to look at overcoming the obstacles on the trails of life. Many times obstacles are self-imposed or caused by self-limiting beliefs. We need to learn how to un-chain the elephants in our lives.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. This week we are preparing to have Paula’s three siblings, their spouses, a few nieces and nephews, and four of our five children in for a gathering on Friday night and Saturday. It will be a great time together, and we feel very fortunate that we can host many family gatherings at 'The Big House."  There is a lot to do, both inside and out, before Friday, so it should keep us plenty busy.

It is time to break camp and begin on our Trek. We are setting out on a different trail today, and as we gaze up the trail, we see that it is very steep with many rocks, trees, and other obstructions in our way. Additionally, the trail is narrow with a solid rock face on one side and steep cliffs on the other.

As you look at the trail before you, you think to yourself, "I have never hiked on such a dangerous trail before. I don’t think I can do it." Your thoughts continue, "After all, I have been told many times before that I am clumsy, and that I never am able to complete tasks."  You convince yourself that maybe it would be better that you stay at camp today, or better yet, you should  just quit all together.

This is the type of thinking that limits so many people from achieving all that they could with their lives. If you are susceptible to this type of thinking, you will never to be able to reach your full potential to become all that God has destined for you. In our analogy today, we want to look at what causes these self-limiting beliefs and this "learned-helplessness" and determine how you can break free from the chains and shackles that bind you. So, let me share some interesting nuggets to help you today. You may have heard some of this information before, but it is always good to review and apply it anew to your life. This is the story of "Unchaining Your Elephant."

Do you know what they do to keep a circus or zoo elephant from running away? They tie a metal chain onto a collar around the mighty elephant’s leg and tie it to a small wooden peg that’s hammered into the ground. The 10-foot tall, 11,000 pound hulk could easily snap the chain, uproot the wooden peg, and escape to freedom. But, it does not do that. In fact, it does not even try. The world’s most powerful animal, which is nimble enough to pick up a blade of grass with its trunk, can also uproot a tree as easily as you and I can break a toothpick, and yet they remain tied down by a small peg and a flimsy chain. How come?

It’s because when the elephant was a baby, its trainers used exactly the same methods. A chain was tied around its leg and the other end of the chain was tied to a metal stake on the ground. The chain and peg were strong enough for the baby elephant. When it tried to break away, the metal chain would pull it back. Sometimes, tempted by the world it could see in the distance, the elephant would pull harder. But, the chain would cut into the skin on the elephant’s leg, making it bleed, and creating a wound that would hurt the baby elephant even more. Soon, the baby elephant realized it was futile trying to escape. It stopped trying!

And now, when the big circus elephant is tied by a chain around its leg, it remembers the pain it felt as a baby. And, it does not try to break away. So, even though it’s just a chain and a little woo...