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Day 231 – Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (3&4)

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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 231 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (3&4)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 231 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Just like our trek through life, we are making slow but determined progress on the concept of your life plan and how goals/objectives are integrated into your overall concept. Yesterday we started down the trail of 10 key principles or stepping stones for setting goals. We were able to explore the first two goal setting principles, which were:

  1. Ensure congruency with your life purpose.
  2. Ensure your purpose represents your wheel of life.

Today we will continue with additional key principles that are very important for setting and achieving effective goals and creation of your life plan. These 10 principles are part of the establish phase of what we refer to as our WESPER framework, which stands for: Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, Planning, Execution, and Review. I am assembling the daily journals of this series on Your Life Plan Blueprint into a downloadable course/workbook for your use. 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 guthrie@venturecg.com. Your Life Plan Blueprint trek spans many days, and the concepts build on each other as we climb towards the summit. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

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The 10 Principles for Goal Setting

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta. Friday evening we drove up to Marietta and arrived around 10 pm. The renovation contractors are making good progress but still have the back stairway area to complete. There is drywall and plaster dust all over, but we will get that cleaned up this next week. The two front rooms and downstairs foyer/hallway are looking great and are ready for me to start refinishing the woodwork and floors. I also have some rewiring of the light fixtures that I need to complete before they are rehung. We are very pleased with the results.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

Let me start with a question today. Have you determined your purpose and overall goal for your life?  Have you written it down?  For an example, check back on Day 230 to review what I wrote for my life purpose and predominant goal. Remember that determining your purpose and overall goal of life is essential to create your life plan and establish your 7-year goals for each of the 7 areas of life.

Let’s move on to the next two key principles that are crucial in establishing your goals.

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3. Understand your motivations.

Have you ever had an experience where you went full throttle at pursuing a goal only to find out that once you completed it that it did not bring the satisfaction expected or the cost to you personally was too great?

In today’s mad pursuit towards wealth and success and in the endless chase to validate one’s self-worth, we buy things we do not need with money we do not have to impress people who do not care.

Is your motivation for your goals congruent with your true purpose in life?

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There are some common symptoms which emerge when you set goals that do not align with your primary purpose and plan for your life. These goals will undermine your values. This will cause you to sabotage yourself in your goal pursuit. You will either lose interest during the goal achievement process and not complete it, or you will feel empty after the goal has been achieved.

As you set your primary goal for life and then subsequent goals, be clear on your underlying motivations. Your goals should be something that you really desire, are in alignment with your purpose and values, and are not what others want you to do.

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A good practice to implement when setting goals is to ask yourself why. This practice will help you to drill down to determine your underlying motivations for the goals that you set. In most cases the first why answer is not the real reason for setting a goal. Ask yourself, why do you want this goal? Then you answer because…  Then ask why again, and keep asking “why” after each “because” until you get to the root reason for setting a goal. What will you achieve by completing this goal? Does the final answer align with your purpose?

Being clear on your underlying desires and “why” will drive you forward in the times when you face obstacles. Broad statements like “I want to be successful or earn lots of money” are not goals nor the why of a goal. Dig deep into the why of your goals, and make sure you are not pursuing goals imposed on you by others. Your goals must always align with your purpose and plans.

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Psalms 20:4 – May he grant your heart’s desires and make all your plans succeed.

4. Identify your objective goal first and then define your activity goals.

What is the difference between objective and activity goals? Objective goals are compatible with your purpose, your vision, and your life plan. Activity goals are specific end outcomes that you are more familiar with, such as to lose 10lbs or earn $10,000. Activity goals are the plateaus that you reach on the way to the summit as you scale your life plan mountain.

In our example of the Wheel of Life in the area of physical/health, your 7-year objective goal might be to be as healthy, vibrant, and energetic as you were in college. Your activity goals would be to eat fresh whole foods, exercise 60 minutes a day, lose 25 pounds, and to get proper sleep.

Objective goals are compatible with your purpose, your vision, and your life plan.

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Objective goals are the visions you want to pursue long-term in your life. Within Your Life Plan Blueprint, these would be your 7-year goals in the 7 areas of your life. Activity goals are the means to achieve that vision. Objective goals are long-term plans and usually remain the same throughout seasons of your life. Activity goals change over time based on your progress towards your objective goals.

Always define your objective goals first, followed by the activity goals needed to achieve the objective goals.

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By clearly articulating your objective goal first, you can determine which of the activity goals that you will pursue that are tied to your objectives. You develop new insights and open yourself up to many other routes toward achieving your objective goal.

As an analogy within our Wisdom-Trek scenario, your objective goal would be to reach a certain summit on life’s mountain. Your activity goals could take the form of several different trails that you could take to reach that summit. You are not locked into one path to successfully reach your objective.

Clearly differentiating between your objective and activity goals enables you to see the bigger picture. You stop getting hung up on the outcome of activity goals and instead focus on achieving your actual objective goal. You no longer have to obsess over your activity goals nor connect your success and self-worth to them. If your focus is on your life purpose and plan, then you will realize your activity goals are merely one of the many methods you can use to reach your objective. If one path is obstructed, then you choose a solution around the obstruction or choose a new trail to your summit. 

8796464_origProverbs 16:3 – Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.

As we explore the 10 principles to establish goals within our WESPER framework, you are learning how to set effective goals within your life plan that fulfill your purpose. The framework integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will continue to dig into the precious nuggets of wisdom as we establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of your life based on the 6 step WESPER framework. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

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That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

  1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
  2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
  3. On your computer or if you have an iPhone or iPad, leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
  4. Share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Day 230 – Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (1&2)

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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 230 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – 10 Principles (1&2)

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 230 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. Just like our trek through life, we are making slow but solid progress on the concept of a life plan and how goals/objectives are integrated into our overall concept. Today we are continuing our exploration of how to establish goals that are the stepping stones within our life plan. We are referring to this as our WESPER framework which stands for Wisdom, Establish, Strategy, Planning, Execution, and Review.  I am assembling this series on Your Life Plan Blueprint into a downloadable course for your use. 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 guthrie@venturecg.com. If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

 Core-Values

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. By the time this episode is initially released we should be back at The Big House and will be staying there for a little over two weeks. I will be speaking again at Putnam Church on Sunday and plan on teaching a lesson from day 104 of our Wisdom-Trek on Life is Life Brewing Coffee. There is nothing like a great cup of warm coffee on a cold winter day.  There is much to do with both our business and with the renovations while in Marietta. It is my hope that I will be able to make good progress on the woodwork and the floors in the two front rooms and downstairs foyer/hallway.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

On our trek yesterday, I encouraged you to write down one major objective or goal that you desire to complete by the end of 2022 (7 years from now) in each of the 7 areas of your life.

Those areas are:

  1. Spiritual
  2. Family
  3. Physical/Health
  4. Mind/Intellect
  5. Personal/Social
  6. Financial
  7. Work/Career

I realize it may be difficult to predict that far in advance, but we need to initially think long term or begin with the end in mind. From there, we will backfill our yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals or tasks that we must complete to reach our 7-year objective. Have you written down your objectives yet?

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Within our life and life planning, we will be making a series of minor course corrections as we go along, which is understandable. Even knowing that, we still need to plan. Long-term planning is important. Proverbs 24:27 instructs us, “Do your planning and prepare your fields before building your house.”  This means to plan for the long-term outcome. While the crops are growing, then you will have time to build your house.  It will not work in the opposite. Otherwise, you would have a shelter but no food.

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As we embark on establishing a 7-year goal for each of the 7 areas of life, there are 10 fundamental principles that we need to set for these goals and objectives. These principles are what will guide you to set the right goals so that you can pursue them.

Setting Your Goals

1. Ensure congruency with your life purpose.

Your goals need to be defined in the context of your life purpose which becomes your plan. Everything in your life flows from your purpose. Your purpose stems from your values and is the guiding direction for everything in your life. It sets the stage for what you do every day.

For example, my primary purpose is “To live a rich and satisfying life each day by impacting my world positively, which will allow me to live a legacy in a manner that brings glory to God.” My overall goal, which is taken from Proverbs 1, is “to learn wisdom and discipline, to understand the insights of the wise, to live a disciplined and successful life, and to always do what is right, just, and fair.” My goal is a subset of my purpose to achieve my highest potential. Both are congruent with each other.

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You may ask, “So where do specific goals like losing weight or eating healthy fit in this bigger purpose?” For me, living a healthy lifestyle, which includes specific goals for maintaining my weight, exercising for an hour each day, eating healthy foods, and getting seven hours of sleep each night, will allow me to have the energy, mental clarity, and a long life to fulfill my purpose and life plan.

If your goals and your purpose are not congruent with one another, it either means…

  • Your goals are not in line with what you really want to do. If this is the case, determine what your underlying motivations are for listing them.
  • You have a limited definition or an unclear understanding of your purpose. If this is the case, try to expand the definition of your purpose. 

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So a question for today…“Do you know what your purpose is?” Each of us has a God-given purpose in life that no one else can fill.  If you are unsure of what your purpose is the same three steps that we explored during the past two days for gaining wisdom apply to determining your purpose.   First, seek wisdom, and then use the same principles to determine your purpose:

  1. Through the study of the Bible and other information that will direct you
  2. Through your network of family, friends, and mentors
  3. Through asking God directly to  find your purpose via prayer and meditation

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Your purpose sets the right context and background for your goal setting. By identifying your purpose, you then have absolute clarity on your direction and focus in life. As an analogy, the last thing you want to do is to spend your whole life trying to grow oranges when you actually wanted apples.

2. Ensure your purpose represents your Wheel of Life.

Let’s use another analogy to help us grasp this concept.  Your Wheel of Life is your purpose or life plan.  You will have a primary life goal that is congruent with your purpose.  Now let’s drill down a bit further. Your Wheel of Life is divided into 7 sections or areas.  In each of these 7 sections, you want to establish a long-term, 7-year goal. The 7 long-term goals when connected together should match to your primary life goal or plan. As much as feasible, these 7 goals should be in balance because you desire to have your life in balance.

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By first focusing on the overall Wheel of Life and its associated goals, then when you start setting your yearly, monthly, weekly and daily goals, it will be much easier to keep them in balance. You won’t always balance perfectly on a daily basis, but over the course of the next 7 years, your life plan will be in balance as we trek one day at a time.

We are just now forming the WESPER framework and are now investing a few days on the 10 fundamental principles of establishing effective goals within your life plan that fulfill your purpose. The framework integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will continue to dig into the precious nuggets of wisdom as we establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of your life based on the 6 step WESPER framework. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

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That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

  1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
  2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
  3. If you have an iPhone or iPad, leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
  4. Share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Day 229 – Your Life Plan Blueprint – 7 Areas of Life

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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 229 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – 7 Areas of Life

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 229 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. So far we have covered the purposes for a life plan, basic goal setting, and an overview of the WESPER framework. Yesterday we explored why wisdom is so important as we are creating or revising a life plan with its goals and objectives. Today we will begin to dig up nuggets of wisdom on establishing goals as part of our overall life plan. I am assembling this series on Your Life Plan Blueprint into a downloadable course for your use.  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, either leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com. If you miss any days of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

Life-Planning-Class

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We had my sister Rebecca over for dinner on Wednesday evening for our monthly get-together. It is always a blessing to spend time together as we went through some more of the old pictures from when we were kids. I found a picture of all 10 of us kids singing Silent Night on Christmas Eve as we headed to bed.

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We are wrapping up this week and will be heading to Marietta on Friday. We are interested to see if the contractors were able to complete their current project in the two front rooms and downstairs foyer/hallway. We know that we will have a lot of drywall and plaster dust to clean up, but it will be well worth it.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint©

We determined yesterday that the first and most important step, in creating or revising a life plan is wisdom. We also learned that wisdom can be gained in three ways:

  1. Through the study of the Bible and other wise materials
  2. Through your network of family, friends, and mentors
  3. Through asking God directly for wisdom via prayer and meditation

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Before you go any further with the WESPER process on how to establish goals, you need to determine what your life plan will consist of. There are various ways to do this, but based on my experience, and personality, I believe that you do not need to over complicate life. Let’s keep it simple.

If you have been on our Trek over the past ten days, I showed you the Wheel of Life on day 224 that breaks your life down into 7 major areas. The Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint is segmented into 7 areas that comprise your life.  Those areas are:

  1. Spiritual
  2. Family
  3. Physical/Health
  4. Mind/Intellect
  5. Personal/Social
  6. Financial
  7. Work/Career

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I explained earlier on this Trek that the best way to create a life plan is to begin with the end in mind. So the first step in creating or revising a life plan is to reflect on the 7 areas of your life and determine where you would like to be in each area 7 years from now.

I realize it may be difficult to predict that far in advance, but in order to determine what you will do today, this week, this month, and this year you need to have a long-term destination planned. We will backfill with detailed goals and objectives, so don’t be overly concerned about how you will reach that destination at this point. Initially, let’s just choose 1 main objective for each area.

My question for you today is “By the end of 2022 where do you want to be…”

  • Spiritually?
  • With your Family?
  • Physically and Health-wise?
  • Intellectually?
  • Socially?
  • Financially?
  • In Work or your Career?

In each of these 7 areas of life, seek wisdom through prayer/meditation, the study of wise materials such as the Bible, and through advice from trusted mentors. Dream big, but realistically.  Stretch yourself and be willing to explore outside of your comfort zone. Your results in 7 years will be in direct proportion to how big you dream and plan now. As Les Brown says, “Shoot for the moon, and if you miss you will still be among the stars.”

We have determined that the first step in the process of life planning and setting of goals must be to gain wisdom. Take some time today to write down one 7 year objective in each of the 7 areas of life. An extremely important point as you are thinking about your 7-year objectives is to make sure that your Wheel of Life remains in balance as much as possible. As an example, you do not want to set an objective to have a net worth of 10 million dollars by 2022 if it destroys your family and health in the process.

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Once you determine your seven-year objective for each of the seven areas of your life, you will then learn how to break down that large, long-term objective and determine what you need to accomplish during the current year, current month, current week, and even each day. As the age old question asks, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is one bite at a time. Think about the 7 year objective as the elephant, and we will break that down into bite-size daily tasks that can be achieved by anyone. The strength of the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint with its WESPER framework is that it really becomes a simplistic system to follow.

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Now that you have a long-range objective in mind for each of the 7 areas of your Wheel of Life, we are ready to start the second part of our WESPER framework which is establish. We will briefly touch on this step today and then continue on it tomorrow.

Establishing your goal is more than just identifying a long-range objective you want to achieve. There are numerous factors to consider to ensure that your vision is robust, accurate, and most importantly, what you really want.

Unfortunately, instead of investing quality time on this step, many people run into the mistake of being hasty. They skip past proper goal setting and jump straight into the planning and execution. Being hasty will cause a lot of backtracking and rework because you did not set the goal properly in the first place. If you do not take the proper time when establishing your objective or goal, you may end up completing an objective that you don’t even care about.

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Your time and energy are extremely precious, so it is better to invest the proper time to set the right goals. You do not want to be wasting time on goals that you never really wanted to begin with. Proverbs 21:5 tells us, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”

Establishing goals as part of your overall life plan consists of 2 parts. The first part is to set your goal based on a set of 10 key, fundamental principles. The second part is what to do with your goals after establishing them. We will invest the next 2-3 days exploring the important step of establish as part of our overall WESPER framework.

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The framework integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will dig into the precious nuggets of wisdom on how to establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of your life within the 6 step WESPER framework. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

  1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
  2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
  3. If you have an iPhone or iPad, leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
  4. Please share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Day 228 – Your Life Plan Blueprint – Wisdom Goals

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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 228 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – Wisdom Goals

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 228 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. We have already mapped out the framework that will assist you in setting goals and creating a life plan for yourself. We have also explored the purposes for an effective plan and some basic goal setting principles.

Over the past two days, our trails took us through the overall concepts of the 6 step framework to create a successful life plan through effective goal achievement. We caught a glimpse of this powerful but easy to implement framework, which is the core for Your Life Plan Blueprint. We are purposely taking it slow on this life planning trail, which will allow us to understand the map that we are following. If you have any questions, or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek, either leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com.  If you miss any of our Wisdom-Trek episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

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We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been a busy week of work and life activities with much still to do before we head back to The Big House Friday evening. Based on our 2016 calendar that we have laid out, we will be spending a considerable amount of time in Marietta with additional home renovations and preparing for the Chamberlain reunion on July 4th weekend.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint

On today’s trail, we will explore the first step of our WESPER framework which refers to wisdom. This is one element that I have never seen included in any goal setting programs that I have reviewed or used, and yet without wisdom based on Biblical principles and advice from trusted mentors, how can we begin to formulate a life plan?

Wisdom, insight, discernment, understanding, prudence, and knowledge are the very bedrock and foundation for a rich and successful life.

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With this knowledge, the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint is based on what is commonly referred to as the Book of Wisdom which is Proverbs.  The foundation for a solid life plan is found in Proverbs 1:2-7,

Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline,
to help them understand the insights of the wise.
 Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives,
to help them do what is right, just, and fair.
These proverbs will give insight to the simple,
knowledge and discernment to the young.

Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser.
Let those with understanding receive guidance
by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables,
the words of the wise and their riddles.

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

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While all wisdom ultimately stems from God’s Word, there are many friends, family members, and trusted mentors who have learned wisdom through their life trek and experiences. We should not hesitate to seek out these individuals for advice when we are working on our life plan and setting goals. Become part of an accountability group, a peer group, or a mastermind and utilize the experience and wisdom of others to assist in your trek of life. While experience is a great teacher, its lessons are hard. Vernon Law said it this way, “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.”  Voltaire understood the value of wisdom when he said, “Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?”

aff00d06b57993b4adb7f018daed1177In addition to gaining wisdom from the Bible and others, there is another way to obtain wisdom and that is by asking God for it.  James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes in his letter to 1st-century Christians that if we lack wisdom all we have to do is ask. James 1:5-8 reads, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.”

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We need at least a measure of wisdom as we embark on creating a life plan and setting goals to fulfill it. God wants us to be wise, and He can fill us with the wisdom that will allow our lives to be successful. Wisdom is more than just being able to make wise and prudent choices. It is the actual skills that we need for everyday life. This is what we do in our homes, our professions, and our businesses. There are many examples of this in the Bible, Moses wrote these instructions from God in Exodus 28:3, “Instruct all the skilled craftsmen whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. Have them make garments for Aaron that will distinguish him as a priest set apart for my service.”  

Also in 31:3, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts.”

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King Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs, was considered the wisest man of all time. He gained his wisdom by asking God for it.  od’s response to Solomon’s request is recorded in 1 Kings 3:10-13, “The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. So God replied, ‘Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame!’”

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It is so clear that the first step in the process of life planning and setting of goals must be to gain wisdom. Wisdom can be gained in three ways:

  1. Through the study of the Bible
  2. Through your network of family, friends, and mentors
  3. Through asking God directly for wisdom

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The WESPER framework process integrates into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time. Tomorrow we will begin to explore how to establish meaningful and realistic goals in the seven areas of our life within the 6 step WESPER framework. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

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That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

  1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
  2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
  3. If you have an iPhone or iPad, leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
  4. Share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!

Day 227 – Your Life Plan Blueprint – Framework #2

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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 227 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – Framework #2

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 227 of our Trek, and we are continuing on our current Trek Your Life Plan Blueprint. On this Trek, we are mapping out the framework that will assist you in setting goals and creating a life plan for yourself. We have explored the purposes for an effective plan, some basic goal setting principles, and yesterday and today we are exploring the overall concept of the 6 step framework to create a successful life plan through an effective goal achievement. This powerful but easy to implement framework is the core for Your Life Plan Blueprint. Just like our trek of life, we will take the life planning trail one step at a time. If you have any questions or would like additional information as we go through our daily trek either leave a comment on Wisdom-Trek.com or email me at guthrie@venturecg.com.

Looking at Blueprint

Since our trek on life planning will take several 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.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We are enjoying the time we are able to spend with our grandson Kip, who is staying with us for a few days while his parents are out of town. We cherish the teachable moments of everyday life and take our responsibility to be a positive role model very seriously, without the need to be too serious ourselves. Proverbs 13:22 tells us, “Good people leave an inheritance to their grandchildren, but the sinner’s wealth passes to the godly.” This inheritance and wealth are so much more than money. It is the legacy that we live each day.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint

Yesterday on our trail, we started an overview of the framework that makes up the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint and consists of 6 steps for which I use the acronym WESPER which stands for:

  1. Wisdom: Seek guidance from God and trusted mentors.
  2. Establish: Set the vision and goal in place.
  3. Strategy: Devise strategies to succeed in the goal.
  4. Planning: Identify plan elements based on the strategies.
  5. Execution: Bring the plan and goal to life.
  6. Review: Assess the outcome and next steps.

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Today we will explore some important facts about the WESPER framework.

Things to Know about WESPER 

  1. The framework is applicable for any goal.

As part of Your Life Plan Blueprint, we will explore setting at least one goal in each of the seven areas on our wheel of life that we described on day 224. Those seven areas are:

  1. Spiritual
  2. Family
  3. Physical/Health
  4. Mind/Intellect
  5. Personal/Social
  6. Financial
  7. Work/Career

 

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The WESPER framework is applicable in all areas of your life. What goals do you have? Finding a job you love? Losing weight? Increasing traffic to your blog? Setting up your business? Improving your health? Buying a new home? Building stronger relationships? No matter what goal you have, WESPER is totally applicable and relevant. In short, it can be used for virtually any goal in the world.

  1. Each step serves its own role and is pertinent to the success of the goal.

They are individual parts of a system that make it whole. While the only essential step is the fifth step of Execution, trying to skip any of the other steps will jeopardize your chances and degree of success.

  1. The steps occur in succession of one another.

The steps occur in a succession of one another – meaning that the first step needs to be done and locked before going to the second, and so on. Thus, each step should be defined as accurately as possible before moving to the next to prevent disruption and rework. Say, for example, you set the goal for yourself to lose 30 pounds. You make a series of strategies and plans. But as you start losing the weight, you find yourself feeling tired, unhealthy, and weak. You realize that you do not exactly want to lose 30 pounds; you actually just want to be healthy. Since the basis of the goal is different, this changes in-between steps, like an increased focus on exercise and choosing healthy foods instead of just losing weight. The further down you are in execution and the larger the magnitude of change in the initial step, the more disorienting it will be to revise your plans to reflect the change. Thus, it is important to be rigorous with each step of the framework.

  1. Progression through the steps symbolizes your goal being manifested from a mental creation to physical creation.

As you start off with the first step (Wisdom), it is essential that you seek guidance from God and/or trusted mentors to ensure the goal is wise and achievable. It is at this initial step that you can determine the “why” of this goal. After the first step, then you can confidently move onto the Establishment of the worthwhile achievable goal. This is the creative part of the process. As you move through the steps, you are essentially taking that virtual creation inside your mind and giving it physical form and shape in your physical reality.

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  1. The framework is best suited for taking big, long range goals and creating the steps (short and medium range goals) needed for completion.

WESPER is a framework for busting your big, long range goals into easy to complete smaller goals which you are reasonably confident in achieving. This will promote your ability to move forward faster with more efficiency in completing your goals. The Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint starts with the larger end goals in mind and works backward through the smaller steps that are needed to achieve the end game.

  1. The framework sets  you up for success in your goal.

Having this systematic approach to goal achievement helps dramatically increase your chances of success for two simple reasons:

  1. First, if there are problems with achieving the goal, you can always look back and identify exactly in which stage the issue arose and resolve it from there.
  2. Second, it ensures all bases are covered, and you do not leave any stone unturned.

Starting tomorrow, we will be exploring in detail each of the six steps that make up the WESPER framework. I will be detailing the specifics of each step, the role each serves, and how to apply it in real life.

While I am a big proponent of life planning with detailed goal setting, I also realize that there are many unforeseen circumstances that happen in our lives. The WESPER framework has a way to handle those situations built into the system. We do not want to make excuses for inaction but also understand that ultimately God’s Word should guide the steps that we take. Psalms 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”

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A light for my path

This process dovetails into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek, one step at a time.  Tomorrow we begin our detailed analysis of the 6 step WESPER framework starting with wisdom. So encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

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That will finish our podcast for today. As you enjoy your daily dose of wisdom, I encourage you to help us promote Wisdom-Trek in the following four ways:

  1. Leave us feedback about the podcast on Wisdom-Trek.com.
  2. On your smartphone, subscribe on iTunes, GooglePlay, Spreaker, Soundcloud or Stitcher, so the podcast will be downloaded to you automatically each day.
  3. If you have an iPhone or iPad, leave us a rating and review on iTunes.
  4. Share Wisdom-Trek with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter or in person so they can come along with us each day.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.

As we take this Trek together, let us always:

  1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
  2. Love Unconditionally
  3. Listen Intentionally
  4. Learn Continuously
  5. Lend to others Generously
  6. Lead with Integrity
  7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you tomorrow!