Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 538 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Need for Disciplined Activity

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 538 of our trek, and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. Currently, we are on an extended multi-week trek as we explore the teachings from some of my virtual mentors such as Jim Rohn, Zig Ziglar, and Earl Nightingale. The core of our current trek is based primarily on Jim Rohn’s book called The Five Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle. I have learned a considerable amount from reading and re-reading this book on my own trek of life, and I trust that it will benefit you also. Keeping with the continuity of Wisdom-Trek, I have adapted it to The Five Trails on Life’s Trek.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. With tasks or activity that we are involved in, it requires consistent persistence in a disciplined manner. This ties into the topic of our final trek today on the Trail of Activity as we will explore why Activity Must Be Disciplined and determining the Starting Point of Disciplined Activity.

If you have missed the past few Philosophy Friday treks, it would be good to go back and review them to get caught up on our progress so far. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so let’s break camp and continue on the third trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Activity Part 6

As a reminder, our overall extended trek covers these five trails:

1. Philosophy

2. Attitude

3. Activity

4. Results

5. Lifestyle

1. Activity Must Be Disciplined

Discipline is a word that we have repeatedly used throughout this extended trek for very good reason. There is a tendency for the negative side of life to infiltrate your plans, your dreams, and your activities in an effort to seize control. There is a tendency for optimism to surrender to doubt. There is a tendency for a simple plan to become a complex plan. There is a tendency for courage to give way to fear and for confidence to be overwhelmed by worry.

Only through the consistent application of discipline can you prevent the negative tendencies of life from destroying your plans. With the passing of a little time and the attainment of a little success, you can become careless. That is why those in pursuit of a rich and satisfying life must develop a new sense of appreciation for discipline, and become aware of all that they can do and all that they can have.

What you can do is remarkable. You can do the most amazing things, once you have made the decision to tackle the disciplines that lead to a new philosophy, a new attitude, and a new and intense level of activity. What you will do is your choice and is sometimes disappointing.

Any day you choose, you can walk away from wherever you are regardless of the circumstances. Step by step, one page at a time, one paragraph at a time, one new discipline at a time…you can begin the process of amending your activity to such a degree that today can become the starting point of a whole new life.

Anyone can do it, so you can do it!

You do it by designing a good plan. You do it by setting new goals. You do it by working every day on the little things that will make a major difference in how your life turns out. Like everything else that success requires, developing the discipline that it takes to achieve your dreams is easy to do…and it is also easy not to do.

2. The Starting Point of Disciplined Activity

Here is one of the best places to start on the process of working on new disciplines. Everyone has a mental list of “I should haves.” For instance:

• “I should have written to my mother this weekend.”
• “I should have told her how much I really care long before now.”
• “I should have called that creditor and told the truth last month.”
• “I should have started my exercise program years ago.”

Any day you choose, you can go to work on the basics – on a host of small activities that will start the process of self-discipline. The joy that comes from this small achievement will start the miracle process.

The early inspiration that comes from the practice of new and simple disciplines will start a process called “soaring self-worth.” It does not matter how small or how insignificant the activity is because it is within those obscure but important disciplines that the great opportunities exist.

This kind of simple progress will build a ladder leading out of the abyss of failure and neglect that once was your dwelling place. With each new discipline, you will have constructed a new rung that will enable you to climb out of the darkness where the failures, the complainers, the confused, and the misguided gather to share their sad stories of how unfair life is.

Building the ladder is easy to do. The smallest of disciplines practiced every day starts an incredible process that can change your life forever.

Until you have learned to take care of the little opportunities life brings your way, you will never master the disciplines for living a rich and satisfying life. The major accomplishments in life begin with the mastery of the small disciplines. The mental, emotional and philosophical “muscles” required to write a letter, clean the garage, or pay your bills on time are the very same “muscles” involved in running a company or managing a department. As Galatians 6:9 tells us, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

You cannot rule the city until you can rule your spirit. You cannot rule the nation until you can rule yourself. You cannot design your future until you have redesigned your habits. You cannot increase your rewards until you increase your level of intelligent activity.

The place to start is within yourself through the development of new disciplines. That is where success really starts – by becoming the master of the small details of your life. All of the great rewards in life are available to you if you will discipline yourself to walk through those early stages of growth without neglecting any of the disciplines. You must not permit any small activity to rob you of your future health, wealth, friendships, and lifestyle. You cannot allow any error in judgment to delude you into thinking that “letting the little things slide” will not make a major difference. You cannot say to yourself, “This is the only area where I am letting down on my self-discipline.” It is this “only area” that will start the process of erosion on all of your other disciplines.

One of the great challenges facing you is disciplined activity. You must discipline the reach of your knowledge, for you can have too much as well as too little. You must discipline yourself to maintain a proper attitude, for you are surrounded by sources that can quickly erode the attitude you have worked so hard to develop. Also, you must discipline yourself to convert dreams into plans, and plans into goals, and goals into those small daily activities that will lead you, one sure step at a time, toward a better future.

Finally, you must use the power of your imagination. You must ponder all that is possible. You must remind yourself that to do what is possible and sometimes challenge yourself with the impossible. As an ancient warrior once wrote, “It is better to aim the spear at the moon and strike the eagle, than to aim at the eagle and strike only a rock.”

Planning, imagination and intense activity are awesome forces that have the power to dramatically change the quality of your life.

Activity is a major part of life’s trek. It is the power that gives substance and meaning to your philosophy and your attitude. Intelligent, planned, intense, and consistent activity creates new energy and keeps you moving toward the exciting future that your thoughts and desires have already designed for you.

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we complete our hike on the Trail of Activity. Today we learned that our activity must be disciplined, and we detailed what that means.

Next Philosophy Friday we will begin our fourth of five trails, which is the Trail of Results. Our trek next week will focus on how to measure those results. Join us next Friday for these additional insights. I know you will find these insights interesting and profitable in living a rich and satisfying life.

Our next trek is on Monday, and we will continue our series called The Tools in Gramps’ Backpack in which we will equip you with the tools needed to impact the lives of others. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

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.

As we take this trek of life 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 on Monday!