Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 548 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

How to Measure the Results of Your Activity – Results

Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy podcast. This is Day 548 of our trek and today is Philosophy Friday. Every Friday we will 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. We continue on our extended trek today on the Trail of Results. Last week we started on this trail and focused on how we can achieve predictable results.  This week we will expand this trail as we explore How to Measure Results.

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 start on the fourth trail of this extended trek as we cover…

The Five Trails on Life’s Trek – Results Part 2

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

1. Philosophy

2. Attitude

3. Activity

4. Results

5. Lifestyle

1. How to Measure Your Results

The results of your past efforts can be measured in several different ways. The first way to measure your results is by looking at what you have. The most common way is to consider your home, cars, bank accounts, investments, and all of your other tangible assets are a good measuring rod of your material progress.

Your assets reflect only one aspect of your current value. To measure your financial value, you merely examine your assets. This is but one aspect of your total value and not to suggest that the only way to measure value is by a list of your material possessions.

There are all kinds of wealth, and the greatest fortunes in life are the non-material assets that you have in your life which is joy, health, love, family, experiences, and friendships. These assets will always outweigh the value of any material possessions you might acquire. That being understood you can reflect on what you have accumulated over the years in the form of material assets as a good indicator of past efforts and possible future results. The non-material assets you possess will follow a similar pattern.

If you currently have a significant accumulation of money and material possessions, you are probably well on your way toward achieving that dream known as financial independence. With financial freedom comes the options of choice in the non-material assets that you are able to accumulate. If your list of assets is rather meager despite your efforts over the last ten, twenty, or thirty years of labor, then this may be a good indicator that something needs to change in your life. You may need to make some major changes in your current level of activity to increase your results. You may need to increase your skills or your knowledge or your awareness to take better advantage of life’s opportunities. You may need to make some adjustments to your philosophy about money and to your attitude about what expenditures constitute a worthwhile investment.

If you are not satisfied with what you have achieved at this point in your life, then now is the time to fix the future, and it is never too late to start. Unless you change how you are right now, then what you have will always be about the same as it is today. Going back to the principle of planting and harvesting will clearly show that the same seed sown by the same sower will inevitably produce the same harvest.

For the harvest to change, it may be necessary to change the seed, the soil, or most likely, the activity of the sower. Perhaps as the sower, you insist on using a plan that simply cannot work. It may be that you as the sower believes that sowing should be done in the summer instead of the spring.

When winter arrives, and the sower’s need is great, you may be found standing in the barren field condemning the circumstances for your failure because the soil did not yield its promised harvest. This would be the ideal time for you to measure and assess the reasons why the soil did not cooperate with an ill-conceived plan. You must measure and assess why you achieved less than expected and you must guard against complaining and compiling yet another list of reasons for your unfortunate dilemma.

Everything you have acquired is a result of past efforts and past thoughts. You gather intelligence, or you gather ignorance. And your future will produce rewards commensurate with what you have done in the past. You must use your time to plan, to labor, to measure, to invest, to share, to refine past activity, and to add to your storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. These are the seeds you must gather along the way so that the quality of your results will improve with each passing year.

Another important way to measure your results is to take a closer look at what you have become. What sort of people have you attracted into your life? Are you well-respected by your co-workers and neighbors? Do you honor your beliefs? Do you try to see someone else’s point of view? Are you listening to your children? Do you express sincere appreciation to your parents, your spouse, and your friends? Are you honest and ethical in your business transactions? Are you known for your unwavering integrity among your peers? Do you stand out in a good way because you still march to the beat of a different drummer in a world that so desperately needs your light? Are you happy with who and what you have become?

What you have become is a result of all of your past experiences and how you have handled them. What you have become is also a result of the personal changes you have either voluntarily or involuntarily made over the years. If you are not happy with what you have become, then you must change what you are. For things to change in your world, you must change. This is one of life’s fundamentals. This is the law of planting and harvesting.

Living the rich and satisfying life is not easy, especially during the times of planting and nurturing, but the reward of harvest is always worthwhile. As Psalms 126:5-6 tells us, “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”

We are deliberately taking our trek slowly on The Five Trails on Life’s Trek as we continue our hike today on the Trail of Results. Today you learned that you must measure and assess the results of your labor in order to change your results in the future. This is the basic fundamentals of the law of planting and harvesting.

Next Philosophy Friday we will explore That You Attract What You Have by the Person You Have Become. So 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 where 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.

That will finish our trek for today. If you would like to listen to any of our past treks or read the Wisdom Journal, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com.

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 Monday!