Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 223 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Your Life Plan Blueprint – Purposes #3

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 223 of our Trek, and on our current Trek “Your Life Plan Blueprint,” we continue to lay out the framework in detail so that you can create a life plan for yourself. Your life plan does not need to be overly complex to be effective. Minor changes in your life can result in huge benefits. As we grow through the Wisdom-Trek Life Plan Blueprint process, I encourage you to come along with us and begin thinking about your own life plan. When we are finished with this Trek, I will put together a workbook that you can use to create your life plan.

The purpose of Wisdom-Trek is for you to gain wisdom through your daily trek of life and to create a living legacy each day. If you are going to be successful in creating a legacy, establishing a plan for your life is imperative. There are no excuses or factors that will prevent you from creating a well-established plan for your life. Your life plan doesn’t have to change the world, but it should positively impact you and your world. It is my goal and plan to provide you with the information and tools needed to create an on-going plan for your life. Just as with your trek of life, you will need to make continual adjustments to your plan, but your primary focus is fixed based on your values. 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. The day that this episode is originally airing is January 9^th, which is the day we will be celebrating our family Christmas. It is a blessing that we are able to be with our children and grandchildren on this special weekend. The older four grandchildren were able to spend our “Christmas Eve” with Granny and Gramps. We cherish these special times together.

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

Your Life Plan Blueprint

I mentioned a couple of days ago that there are 6 essential reasons why we should set goals and create a life plan. We have explored the first 4 reasons which are…

1. To Give Clarity To Your End Vision
2. To Drive You Forward Even When You Face Obstacles
3. To Give You Laser Focus
4. To Make You Accountable

Today we will explore the final 2 reasons which are…

5. Be The Best That You Can Be

Goals help you achieve your highest potential. Without goals integrated into your life plan, you will slip back into your natural, default set of actions that make you feel safe and comfortable every day.  To use an analogy, when we were growing up on the farm, ruts would form on the farm roads when the tractor would use the roads when it was muddy. After the ruts were formed, many times it was easier to drive in the ruts, even though they were rough, than to try driving on higher ground. Just like those ruts, the familiarity of your default life habits is the adversary of growth. It prevents you from growing. It does not enable you to become the best person you can be. It denies you from tapping into your God-given potential for a rich and satisfying life.

By setting goals for your life plan, you set targets to aim for. These targets make you venture into new places, new contexts, and new situations, which puts you into growth mode. They make you stretch beyond your normal self and reach new heights. They get you outside of your comfort zone. For example, setting a time limit for your run lets you know if you should be running faster. Setting a specific weight loss target makes you aware if your actions have been effective in losing weight. Setting a career or business goal ensures you are not settling for anything less than what you desire.

In my goal achievement processes, I have found myself constantly bursting through new grounds and uncovering potential which I did not know existed before. Without those goals, it would be easier to take the path of least resistance, just doing things within my natural constraints. Goals and plans have forced me out of my comfort zone and made me face and then overcome countless barriers to achieve what I desired. It has made me much more self-aware and taught me a lot more about both myself and life, compared to if I did not have those goals. Goals and plans help us be our very best. As the Apostle Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

6. Live Your Best Life

Goals ensure you get the best out of life for two reasons.

First, by becoming a better person, your new found knowledge and abilities let you experience more out of the same life events compared to the previous you. Your worldview and knowledge should be different now versus 10 years ago. You should see life with much more clarity, depth, and perspective today than you did in the past. What may be a simple daily occurrence in the past holds a lot more meaning to the more knowledgeable and wiser person that you are today.

Second, time passes in our life, whether we want it to or not. Time is the only thing in life that is truly finite. Goals with specific measures and deadlines, integrated into your life plan, ensure you are maximizing your output and experiences during the time God has granted you. If you have already discovered your life purpose, your goals will ensure you get the best out of your purpose.

Compare your life to a trek. When you identify your purpose for being on this trek of life, you get clarity on the direction to travel in. However, without specifying an exact destination and time frame, there is no way to measure or benchmark your progress. It has been said, “If you don’t know where you are going then, any trail will get you there.” Goals provide insight to the trails that we need to travel to ensure we are maximizing our lives for all that they can offer us.

As you begin designing the framework for your life plan, ask yourself, “What are my goals for the upcoming 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?”

Start by taking some time today to write down a few of your goals, dreams, and aspirations for your life plan. By starting this process, I can guarantee you that you will definitely experience more growth as a person. By just spending a few minutes to articulate some aspirations that have been in your mind, you will experience more progress in your life a year from now than if you don’t. If we do our part of the goal setting and planning process, God will provide us the direction as is written in Psalms 32:8, “The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.’”

We have now explored all 6 of the essentials reasons to create goals as part of our overall life plan. The Wisdom-Trek process that we will be covering over the next couple of weeks is a unique and successful process. This process dovetails into our concept of Wisdom-Trek as we look at life as a trek with its steep uphill climbs and precarious downhill slopes. Along the trails of life, though, there are many breathtaking views to enjoy. We can create and follow a life plan blueprint that will keep us on the right trail. For our trek during the next couple of days, we will explore some initial groundwork in creating goals and a life plan. After that, we will look at the 6 step blueprint for life plan success. 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. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom each day. 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!