Wisdom-Trek ©

Creating a Legacy ™

Life Is Like a Triangle

by Leave a Comment

On our trek today, we will discover three bits of wisdom that will help us to navigate through each day of life.

I like to spend time with and study older people whom I consider to be my wise mentors. My parents were wise in many areas of life, and my Granny and Gramps were considered wise as well. I also study Jim Rohn and Zig Ziglar to glean wisdom from them. All of these people faced challenges that we all face one way or the other. They have seen successes and many happy times throughout their lives, but they have also seen times of struggle and sorrow.

As I was preparing for today’s trek, I settled on three nuggets of wisdom to share. I consider them an important triangle of practical wisdom for everyday life. These nuggets have nothing to do with saving money or working hard, but these three important wisdom nuggets will provide the rich and satisfying life that we all seek to obtain.

What are they? Well, here is what I would like to share with you today…

1. Make each new day count by helping someone or just making someone smile.

Part of this personal philosophy is all about giving from within so that another person is happier for the fact that they spent time with you and know you. This strength to make someone happy comes from your own sense of confidence, well-being, and happiness. So, to help someone or make them smile, you must have a sense of giving to others, which in turn is given back to you through their thanks or through their simple smile back to you. Life is not about receiving at all times; it is a combination of being thankful for what you have as blessings and sharing those blessings with others who need a little fraction of what you have. Luke 6:31 reminds us to, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”

2. Don’t dwell on life’s troubles. Think of the good times.

Everybody has troubles in life. No one is immune. But, troubles are no different than the bad weather in that bad weather affects everyone but passes sooner or later. When there is bad weather, the best thing to overcome its doom and gloom is to remember all the good weather you have experienced in the past and recall all those fun and enjoyable things that you did to appreciate the beauty of the day. For example, a simple walk in the park watching and listening to all the sounds and sights or an enjoyable picnic by the side of a babbling brook where peace and tranquility surrounded you.

In Matthew 5:44-45 Jesus told us, “But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.”

3. Don’t worry about things you can’t do anything about.

Worry is one of the most debilitating and useless of all emotions. Worry is not about the ability or the decision to control or to do something positive. It is all about a self-centered behavior that leads to nothing except to cause a person stress. When issues that you can do something about confront you, that is a totally different matter. If we have control over a situation, we should not worry but rather create a solution. But there are many things in life we have no control over and worry does nothing except cause stress and even illness.

One of the best Bible passages that Jesus taught about worry is Matthew 6:25-34, “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Today we looked at how life is like a triangle and if we practice these 3 simple precepts, we will live a rich and satisfying life. The lessons that we can learn from each other are valuable, so encourage your friends and family to join us each day on our Wisdom-Trek Podcast.

What Is Your Focus On?

by Leave a Comment

The focus of our Wisdom Notes this week is two short stories that will help us to make sure that we focus on what is important each day and not get distracted by the unimportant.

Our first story today is Life Is Like a Black Dot.

One day a professor entered his classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They all waited anxiously at their desks for the exam to begin.

The professor handed out the exams with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked the students to turn over the papers.

To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions – just a black dot in the center of the paper. The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s faces, told them the following, “I want you to write about what you see there.” The students, confused, got started on the inexplicable task.

At the end of the class, the professor took all the exams and started reading each one of them out loud in front of all the students.

All of them, with no exception, defined the black dot, trying to explain its position in the center of the sheet. After all had been read, the classroom silent, the professor started to explain…

“I’m not going to grade you on this. I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot, and the same thing happens in our lives. However, we insist on focusing only on the black dot – the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend…The dark spots are very small when compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes away from the black dots in your lives. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a life filled with love!”

Ephesians 5:1-2, “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.”

Philippians 4:8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

Our next story is Changing Our Vision.

There was a very wealthy man who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted many physicians and was being treated by several. He did not stop consulting a galaxy of medical experts. He consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections, but the ache persisted with more vigor than before.

At last, a monk who was supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the suffering man. The monk understood his problem and said that for some time he should concentrate only on green colors and not let his eyes fall on any other colors. It was a strange prescription, but he was desperate and decided to try it.

The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green paint and directed that every object upon which his eye was likely to fall be painted green just as the monk had directed. When the monk came to visit him after a few days, the millionaire’s servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was in a red dress, lest their master see any other color and his eye ache would come back.

Hearing this, the monk laughed and said, “If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the world green.”

Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world. Let us shape ourselves first.

Today we looked at how life is like a black dot and the importance of changing our vision. The lessons that we can learn from each other are valuable, so encourage your friends and family to join us each day on our Wisdom-Trek Podcast.

7 Steps to Become a Success

by Leave a Comment

For each of us, our daily trek of life has its challenges, but we should always give thanks for the good points of each day. Today we are shifting from a focus on relationships and are heading up the 7 steps that lead to success. If we navigate these steps properly, we will come closer to success in all areas of our lives. This is crucial as we are daily creating our living legacy.

1. You attract success.

“Success is not to be pursued. It is to be attracted by the person you become.”

So few people realize this…Success is not something that you chase. It’s something that you turn into. Success comes from growth. It comes from growing bigger than the problems and obstacles that surround you. Don’t search for success. Commit to growing, commit to becoming, commit to doing what you know to do, and you will attract success. Proverbs 21:5 puts it this way, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.”

2. You must change.

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”

If you want change, you must change! You must work harder on yourself than you work on anything else. The greatest investment you will ever make is in yourself. Don’t invest in the stock market if you haven’t first invested in yourself. Labor to become a better person. Every day you want to be slightly better than you were the day before.

3. Never give up.

“How long should you try? Until.”

Never give up. If you just keep at it, eventually you will reach the top. It probably won’t happen in a year, but just imagine what could be achieved if you stayed focused for 20 or 30 years or longer. When I say never give up, I don’t mean to imply that you should wait around for something to happen. What I’m saying is that you should make something happen.

Success is not that complicated. I like what Jim Rohn said about success, “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

Paul taught in Galatians 6:9, “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.”

4. Environment is critical.

You must constantly ask yourself these questions:

  • Who do I spend time with?
  • How are they influencing me?
  • What do they have me reading?
  • What do they have me saying?
  • Where do they have me going?
  • What do they have me thinking?
  • And most important, what do they have me becoming?

Then ask yourself the big question, “Is that okay?” Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change. You may have to make some difficult choices on who you spend time with. To follow up with the previous questions, I would ask you:

  • Who are you talking to?
  • Who are you listening to?
  • What seeds are being planted into your life?

Environment is critical! In order for your life to produce fruit, you must plant the correct seeds, and they must be planted in the right atmosphere. You wouldn’t try to plant tomato seeds in the dessert because it’s not the right atmosphere for a tomato seed to produce. Likewise, don’t try to become successful surrounded by negative people. Create an atmosphere where you can flourish. Learn to guard what you hear and what gets planted in your thoughts, so you can become all that you were destined to become.

Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for ‘bad company corrupts good character.'”

5. Maintain steady progress.

“Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.”

My dad continually reminded us boys as we worked around the farm to take tasks slow and be methodical. That’s exactly how your dreams come to pass when you commit to achieve them. Nothing happens overnight. Look at anyone who’s successful. It’s taken them years to get there, sometimes decades. Don’t think you are any different. If it took them years, don’t be surprised when it takes you years. In other words, manage your expectations, so you don’t get disappointed unnecessarily. Success is possible, but it won’t happen tomorrow if you just began today. Remember, success is not a single event. You don’t become a success in a moment. Success comes from moving in the right direction every day.

The author of Hebrews taught us in Chapter 12 verse 1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

6. Set your sail.

“It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.”

Set your sail or set your mind on what you want to accomplish. It’s not the circumstances of life that determine where you end up. It’s your commitment to arrive at your intended destination that determines your success.

7. Learn to see the value of time.

“Time is more valuable than money. You can always get more money, but you cannot ever get more time.”

There is nothing more valuable than time. You can sow your time and get anything you want. You can sow your time and get more friends, more money, or better health. Nothing is more priceless than time, so never waste this precious gift. I’ve never met a rich man who didn’t value his time, and I’ve never met a poor man who did. Learn to see the value of time because, with time, anything can be accomplished!

Ephesians 5:15-16, “So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.”

8 Signs of Healthy Relationships

by Leave a Comment

We have a long trail ahead of us today, so strap on your hiking boots tight because we are going to have to move quickly to finish the trail on time as we learn from each other on our trail of relationships. As we hike on this trail, we need to keep alert and use our power of observation to locate the 8 signs that will teach us to create and maintain healthy relationships with everyone that we meet on this trek of life.

Nothing can bring more joy to life than beautifully fulfilling relationships. The depth of meaning, understanding, and appreciation that these kinds of relationships bring is almost unfathomable. And, of course, as many people find out, nothing can bring so much pain as a broken relationship with someone dear to you.

Yes, relationships make the world go ’round for better or for worse. But the exciting thing is that we can do much to increase our chances of having terrific relationships — relationships that are fulfilling and exciting, rich with meaning, joy, and love. There are basics that govern most human relationships and are the very basics I want to cover. So, here is my list of the eight signs that I believe comprise the basics of healthy relationships.

1. Love

Now, this all depends on your definition of love. Most people think that love is a feeling, but I would strongly debate that point. Actually, the concept of “like” is really about feelings. When you say you like someone, you are talking about how you feel about them. But when you say that you love someone, you are not necessarily talking about how you feel about them.

Love is much deeper than a feeling. Love is a commitment we make to people to always treat that person right and honorably. Yes, for those we become especially close to, we will have feelings of love, but I believe it is time for us to re-examine what we mean by love. We must expand our definition of what love means by including the commitment aspect of love.

For healthy relationships, we must love everyone. We may not like them based on how we feel about them, but we should love them based on our definition of love above, which in turn, determines how we should act toward them. That is, we should treat them right and honorably. This is the basis of all healthy relationships.

I believe the best description of what love really is can be found in the 1st letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth in Chapter 13 verse 4 through 7, “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

2. Servant Heart

My mentor Zig Ziglar says frequently that “You can have everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want out of life.” The concept he is talking about is having a heart and life that is focused on serving other people. Philippians 2:3-5 supports this also, “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.” This is also fundamental to healthy relationships.

3. Honest Communication

Look at any good relationship, and you will find open and honest communication. Communication is important because it is the vehicle that allows us to verbalize what is inside us and enables us to connect with another person. Isn’t communication amazing? One person is feeling one thing, and through communication, another person can find that out and feel it too. Amazing.

This is a vital goal in good relationships — to communicate, to tell each other what we are thinking and what we are feeling. It enables us to make a connection. Sometimes we are the one speaking and other times we are listening. Either way, the central tenet is communication for the sake of building the relationship and making it stronger. And here’s what’s exciting…If we just communicate, we can get by. But if we communicate skillfully, we can work miracles!

4. Friendliness

Put simply, relationships just work better when we are friendly with others. Being friendly can cushion the bumpy ride we sometimes experience in our relationships. Cheerfulness goes a long way toward building lasting relationships. I mean, nobody wants to be around a grump, do they? The fact is that the friendlier you are the more you are going to have people who want to pursue longer-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with you. So cheer up, put on a smile, have kind words to say to others, treat people with a great deal of friendliness, and you will see your relationships improve.

5. Patience

People being people, we have an awful lot of time for practice in the area of patience. People are not perfect and will constantly fail us. Conversely, we will also fail other people. So, while we try to have more patience for others, we need their patience as well.

So often, I think relationships break down because people give up and lose patience. I am talking about all kinds of relationships – friendships, marriages, business partnerships, etc. Recent research has shown that those marriages that go through major turmoil and make it through are very strong after doing so. Patience wins out.

Those who give up on relationships too early or because the other person isn’t perfect, often forget that their next friend, spouse, or business partner will not be perfect either! So, we would do well to cultivate this skill and learn to have more patience.

6. Loyalty

Loyalty is a commitment to another person. Sadly, loyalty is often a missing element in many relationships today. We have forgotten what it means to be loyal. Our consumer mentality has affected this to some degree. People are no longer loyal to a product. And unfortunately, many companies are not loyal to their clients or patrons. Regrettably, this has spilled over into our relationships. It is one thing to switch brands of dishwashing detergent. It is another thing altogether to switch friends.

Sometimes we just need to commit to being loyal and let the relationship move forward. We need a higher level of stick-to-it-iveness! This kind of loyalty will take our relationships to a much deeper level. What a powerful and secure feeling of knowing that you have a relationship with someone who is loyal to you and you to them — that neither of you is going anywhere even when things get tough. Wow, how powerful!

7. A Common Purpose

One of the basics of healthy relationships is to have a common purpose, and oftentimes, this is a component that is initially overlooked. But, for a long-term, long-lasting relationship, it is vital.

Think about how many friends you have met through the years while working on a common purpose. Maybe it was someone you met while participating in sports, working on a political campaign, attending church, working at your office, or doing anything that brought you together to work on a common purpose. You had that strong common bond of purpose that brought you together and held you together.

Working together, building together, failing and succeeding together — all while pursuing a common purpose — is what relationships are made of. Find people with whom you have common purposes and sow the seeds of great relationships, and then reap the long-lasting benefits.

8. Fun

All good relationships have some element of fun. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean loud, raucous fun, though that is appropriate for some relationships. But, even in business relationships, there should be some fun. It should be fun to do business with those who you are going to have a long-term business relationship with. Fun brings enjoyment to the relationship and that is important.

I think that this key element can be easily forgotten or neglected in our family and spousal relationships. The fun things we did initially in a new relationship after a while can be taken for granted or simply fall by the wayside, and we stop creating the fun and joy. So, remember to consciously craft fun situations and moments, for these are the glue that holds our memories together and makes our lives sweet.

There are so many key ingredients to making and maintaining great, long-lasting relationships. Each of the eight components we discussed brings unique dynamics and rewards to our relationships. Let’s begin to focus on improving our relationships in these areas and see what miracles occur!

2 Steps to Overcome Procrastination

by Leave a Comment

In this Wisdom Note, let us consider how easy it is to put off our responsibilities and how we allow non-important interruptions to distract us from doing what is most important. This is an age-old issue, but there are so many distractions both online and offline, it is very difficult not to procrastinate, especially if you are not very disciplined in your focus. Perseverance is so important to make sure we continue on life’s trail toward the summit.

Perseverance is about as important to achievement as gasoline is to driving a car. Sure, there will be times when you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, but you’ll always get out of the rut with genuine perseverance. Without it, you won’t even be able to start your engine.

Perseverance vs. Procrastination

The opposite of perseverance is procrastination. Perseverance means you never quit. Procrastination usually means you never get started although the inability to finish something is also a form of procrastination.

Ask people why they procrastinate and you’ll often hear something like, “I’m a perfectionist. Everything has to be just right before I can get down to work. No distractions, not too much noise, no telephone calls interrupting me, and of course I have to be feeling well physically, too. I can’t work when I have a headache.” The other end of procrastination – being unable to finish – also has a perfectionist explanation…“I’m just never satisfied. I’m my own harshest critic. Unless all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed, I just can’t consider that I’m done. That’s just the way I am, and I’ll probably never change.”

Do you see what’s going on here? A fault is being turned into a virtue. The perfectionist is saying that their standards are just too high for this world. This fault-into-virtue syndrome is a common defense when people are called upon to discuss their weaknesses, but in the end, it’s just a very pious kind of excuse making. It certainly doesn’t have anything to do with what’s really behind procrastination

The basis of procrastination could be fear of failure. That’s what perfectionism really is once you take a hard look at it. What’s the difference whether you’re afraid of being less than perfect or afraid of anything else? You’re still paralyzed by fear. What’s the difference whether you never start or never finish? You’re still stuck. You’re still going nowhere. You’re still overwhelmed by whatever task is before you. You’re still allowing yourself to be dominated by a negative vision of the future. In your mind, you see yourself being criticized, laughed at, punished, or ridden out of town on a rail. Of course, this negative vision of the future is really a mechanism that allows you to do nothing. It’s a very convenient mental tool.

I’m going to tell you how to overcome procrastination. I’m going to show you how to turn procrastination into perseverance, and if you do what I suggest, the process will be virtually painless. It involves using two very powerful principles that foster productivity and perseverance instead of passivity and procrastination

1. Break it down.

No matter what you’re trying to accomplish, whether it’s writing a book, climbing a mountain, or painting a house, the key to achievement is your ability to break down the task into manageable pieces and knock them off one at one time. Focus on accomplishing what’s right in front of you at this moment. Ignore what’s off in the distance someplace. Substitute real-time positive thinking for negative future visualization. That’s the first all-important technique for bringing an end to procrastination.

Suppose I were to ask you if you could write a 365-page novel. If you’re like most people, that would sound like an impossible task. But suppose I ask you a different question. Suppose I ask if you can write one page a day for one year. Do you think you could do it? Now the task is starting to seem more manageable. We’re breaking down the 365-page book into bite-size pieces. Even so, I suspect many people would still find the prospect intimidating. Do you know why? Writing one page may not seem so bad, but you’re being asked to look ahead one whole year. When people start to look that far ahead, many of them automatically go into a negative mode. So, let me formulate the idea of writing a book in yet another way. Let me break it down even more.

Suppose I was to ask you, “Can you fill up one page with words not for a year, not for a month, not even for a week, but just today?” Don’t look any further ahead than that. I believe most people would confidently declare that they could accomplish that. Of course, these would be the same people who feel totally incapable of writing a whole book.

If I said the same thing to you tomorrow…If I told you, I don’t want you to look back, and I don’t want you to look ahead. I just want you to fill up one page today. Do you think you could do it?

One day at a time. We’ve all heard that phrase. That’s what we’re doing here. We’re breaking down the time required for a major task into one-day segments, and we’re breaking down the work involved in writing a 365-page book into one-page increments.

Keep this up for one year, and you’ll write the book. Discipline yourself to look neither forward nor backward, and you can accomplish things you never thought you could possibly do. And it all begins with those three words “break it down.”

2. Write it down.

My second technique for defeating procrastination is also only three words long…”Write it down.” We know how important writing is to goal setting. The writing you’ll do for beating procrastination is very similar. Instead of focusing on the future, however, you’re now going to be writing about the present just as you experience it every day. Instead of describing the things you want to do or the places you want to go, you’re going to describe what you actually do with your time, and you’re going to keep a written record of the places you actually go.

In other words, you’re going to keep a journal of your activities. You are going to be surprised by the distractions, detours, and downright wastes of time you engage in during the course of a day. All of these get in the way of achieving your goals. For many people, it’s almost like they planned it that way, and maybe at some subconscious level, they did. The great thing about keeping a time journal is that it brings all this out in the open. It forces you to see what you’re actually doing… and what you’re not doing.

The time journal doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Just buy a little spiral notebook that you can easily carry in your pocket. When you go to lunch, when you drive across town, when you go to the dry cleaners, when you spend some time shooting the breeze with co-workers or family, make a quick note of the time you began the activity and the time it ends. Try to make this notation as soon as possible. If it’s inconvenient to do it immediately, you can do it later. But you should make an entry in your time journal at least once every thirty minutes, and you should keep this up for at least a week, preferably two.

Break it down. Write it down. These two techniques are very straightforward. But don’t let that fool you…These are powerful and effective productivity techniques that allow you to put an end to procrastination and help you get started to achieve your goals.

Focus on what you need to accomplish today, and then tomorrow you can focus on what needs to be completed tomorrow. Matthew 6:34 reminds us, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

In our note this week, we identified some causes for procrastination and set forth a plan to that will help you to recognize it and start on the trail to prevent it.