Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 171 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Do You Affect or Infect Others?
Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 171 of our Trek and yesterday we finished exploring the 5 trails needed to get over yourself so we can trek on in life. Today we will ask the question, are you affecting or infecting others that you impact.  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.



We are recording our podcast from our studio at ‘Home2’ in Charlotte NC.   Our workload continues briskly, but we continue on our trek, one step at a time.  If we do not stop, I know we will reach our destination.  My voice is starting to get a bit stronger, so I hope my raspy voice has not been too distracting this past week.  It has been years since I have had any type of sinusitis or cold which has hit me pretty hard this past week.   I am on the back side of it now, so hopefully my voice will improve each day.
Do You Affect or Infect Others?
Words, words, words! In my opinion, when we talk about the connection between attitude and behavior, there are two words that come to mind, "affect" and "infect". My first reaction is to think of "affect" as a positive verb and "infect" as a negative verb, but I guess they can be both.

According to www.dictionary.com:

af•fect - verb (used with object) - 1. to act on; produce an effect or change in; 2. to impress the mind or move the feelings of; 3. (of pain, disease, etc.) to attack or lay hold of.

in•fect - verb (used with object) - 1. to affect or contaminate (a person, organ, wound, etc.) with disease-producing germs; 3. to taint or contaminate with something that affects quality, character, or condition unfavorably; 4. to corrupt or affect morally; 5. to imbue with some pernicious belief, opinion, etc.



I love this quote attributed to, Eleanor Roosevelt said: "Every one of us every day has choices to make about the kind of person we are and what we wish to become. You can decide to be someone who brings people together, or you can fall prey to those who wish to divide us. You can be someone who educates yourself, or you can believe that being negative is clever and being cynical is fashionable. You have a choice.”

How true… which one are you? What would your family, friends and/or work colleagues say about you?

If you have listened to many episodes of Wisdom-Trek or read the daily journals you've heard me say over and over, "Attitude is a choice!" A split second choice, 24/7/365!



As we begin winding down yet another year of ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies, let’s take a few moments to be thankful for all the good in our lives rather than focusing on the negative.

By making a conscious choice to be a "power surge" rather than a "power drain", we can open ourselves to have a positive "affect" (influence) on ourselves and others regardless of the conditions around us. We can even "infect" our world in a positive way – spread the positive attitude virus – look for the good and trust for the right results.  How freeing this thinking is! What an uplifting, renewing way to live.

So it is, life is actually made up of our choices. We are the sum total of them, and if we hold to an attitude of love and thanksgiving for all the good things within our grasp we may have what all ambitious people long for — success.