Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 156 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Life is Like a Milk Bottle
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 156 of our Trek and yesterday we looked at why life is like a black dot.  Today and throughout this next week, we will be presenting a series of short wisdom stories. If you miss any days of our Wisdom-Trek, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at ‘The Big House’ in Marietta OH.  This episode will be released on Tuesday when Paula and I will be on our 7-day podcasting cruise.  This week while we are out at sea I will have a series of podcast covering short stories about wisdom without a lot of additional commentaries.  Once we get back from the cruise, we will remain at camp for a few days as we dive back into the commentary on the book of Proverbs.



Today we will hike on the milk bottle trail and see how our lives are shaped by the environment that we allow ourselves to be confined to.

Today’s story is:
Life is Like a Milk Bottle
My parents would always encourage us to set goals and work hard to achieve them. They would tell us not to be a follower and not to set limits on what I could achieve. They truly believed that there were no limits that you could achieve whatever you wanted.

This reminds me of the following story about a radish and a milk bottle, a story that I have never forgotten.
A Farmer's Lesson In Life
A farmer won a first prize at the country fair for his huge radish that was the exact shape and size of a quart milk bottle. Many were curious as to how the farmer was able to grow this radish that was the exact shape of a milk bottle.


Finally, one gentleman went up to the farmer and asked the question. The farmer replied, "It was easy. I got the seed growing and then I put it into the milk bottle. It had nowhere else to go."

You can use this story as an analogy to life - our lives are shaped by the kind of surroundings we place ourselves in, the people that we allow to influence us, and the goals we give ourselves.
These Are Key Ingredients
If we only dream and take no action, then we get no further. But if we plan, set a goal and take action then our life takes a different shape.

The important parts of goal setting go way beyond just writing down a goal statement and thinking that somehow your goal will be reached.

To write a goal is only a minor part of the way forward. The rest of the elements of how to reach that goal must also be stated clearly and with a definite time frame for each step.

This means that you must develop a detailed plan of action where each action step is detailed on what you must do, when and how and how much time it will take. If you do not make your plan detailed in this way and set specific target dates for completion, you will simply not be creating any expectation in your mind or urgency that helps keep you moving.

…but what about The Bumps Along The Path . . . Sometimes, even when you are following your action plan, you will run into a snag. Snags are not uncommon, and you should realize this before you even get started.

These snags, though, should be viewed only as little inconveniences; these inconveniences are meant for you to resolve and move forward again.

These little