Author: cbarney.45

Subtract negativity from your life and add positivity to it.

Some people love drama, but I’m not one of them. If everything is going the way it should, that makes me happy. I don’t want to build up some scenario to make the night “more interesting” or exciting.

Instead, I focus on removing negativity from my life – that includes negative people. If you constantly find yourself questioning why you hang out with a group of people, why do you keep doing it? You are deliberately choosing to hang out with those who negatively impact your life and cause stress and anxiety.

Remove the negative. Add more positivity to your life. If you have great family or friends, hang out with them more. If you a part of a group (whether it’s a church group, workout buddies, or even co-workers) and enjoy spending time with them, find the time to do it. Life is too short to be upset, so don’t be.

What are some of your self-limiting beliefs? How can you overcome these beliefs that you think are true, but may only be true as a part of a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Fear and hope have one thing in common…they both are based on a future that hasn’t happened yet. If you believe that you have a bright future and that nothing can stop you, you’re more likely to achieve that outcome. You make it happen. Contrary to this, if you fear that you’re going to fail, you’re more likely to fail. If you’re pessimistic by nature, you’re already starting at a disadvantage. Change your mindset and your self-limiting beliefs.

Make it a point to never complain unless you are also offering solutions to fix your complaint. Complaining or venting can make you feel better at the time, but it brings negativity to those around you.

As Jon Gordon states in The Power of a Positive Team, “Complaining is like throwing up. Afterward you feel better, but then the rest of your team is sick. It’s toxic.”

Imagine if everyone around you became a problem solver instead of a problem creator (which is usually what happens when you complain). How amazing would that be? How far could you go together as a team if everyone was positively contributing, offering input on how to improve deficiencies, and encouraging others to do the same?

Live your life saying “I’m glad I did…” and not “I wish I had done…”

Don’t live a life of regrets.

In a recent podcast with Tim Ferriss, Gary Keller explained the concept of the glass and rubber balls, saying that, “Work is like a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back up. But relationships and health are like glass balls. If you drop them, they can be scratched, damaged, or broken.”

Make sure that you’re spending an appropriate amount of quality time with each aspect of life. Take care of your relationships and your physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and financial health. If you do not attend to those regularly, you can lose them or damage them forever.

When you come home from work, make sure you hug your wife or husband and tell them you love them. Make sure you spend time with your children or your pets. Call a friend to see if they can grab dinner. Go on that family vacation.

Life is not all about money and it’s not all about work. Obviously, you need both to provide for your family, but remember what is actually important in life. When you’re on your deathbed, are you really going to care that you made “X” amount of money per year or are you going to remember the shared times with your loved ones? Hopefully it’s the latter.

“Greatness is never born from easy circumstances. We become stronger when the world becomes harder.” – Erwin McManus

If you want to be great, or to be the best at what you do, realize that to do so, you’re going to have to face and overcome adversity.

To do become great, it starts with your attitude. When things don’t go as planned, most people will begin to doubt whether they have it in them to continue. They’ll wonder if they have the right plan or if they need to scrap this one and move on to the next one. This is why most people don’t reach their full potential. When the world around us becomes harder, do you quit? Or do you push through? Pushing through will make you stronger, and will give you confidence that you can overcome the next obstacle that will inevitably come.

Greatness requires that you have the right mindset and apply positive thinking with taking the correct action steps over long periods of time.

Surround yourself with positive thinkers (whether in person, via the books that you read, or podcasts that you listen to). Prioritize what the most important next action is to get you to your goal (it’s not about being busy doing the little things, it’s about spending your time doing something that is worthwhile). If you repeat this process for the rest of your life, you will travel much further along the path to greatness than you thought was capable.