business | The Caleb Barney Collection

Think bigger. Are your goals not challenging enough?

People get into the best shape of their lives every single year. Some people go on a journey and lose over 100 pounds. Other people make vast improvements in their financial standing or well-being. Why not you? What’s holding you back?

Ask yourself, are you setting realistic goals? Or are you setting easy goals that you know you can hit? Your goals should be ambitious. They should be a little scary. If they’re not, they are not challenging enough and you probably set your sights too small.

Look at your goals today. They might be the right goals, but on the wrong timeline. Instead of taking 12 months to do it (where 11 months are wasted of not working towards it at all), can you complete it in 3 months?

Teamwork makes the dream work

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African proverb

You can only go so far, or accomplish so much, on your own. It takes teamwork to achieve something great.

Teams (especially large teams with many decision-makers) can take a long time to decide and act on something. It is easier to move quickly when your team is small or you’re by yourself. But you will be limited by your time, energy, and mental capabilities if you only work alone. If you work with a team, with each team member having their own strengths and bringing something valuable to the team, you can achieve something larger than any one person.

Achieving goals

You can do anything you set your mind to. If you put enough focused time, energy, and (possibly) money into accomplishing a goal, it will get done.

The reason why many people don’t achieve their goals is because they aren’t willing to make the necessary sacrifices of time, energy, or money to achieve it. Or maybe they’re afraid of looking dumb or failing so they aren’t willing to put everything on the line. Maybe they don’t know where to get started, so even though they want something, they are putting their time, energy, and money into the wrong places.

Get a mentor and peers – someone who has done it before (what did they do to get started. Take the principles and apply them to today), who is still doing it (keeping up with what is relevant and working right now), and who is at a similar position (but in a different region so you are not in direct competition with them).

Be decisive. Once you have enough information, act on it. Don’t be an over consumer of information and fail to produce anything.

Be confident. Speak clearly, succinctly, and as an authoritative figure. If people come to you with questions and you want to be viewed as the expert, do these things. Otherwise they will second-guess you.

Realistically optimistic

Make the best of any situation. That doesn’t mean that you have to view every situation as a positive one. But it does mean that you should not dwell on the negative or on what you cannot change…

You CAN be an optimist and a realist at the same time. They do not have to be mutually exclusive. Being realistic is very important. But a lot of people don’t realize what they’re actually capable of and they view things as being “unrealistic” or out of reach when really they just haven’t found the right way to get what they want yet.

Figure out a way how to make a bad situation better. Do not be easily overcome when things don’t go your way. Stop saying, “I can’t do it.” Instead, ask, “How can I do it?”

Tips on leadership

It is just as important to reward good behavior as it is to punish misconduct.

When an employee’s (or a child’s) negative behaviors are tolerated, it can be detrimental to the health, mindset, and culture of the rest of the business (or family).

Remember to praise in public and to reprimand in private. This is a general rule (some people need to be scolded in public if, after several attempts to talk in private, doesn’t work).

Care about people first. When you show you care about them, that you respect them, they will work harder to achieve a common goal.