choice | The Caleb Barney Collection

It’s your choice

What you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become. — “Day by day, what you choose, what you think, and what you do is who you become.” – Heraclitus

What you think about and what you do on a daily basis is who you become.

Are you thinking positive thoughts or negative ones?

Are you surrounded by optimistic people who lift others up or people who gossip and only talk about what’s wrong in their life?

Do you walk around with a smile on your face or do you mope around like Eeyore?

You get to choose who you become by controlling your thoughts, words, and actions. You can’t change what you’ve done in the past, but you can make a decision to do better today and, more specifically, start with your next action. Live intentionally and you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish/who you can become.

Compound interest on the decisions you make

The best thing we have going for us is that we’re young and capable. Compound interest is our most trusted ally. Work hard and bust our butts (sacrifice) now so we can live like nobody else in the future.

Easy choices, hard life. Hard decisions, easy life.

Choose to do something difficult now that moves you closer to your goals. It’s always easier to put it off until tomorrow, but that will prolong the inevitable and works against your best interest.

You become your thoughts

“Everything hangs on one’s thinking…A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.” – Seneca

Seneca, like many other stoic philosophers, had it right when it came to their attitude towards mindset, beliefs, and feelings. Basically, we control how happy or unhappy we are with our thoughts. When something happens, we can convince ourselves that we are lucky or unlucky, that something is happening to us instead of for us, or that it’s a failure versus an opportunity to learn.

We are what we tell ourselves and we become what we consistently think. Think positively and you will become a more positive person. Think negatively and you’ll become more like Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh. For those who are unfamiliar with this character, this is how Wikipedia describes him: “He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-the-Pooh.”

Now, if you were picking who you wanted to hang out with for a day, would you pick the person who is chronically pessimistic and gloomy? Of course not! And guess who is the only person you hang out with 24 hours a day? (Hint: it’s yourself)…why would you choose to be anything, but happy?

Choose your mood

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

Have you ever noticed something that triggers one person and puts them in “a mood” for the rest of the day, but a similar event has no affect on a different person? Why is that?

It seems like some people are predisposed to being angry at the smallest things – letting everything around them affect how they’re feeling at that moment. But it really doesn’t have to be that way. In most cases, it only takes a mindset shift to live a happier, less stressful life. Obviously there are things that happen to us that are very serious. Thinking positively doesn’t necessarily make the situation all better, but it’s still the better choice to make rather than dwelling on the negative. Regardless of how do you think about the situation, you probably can’t control those outside events and you can’t change the past. But you can control how you respond to them.

Choose to be happy and see the good in every situation. Why would you want to choose to be anything other than happy?

You’re not going to win

“It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.” – Bill Murray

When you’re in an argument or when you disagree with someone (especially about their opinion or in “gray” matters), how often do you ever actually say something that gets them to change their minds? It’s hard enough to convince them that you’re right using logic and facts, but when you are debating over something that doesn’t have a factually correct/incorrect answer yet and is based on speculation, you most likely aren’t going to “win” that argument.

This is why people say to not talk about sex, politics, religion, or money. Those topics are too emotionally charged. And what is right for one person may not be right for you. How they view the subject will likely be different than you, and discussing it leaves you open to having huge disagreements and arguments over something in which you won’t change their mind.

That being said, if you do get caught up in a debate, don’t take it personally. They believe what they believe and you believe what you believe. Don’t take offense to their opinion, which more often than not, have no bearing on your life. Why would you choose to get worked up over something that doesn’t actually affect you?