goals | The Caleb Barney Collection

Impactful hours

The Wealthy Gardener discusses the idea of how the most productive people take advantage of maximizing their time by adding impact hours and minimizing the amount of hollow hours throughout their day.

We all have the same amount of time in the day, but clearly some people have more impact than others. Clearly some can accomplish more in the same amount of time than others.

Why is this so?

It is because they use their hours more effectively to create better results. Even though they have the same 24 hours as everyone else, they have fewer hollow (aka “wasted”) hours. What would an example of a hollow hour be? Watching Netflix, scrolling through social media, doing nothing to move you forward or achieve your goals.

Your goal should be to fill your day up with more impactful hours. What actions do you need to take to move the needle in getting you closer to your goals?

Design your perfect day and extrapolate it

Live your life by design. Live it intentionally everyday.

Have you designed your life to be set up in the way that you want to live it? Or are you just going through the motions letting the waves take you to and fro. Do you have any say in your life right now? Are you living proactively or reactively?

Design your perfect day, week, month, and year. What are the most important things to you? What brings you the most joy? What do you get to do that allows you those freedoms?

The overlooked predictor of success

What makes someone successful?

If you ask most people, they’ll usually say some combination of having natural ability, good work ethic, knowing the “right people,” having integrity, charm, and maybe even some good luck.

But there’s one thing that gets overlooked sometimes, yet I feel is just as important as the more popular answers…resilience.

Resilience is one of the best predictors of our future success, because at some point we will always encounter something difficult. Things won’t always go our way. Are we willing to keep going even when it’s tough? When the shiny object has disappeared and our initial interest has faded, do we stop chasing after that goal we were once excited about or do we have the determination to keep after it?

Are we strategic when we quit something? The saying “winners never quit,” isn’t true. Sometimes you have to know when to re-prioritize your goals or to tweak them, but you have to give it an honest effort. And when you do “quit,” are you just giving up or are you making adjustments before setting new goals?

Be tough. Be resilient. Bounce back after a loss. It’s the ones who keep coming back for more that will be successful. You can’t keep them down. Adapt and overcome and you will eventually be successful.

Start being excited about what could go right

Get excited!

Read, listen to podcasts, watch YouTube videos, talk to others, and actually start taking action.

Things can always go wrong (especially if you haven’t taken the time to properly prepare). But if you’ve mitigated your risk by doing everything you can ahead of time, you need to think about the opportunity cost of NOT taking action.

Most actions are reversible (or you can at least get back to a similar position if things don’t work out). So what’s the worst can that happen? You try, fail, and end up back where you’re at? Oh well. At least you’ll know you tried. And then you can use your experience to learn and try something else, should you decide to keep going after it.

If you never go for what excites you, you’ll always wonder “what if…” Why do that to yourself? Get excited about your potential and the opportunities that await and start taking action!

How bad do you want it?

There’s a difference between wanting something if it comes to you and wanting to make it so bad that you are willing to put in the effort to make it happen.

For example, I want $1 million. It would be nice if I somehow won $1 million. But that’s not likely. So if I really want it, am I willing to put forth the effort to earn it?

I want to set personal records for strength and conditioning, but I am I willing to push myself hard every single day in the gym, eating the right things, focusing on flexibility and mobility work, and get enough sleep and recovery.

I want to have the perfect family life. But I have to want it badly enough to balance between personal care (where I am making sure I can still be the best version of myself), and spending quality time, helping out around the house, showing the kids great work ethic, respecting and loving my wife/their mother, etc.

Everyone “wants” better, but how badly do you want it? Are you willing to do the work? Everybody wants the best, but not many people are willing to put in the required blood, sweat, and tears to make it happen. Are you going to just be a daydreamer? Or are you going to take massive action to live your best life?