learning | 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.

College or no?

The college/university you go to does not create success. In fact, even knowledge alone does not cause success. It is the application of your knowledge on a consistent basis that creates success. How you obtain that knowledge could be in a classroom, it might be from a book you read, someone you talked with who has done it before, or your own experiences. Just because you go to “higher education” doesn’t mean that you’re actually more educated than those who don’t attend college.

Sometimes, going to university/college is a requirement for specific professions. But for many other professions (I would even argue that maybe for a slight majority), I think classes tailored to a specific group of skills would be better suited to help individuals trying to get into that field. That’s not to say that I think college is bad or that I would take back my experience at all. BUT I do believe that we need to harp on options for young adults. Why go deeply into debt for a degree that may or may not help you?

Tomorrow is a new day

At the end of the day, you might have some regrets about what you did or didn’t do or what you said or didn’t say, but you have to let it go.

You can’t change that anymore.

The best thing you can do is to move on. If you feel bad about something, apologize or do something to make it right – don’t dwell on things you can’t change.

Be obsessed or be average

“Be obsessed or be average.” ⁃ Grant Cardone

Have you ever met someone who was head and shoulders better at what they did compared to others in their field? Chances are, this didn’t happen by accident. Natural ability can give you a leg up when you’re starting out, but to stand out amongst the standouts, you have to be obsessed with improving your craft.

Malcolm Gladwell touches on this with his 10,000 hour rule, where he states it takes approximately 10,000 hours of doing something to master it. You have to put in the practice and gain the experience to master something.

But it’s not just about going through the motions. You have to intentionally plan out what you’re going to do. You have to look at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You have to keep up with market trends and know the market so well that you can predict future trends. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe whatever it is you’re trying to be the best at in order to make it work. You need to read about it, talk about it, listen about it, connect with others who are experts, and go experience it for yourself. In short, you need to be obsessed or else you’ll end up “average.”

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Keep pushing through. Where you are today is exactly where you need to be. Sometimes you need to suffer. Sometimes you need to get knocked down. It will serve as motivation to get you to where you need to be. Get back up, learn from your past, and start chasing your dreams.