perspective | The Caleb Barney Collection

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?

A positive attitude

If you frame everything as a challenge to learn from, life will seem less overwhelming. If you frame a bad outcome like everything is going against you and the world has it out for you, it’s going to be a long life. Change your perspective and you will be much happier because everything is a learning opportunity – a chance foe you to get better.

Ask yourself…how will this obstacle help me grow and make me get better? What am I learning from this? Am I learning new things to avoid? Are there things that I should be doing better? Do I have blind spots that I was unaware of?

If you are able to remain positive, yet realistic, in the face of adversity, your mindset will set you up for greater success down the road. This is not saying you should be naive about what you’re facing, nor is it saying that things are always going to work out for the best, but whatever you focus on is going to be amplified. So if you focus on the positive, you’ll see the positive in things. If you focus on the negative, it will seem like everything is going wrong for you (even when you have a lot going in your favor).

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!

Stay away from negative people

However good or bad life is, a lot of it depends on your mindset.

Negative people? They have a problem for every solution.

Positive people find solutions to every problem.

How is it that someone working the same profession as someone else finds working 40 hours to be miserable and is always complaining, while the other person is putting in 55 hours and you don’t hear a peep from them?

How is it that one person gets up early if they want time to themselves or to work on a task, but another person sleeps in and complains there’s not enough time in the day?

I could go on and on with examples. But the point is that life is what it is. The circumstances are similar for all of us, but it’s how we view the circumstances (how we interpret them) that makes a difference. Do you want to be a positive person or a negative person? And do you want to hang out with positive people or negative people? Find solutions. Be the solution. And stomp out the problems.

This too shall pass

“This too shall pass.”

Tell yourself this often to stay level headed. Tell yourself this in good times and in bad. Make sure that you’re doing the right thing today to set yourself up for a better future tomorrow.

Just because things are good today doesn’t mean that they will remain good tomorrow. If you get lazy and don’t follow through with your duties then things will turn around for you in a way that you don’t want.

The same is true if things are bad today. It will get better, but only if you’re doing the right things to correct your situation. Don’t just give up. Losers throw their hands up in the air and give up. Winners know when to cut their losses, when to pivot, and when to try again.