philosophy | The Caleb Barney Collection

Everything is interconnected

Have you noticed how pushing yourself physically improves your mental strength? Or how challenging or positively stressing your mind can benefit you relationally and spiritually? And by taking care of all of those things somehow creates a better financial picture for you and your family?

Everything you do is interconnected. You may be focused on one aspect of your life (like physical health), only to realize the side effects it has in other areas. This is why it’s so important to start your day off right. I love the Miracle Morning for this reason. In it, Hal Elrod recommends to start off each day with S.A.V.E.R.S.

S.A.V.E.R.S. is an acronym that stands for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing (writing). If you can wake up an extra half hour (or hour) early to do this, you can build momentum for the rest of your day. By doing this, you will have stimulated your mind and your body, while also giving you clarity on what you want/need to accomplish for the day. I often feel energized after doing this.

Once I’m done with the S.A.V.E.R.S., I make a healthy breakfast. I know that not everyone likes to eat breakfast, but I feel it’s the most important meal of the day, if only because it is when you have the most willpower to eat healthy (while also saving money and giving you the satisfaction knowing that you cooked that meal). If you skip breakfast, it’s too easy to buy fast food or to eat donuts at the office (hurting your wallet and your waistline). And once you start down that slippery slope, it’s hard to get back on track.

Figure out how you can continue to stack little wins throughout the day. It can feel overwhelming to win the day, month, or year. But when you put it into perspective to just take one small, positive action at a time, eventually they’ll add up to make you a healthier, happier person. And don’t forget, every decision you make is interconnected with a different part of your life. Never take that for granted.

Gratitude versus envy

“It’s a funny thing about life…once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” – Germany Kent

Many of us live a life of over abundance. We are surrounded with a surplus of food and drink to keep us from feeling hunger, of toys and games to keep us from being bored, etc. But because we are constantly surrounded by more and more things (we can’t even get away from it on social media), our focus often shifts from being grateful for what we have to always comparing our lives to others and wanting more. If we focus on what we lack, we will never have enough. But if we focus on being grateful for what we have, envy, jealousy, and desire will have less control over us.

Believe in yourself

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

If you want to achieve great things, the first thing you must do is believe…believe that you can do it! Because if you don’t really think it’s possible, you’ll subconsciously look for reasons why you can’t do it instead of finding ways to do it. You might have to think outside the box to get it. You might have to follow a path someone else has already cleared. But almost assuredly, if it’s a challenging goal, you’re likely to at least stumble along the way. This is why believing that you can do it AND believing that you’re strong enough to overcome any adversity that comes your way is so important. When you inevitability make a mistake, you’ll realize it’s not permanent, and you’ll find a way to move on and grow from it.

Believe in yourself. Make a plan. Take action. Re-evaluate as necessary. Persist through difficulty. And continue to make progress towards your goal(s) every day.

Train your mind to be stronger than your emotions

It doesn’t matter how much you want something, if you don’t train your mind to be stronger than your emotions, you’ll constantly be taking one step forward and two steps back.

Think about wanting to get in the best physical shape of your life. First, you need to set a SMART goal. Then, you need to figure out why that goal is important to you. After that, you need to put a plan in place to achieve your goal. During the planning period, you may be doing research to complete the perfect plan (which doesn’t exist), but that should not stop you from getting started (done is better than perfect). Lastly, you need to find an accountability partner who makes sure you are actively and consistently working towards your goal.

If you let your emotions take over (especially your negative emotions), you’ll find an excuse to not do what you know you need to be doing! It feels better (at the time) to stay in your warm, comfy bed and sleep in. It feels better (at the time) to eat another serving or to have dessert or to have a bedtime snack. It feels better to sit on the couch and watch tv or scroll on Instagram. For every short-term pleasure, there is a long-term consequence. And if you really want to achieve your goals, you have to train your mind to be stronger than your emotions (and just doing what feels good in the moment).

So what’s more important to you? A little extra sleep? Or getting up, keeping that promise to yourself, and striving towards your goals?

Trust me, in the end, you will feel so much better about yourself knowing that you set a difficult goal and you achieved it. You persisted through the ups and downs. It was simple, but it wasn’t easy, and not many people are willing to do what you do to get what you want.

Train your mind. If you listen to your emotions, listen to the positive ones that are pushing you towards your goals. Use those! But steel your mind. Make it so strong that your negative emotions cannot overcome you when you put your mind to something.

On struggling…words from an NBA superstar

We all will face adversity in life. It is what it is. But our attitude will help determine how we get through it. Damian Lillard, one of the NBA’s premier scoring guards has gotten off to a rough start to this season. When asked about his struggles, he said the following:

“I always look at struggles as an opportunity to show my true character. When things go great there’s a lot of praise that goes along with that. A lot of people give you a lot of credit. They speak highly of you on social media, TV. ‘Oh Dame had 60, Dame had 50.’ They speak really highly of you. But I think it says more when you’re going through something and s— is kind of hitting the fan and you’re struggling and everybody’s got something to say and to me the real ones, they can keep on trucking and keep on going and still find a way to get the job done.

“And, me personally, I love when those opportunities present themselves. Because when I am riding high and when I do get smoking hot and when I get going people are going to look at it and be like, ‘We remember when you were struggling and you didn’t shy away from it.’ I think it will be more respect for the success when they see how you handle failure and how you handle struggle.

“So, personally, I embrace that. It’s not fun. It’s not easy but it’s part of my DNA. That’s how I got to this position. I’m not angry about it. I’m frustrated with it. I do see it as a challenge and it’s one I accept and I know I’ll come out on top like I always do.”

I especially love the last part that he lays out. He embraces the struggle! It’s what has made him who he is. He doesn’t get angry about it because what’s done is done. But he does get frustrated and use it as fuel. He sees it as an obstacle to overcome, and he has the confidence in himself – the belief in himself – that he’ll get the job done.

We should all embrace failures, struggles, and setbacks this way. We shouldn’t be happy that they’re happening to us, but what is moping around going to do about it? What is getting angry or pointing the blame elsewhere going to do about it? Ultimately, it’s your responsibility. Take it and figure out your next move to try to make it better.