quote | The Caleb Barney Collection

Staying grounded while dreaming big

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.” Theodore Roosevelt

Be a dreamer. Set lofty goals. But no matter what the outcome, stay grounded. Remember your roots – where you came from and who your true friends are.

As you gain success, popularity, and prestige, people will treat you differently. It will feel good. But just like there are bandwagon fans for sports teams, there are people that will jump to support you when everything is going well and run away/speak negatively of you when things are going poorly.

No matter where you are in life, always treat people with respect and never compromise your values.

Forget perfect

Perfectionism is the killer of dreams. It kills dreams before they even get started because nothing will ever be perfect. If you wait for everything to be perfect to take action, or if you keep tweaking something and decide not to launch it because it’s not perfect, you’ll never end up doing anything.

Instead of waiting for perfect, just take action! Action is almost always better than inaction. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t overthink. Don’t let outside circumstances dictate what you can do. Just do it. You may stumble and fall along the way, but as long as you keep getting up and trying again, you’ll be ahead of where you would have been if you never tried. And who knows, maybe you’ll stumble over something better than you ever expected…

“Keep on going and chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles Kettering

Luck and work

“Care and diligence bring luck.” – Thomas Fuller

Sometimes, you have to make your own luck. It’s not always the case, and it doesn’t always come easy, but if you work hard at doing the right things and treating people the right way, good things often come to you.

If you feel like you’re unlucky, that just means you have to work harder and focus on the positives around you. The world isn’t out to get you. It just is what it is. It’s not going out of its way to hurt or help you. You have to work as hard as you can, controlling what you can, and let everything else fall into place.

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Samuel Goldwyn

The weekend

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

No matter what happened yesterday, no matter what you did or didn’t do, today is a new day. Don’t dwell on the past. You can’t change what happened last week, but today you have a new opportunity to do what you need to do.

I agree with Eleanor Roosevelt’s quote above. Each day brings you new opportunities to reset. But there’s something different about the weekend. It feels easier to hit the reset button because you’re able to take a breath and take a step back from work. Now that it is the weekend, try doing things that you don’t have as much time to do on a typical weekday. Weekends don’t mean you should just sit around and do nothing. You get an extra 8 hours per day back (more if you count the drive time) since you’re not going into work! Take advantage of it. Go work out, read a good book, clean the house, meal prep for the week, start on the project that you’ve been meaning to…Sure, you can still catch up on a show or two, but try to improve yourself. Now is when you have the time and the strength (mentally and physically) to follow through with your ideas. Don’t waste it.

Actions and the highest bidder

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” – George Washington

People are often incentivized to do nothing (or worse, to do the wrong thing) by being rewarded. Meanwhile, they are often hurt (financially, socially, etc.) by doing the right thing. The question is, do you have the intestinal fortitude to do what is right, no matter the consequences?