Everyone wants to do better and be better, at least at something.

The list of things I want to improve for me seems darn near endless.

Regular readers know I am never shy about giving advice. This post qualifies — and it’s as right for me as anyone else. These are simple sayings — Want to Do Better? Easy, Be Better. To Be Right, Do Right. But that does not keep them from being powerful and universally true.

I’m sure this thought popped in my head because I have known for some time I’m out of balance. Some might say my chakras are out of alignment. I don’t know about that, but I do recall some personal development training years ago that applies today.

quality of life

The idea was there are six major factors in your life. It was a long time ago, and I am not sure these are the same six factors as I was shown initially. Doesn’t matter because these work for me today. If you want to play along, Choose your six.

If you grade each point by how well you are doing, then draw a line from the center point to the outward point. Then you connect the outer points. What you hope is to have something that resembles a circle. If your life is well rounded, then it will roll. If you have a misshapen wheel, then getting on a roll is hard to do, if not impossible.

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I’ve got a flat.

According to this theory, I’m not rolling. I will just pick one area that’s bugging me. It’s health. Overall, I’m healthier than most people my age. I say that because I take no prescription drugs. I have all my original parts and feel pretty good. Many folks I know would take that scenario in a heartbeat.

But this is about me, not them. I want to do better. I know I can. I can extend my life and my quality of life if I do better on my health radius. In my case, it’s all about diet and exercise.

I know better and have no excuse for not doing better except I have not found the discipline to make a change. Things are okay, and I’m too busy, too disinterested and lack the motivation to make a change. Regarding this aspect of my life, I’ll call it as it is, I’m lazy.

You can and should be a role model for yourself.

Well, thing are about to change in my life. I want to be a role model for me. I want to look back to April 2016 and know that was the time when I got liftoff on a meaningful lifestyle change.

I’m not one to rush into fads, or jump on the latest craze to lose weight or get some fancy gizmo to get in shape. I’m one who knows the best methods to make changes are the simple ones. Get the basics right and everything else falls into place.

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When I say get the basics right, it is an intentional reflection of the part of the subject line that says, “To be right, do right.” It’s so easy to live with packaged convenience and inexpensive, fast food. It’s also easy to ignore the signs in those places that show you the calories, or notice them after the fact.

Sheepish fast food junkie. Realizing there is hope.

I admit I love the taste and convenience of fast food all the while knowing it’s mostly a bad habit. The other day, right after I get my fried spicy chicken sandwich with fries, I look up and see I could have ordered grilled chicken nuggets with dipping sauce and a salad with a diet soft drink. That dealie comes in at a Weight Watchers loving 280 calories. Wowser! That hit home with me. There is hope.

I have had it in some part of my head for some time to make changes. To start getting to the gym on a regular schedule, I need to start getting to bed earlier, so that is easier to accommodate a morning exercise routine. I also want to start eating more green and healthy. The only thing between me doing these things or not is me. I’m my worst enemy when it comes to this.

Neither of these changes is easy for me. The combination exercise and sleep thing are changing deep-seated patterns. I’m a night owl. I admit it. (I’m writing this at 11:30 and I am wide awake and bristling with ideas.) But, you can’t get up late, do a little work, and then get to the gym just before lunch. At least, it doesn’t work for me. It screws up the rest of my day.

Something’s got to give.

I can’t  lose a big chunk of my day and accomplish my lofty business goals. Working on my business is not a problem. I’m off the chart on time spent on it. So, I have to learn to make exceptions and know when to quit. Because I am passionate about what I do, I never really feel like I’m working. Having my office steps away makes it easy to flow in here until the next thing I know hours have passed.

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Where’s the passion for getting healthy?

The nutrition thing is something else. I think it takes getting rid of all the crap and just mediocre stuff in the house and replacing it with healthy alternatives. That sounds easy, but until I do some studying and get some meal plans together and build up a grocery list and know where I’m going to get my kale and arugula, and so on, it’s a challenge. So far, instead of taking up the challenge, I just head to Subway instead.

I’m slowly moving in the right direction. Lots of ideas and plans and unfortunately, lots less action thus far. But, at least, I have awareness and sense a growing resolve to take back parts of my life I’ve kind of let slide.

I know it will take more than a little determination and discipline to get this going. I’m feeling I’m ready for it. I’m also sensing that regaining fitness will boost my confidence and help motivate me.

Momentum is what will fuel the moxie to make the changes and create positive cause and effects in other areas of my life as a bonus. Things seem to work that way. It’s all about determination, will power and liftoff.

Are you ready for a change in your career or your life?

I’m sharing these thoughts with you in hopes you will find a nugget of motivation to start making changes in those areas where you know it’s possible. I see it over and over again. It’s rarely just technique, and almost never luck that makes artists successful. It’s the doing that does it.

It’s easy to spot the artists who have had the greatest results from taking my Art Marketing Mastery Workshop or my How to Find Collectors Training course. They are the ones who put aside their subjective feelings about the validity of the training and just decided to go with it. They might have questioned the process but went with it regardless.

Unexpected outcomes happen often.

What those who tried hard got were results, in some cases surprising results. Like even though we talked about how things can happen, it was always theoretical, until one day when it wasn’t. It was real life and real goodness coming into it because they did something. Not just a little something, but putting in time and effort on a regular basis.

That’s the only way you are going to make any changes in your life. If you want to make more money, sell more art, or just get physically fit, you can. But there is no magic pill. There are no shortcuts to success. I can’t do 50 sit ups and pop out a six-pack for my effort.

The saga of the six-pack.

If I’m going to get a six-pack, (Never going to happen, just using it as a radical example.) or just drop 20 pounds, or get back to walking five miles in an hour, I have to work at it. I have to work up to it. Whether it’s career related, or relationship related, or physiological, you need to build up stamina, to gain back muscle memory, to get re-energized because you slowly see changes happen.

If you have taken one of my courses or workshops, read one of my books, or have some other program you bought that didn’t work for you, I encourage you, I challenge you to take another look. To take a blank slate approach to revisiting the learning and try it again. I guarantee whether it’s something I put out or, a program someone else did, that there are goodies right there in front of you that you ignored for untold reasons.

Doer versus victim versus a blamer. Pick a winner!

I hear this too often about all manner of things, “I tried that, and it didn’t work.” Hmmm. That’s strange because a ton of other people tried the same thing and they got splendid results. I’m not preaching here. I admit having copped the same plea on more than a few such things myself.

In virtually every case where there has been a failure to succeed, there was either a bad attitude, a lack of commitment, laziness or distractedness at work.  Sometimes, it’s been a combination of all those things. What I’m saying here is if we want better we have to own the outcome. We can be neither a victim nor a blamer.

Why CrossFit and MMA are not in the cards.

I realize not every program will work equally well for every person. I’ll be damned if I ever try CrossFit as a way to get in shape. I know some very feminine women who are taking MMA training and loving it. Not for me. No way, no how. That’s okay because there are so many other options. And, that’s the case with any art career or art marketing training you’ve taken.

Some programs suit you better than others. The best thing you can do is revisit one you already own. You don’t need the next new bright, shiny object. You just need an uncluttered mind and an unfettered determination to make whatever you are going to use work for you.

Save time and money. Stop chasing the BSOs (Bright Shiny Objects.)

Going that route will not only save you on investing in some newfangled program, but you will have some muscle memory and awareness of how it works built in. That should give you a leg up to take another run at helping yourself with your career. Or, if you are going to be like me and get your nutrition and exercise under control, go back to what worked before and just make that better.

I mentioned my Art Marketing Mastery Workshop and How to Find Collectors Training course. Both are closed to new members for the moment. I’m working hard in the background to recreate and retool them to do better with them in every way for artists when they reopen. I expect the How to Find Collectors to open within a couple of weeks and the Art Marketing Mastery Workshop to follow shortly after.

If you are interested in learning details about when they open, make sure you are subscribed to this weekly newsletter. I will update you with details as soon as they are available. There are sign up boxes in the middle and at the bottom of this post and on the right sidebar.

Carpe Diem!

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  • Blessings to you as you work on making this change in your life. I signed up for Art Marketing Mastery a few weeks ago and will be starting on it today as I wrap up some details from the opening of my newest exhibit, Heaven and Nature Sing! Looking forward to learning new skills to implement to make my art business better. Thanks!

  • My life is filled with the factors of life but there is a whole lot more then 7. And there is no long term priorities. On any given day in any given hour it could be more important to show up at a little girls soccer game than attend that very important board meeting. The factors spin around us in ever changing priority. I have to be centered enough to make a good decision and attend to the most important in the moment.

  • “Not just a little something, but putting in time and effort on a regular basis… That’s the only way you are going to make any changes in your life.”

    Such sage advice. Thanks so much for this article – I really needed this today!

    • My pleasure. The post was from the heart and from my personal experience. I’m happy you found inspiration in it! 🙂

  • I’ve been rewiring my health habits for a while now. My recommendation? With food, it’s easier to start with addition than subtraction. Adding some raw carrot sticks and red bell peppers is fairly painless (enjoyable eventually), and takes very little time. Best wishes!

  • Julie Chapman says:

    Barney, you know the value of working with coaches. Why not get a coach for your eating – one who says “here’s what should be in your pantry and your fridge, and here are a pile of sample menus”? And possibly a physical one who goes through and throws away all the crap in your kitchen? 🙂

    I say this to proselytize healthy eating and exercise. At age 53 I run 25-30 miles a week in 3 runs, strength-train on 2 other days, and focus my diet around moderate amounts of protein and whole grains, and loads of fresh produce. Also, wine and chocolate :-). I take no medications and have no need of a doctor. All of this gives me plenty of energy and a sense of balance (runs are meditative and problem-solving times). When I run road races I often do well, even placing or winning in my age group. Stunning for someone who was not a runner until a few years ago.

    Meanwhile, back to the concepts I’ve taken from your How to Find Collectors class…stay tuned. (I’ve been adding 5 to 15 collectors to my email list at every event I do, and am planning to have a vendor booth at an event I would never have considered before your class — but it’s an event aimed at my avatar.)

    • Excellent suggestion. One that has been on my mind for some time. I’m impressed by your training regimen. You’re proof positive that attitude and doing are what really matters. Thanks for your insightful comments and for sharing your results from my training! All the best!

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