 You're listening to barbell logic brought to you by barbell logic online coaching where each week We take a systematic walk through strength training and the refining power of voluntary hardship Welcome to the barbell logic podcast. This is a principles episode. This one's going to be a short one This is actually me all by myself for your Sunday morning and I just wanted to talk a little bit about values and Taking stock of those values those things that are really important in your life This week has been an interesting week And we've had an incredible week In the business some kind of just big things that have happened or I am just I am overwhelmed with I'm so grateful at What I get to do every day and the company I get to run and the people I get to to work with and While that was going on this week and lots and lots of work with the business I also was I was planning a raised bed garden I've I've had gardens before I've had container gardens and normal gardens. I've never done a raised bed garden and Here in the this time of quarantine and and COVID and we can't leave We just felt like it was a great thing to do And so we just made it a family project and we we made some some raised beds and our good friend Jordan Gross Who's a who's a client of ours and a buddy of mine? Suggested that we do that and he runs a great farm And so we we put that together and it's just been a blast to be able to do that as a family And it got me thinking about Again those very specific things that that bring me value and so I want to put out a challenge this week And even even today because a lot of times Sundays are even in the midst of COVID where almost every day is the same There's something about Sunday that seems a little more relaxed than all the other days And I would just challenge you to to really take stock in The things like the specific things that bring you value and the things that rob you of value And so if you go all the way back to episodes, I think 94 and 95 Those first hundred episodes were way past 300 now I think I talk about the things that bring me value and rob me of value in episode 94 It's a pretty short episode I think it's about 30 minutes and then Scott does the same thing in 95 and and we'll talk some to Chris to my brother as well Here in the next few weeks about the things that bring him value Although you're probably starting to see those things in these principles Episodes and so as I would challenge you to literally sit down and take a piece of paper or a You know five by seven note card and write the things that that you do on a daily or weekly basis Or or or maybe not that often but wish you did That really bring value to your life and when I say value I'm not talking about Finances although that could be part of it. I'm talking about I'm talking about joy I'm talking about things that last things that you know I've talked about before that that that happiness is often fleeting. What are the things that last? Longer than a day longer than a week you get a new iPhone you get a new car You get a new gadget it makes you happy and it sort of satisfies gives that dopamine rush and gives you that Instant gratification, but it doesn't last so I would never say like a new phone brings me value or a new car brings me value There are very few actual Materialistic things that do bring me value But there are things that I do on a daily basis that do and one of those things actually for me I don't know that I've ever even talked about it, but I I would think that I that Scott would concur One of the things that brings me value is actually manual labor. I like it I I hated it when I was a kid and my my brother joked about this a few weeks ago that Anytime there were family chores to be done or groceries to be unloaded I would sort of skirt that issue and my my my 15 year old daughter Seems to do that today and so she the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree and and as I have gotten older and hopefully more mature I have noticed that while I Spend an inordinate amount of time running a business where there is really It's the work is never done. There is something incredibly satisfying About doing a manual labor job like planting a garden like building a raised bed like Landscaping in your yard like we've laid seed, you know grass seed for the spring and some bare spots And you can go back and look at that thing when you're done and say like I did something and I can see the The fruits of my labor and that's a little harder in a job when you're running a large tech company Or even when I was a teacher it was hard You know just the end was sort of the end of the semester and you didn't really know The impact you had on your students life till maybe ever or or maybe years down the road when they reach back out to you And so so I would challenge you to sit down and actually lay down those or write out those Things that you do on a daily basis. It brings you value what I've noticed about those things for me Is that they would almost always be considered? Amoral they're not necessarily really really good things or really good bad things. So there are things like I love giving back I love being able to to quote-unquote bless people Financially or or with other ways to be able to give my time or work or like that that makes me feel great But but that's a that's most people would say that's a that's a moral thing to do and so So I'm really talking about things like we had a great discussion tonight walking through sort of American history in 15 major points with my kiddos and It was it was literally was like an overview of America. We just had this great It was somehow we got on this conversation I don't even know how we did it About like what are the big things that have happened to the United States and we laid out kind of 15 major things And it was a blast and it brought us value and I think my kids will remember it for years to come And so things like that bring me value things like Having a good meal like cooking with my wife Will play music that we love maybe it's classical music Maybe it's it's a like really chill bluegrass type music or you know, whatever the mood is And and that brings me value like it's it's is cooking food Moral or immoral that's a moral like it doesn't really have morality. It's not good or bad It just is a thing that brings me joy and I and I love it And so it's certainly quality time for my wife quality time with my kids. What does that look like like great talks with my kids? I love it being in my library upstairs and one of my kiddos isn't in there And we're just having a conversation about life and sometimes I mean my kids asked me questions about things That I would never have asked my parents because it just felt unsafe To do that and so and so those things really bring me value certainly certainly reading brings me tremendous value and And there's lots of places there and reading even itself the way I've divided that up Like there are there are things that I read like there are theology books that that just Or or even parts of a scripture of the bible that just wrecked me, you know When I read romans 8 or when I read psalms or or proverbs It just wrecks me And and there are times when I Have books that I go back to there's a book called the hard thing about hard things I've talked about that before And it is reminiscent about just that just like the hard things that happen in business 2019 was the toughest year of my life And 2020 thus far has been the best year of my life and there there's probably more News to come there as as we move along and so it's um, I'm just I'm thankful. I'm grateful Honestly a part of me is feels a little bit guilty I know Much of the world is suffering and and we are not and We're not just talking about finances or how good business is it's good to own an online business right now for sure But again, it comes down to the gratitude of the people that I work with The people I'm getting the opportunity to bring on to the team The growth that we're experiencing in the expansion again, not from a necessarily monetary standpoint But the the people were able to reach and the net of influence were able to have Brings me brings me a ton of value Sitting out under the stars and thinking about how small I am Brings me value I've said this before not to make this Religious in any way, but I grew up in like traditional Baptist churches and I remember singing singing like those old hymns and I hated them when I was a kid I hated those hymns and in in my older life, I I can see the wisdom in the lyrics And the text of those hymns and so so old hymns sung new Especially if they were a hymn that that I get reminded that I I chastised when I was 16 or 17 years old and made fun of it because it was old And I go back and listen to the words and there's such depth compared to The things that are often sung today in In modern evangelical worship services. And so it's incredibly valuable to me So those things those things are great, you know, and I've talked about like a great glass of whiskey or a A great cup of coffee in the morning and the way I make the coffee in the You know the process of grinding the beans and doing the pour over and That brings me value and again, there's there's nothing moral about those things But to be able to sit down and actually identify that and so I did this one day I actually sat down and I've done it several times I've sat down and I've laid out these things that are these are the things that bring me value that I need to do more of training like I love to train I'm I'm I'm one of those guys that really enjoys training. It makes me feel better. It's not it's not It's not medicine. It's not a spoonful of medicine for me. I enjoy the process Of training and of getting better. I love the way it makes me feel. I love the way it makes me feel afterwards I love it And so it brings me a tremendous amount of value as well I talked about reading theology books certainly reading good business books Reading business books from people who are so wise like so much wiser than I am I love and then reading great fiction books at this point like reading something like lonesome dove one of the greatest fiction books I've ever read and Brett McKay told me I had to read that book and it was it was phenomenal and it brought me joy So those things are great. And then I on the flip side I would also encourage you to on the other side of the sheet or on the bottom side of the sheet one of the two I would lay out the things that that you feel like rob you of value, you know And um, you know for me, there are those things like I'm spending too much time watching Netflix or binge watching youtube or being on facebook at all, which I I don't use at all anymore Or being on instagram, which I really don't use either. I mean very very rarely Rob me of value getting caught up in Political discussions, especially among the big kind of mainstream media that leans either right or left or whatever It just causes me stress. And so I'm not really interested in I want to stay up on the news enough But I want to get it more from hard data and not from I'm not interested in people's opinions and it tends to rob Me of value. I can feel my blood pressure go up Something that robs me of value staying up late robs me of value eating too much and feeling bloated and gross Robs me of value drinking too much obviously Robbs me of value and and you start getting some of those things that might actually be immoral like, you know Things like I don't play video games Um, I make a choice to to not watch pornography and and if I have or if I do It robs me of value like and again It's not about me being moral or making a moral choice and telling you what to do or not to do These are things that I've noticed for me rob my life of value and so Um, spending great time having great discussions with my wife. They don't it doesn't have to be um, it doesn't have to be You know sexually intimate it can just be affectionate like affection with my wife or just time with my wife where we just talk about things are are things that bring me tremendous value and so Um, whereas you know staying up too late robs me of value like we go to bed at the same time Um sleeping in too much, which is very rare for me and I can't hardly do it If I wanted to anymore robs me of value I don't feel good if I sleep until 8 30 or 9 and it would be impossible if I slept till After that and so certainly there are things that I've been able to identify and I've actually written them down We've got the lists. Um, some of those are private but but most of them I could talk through I can identify those things that bring me value or rob me of value And so I think that you would be surprised If you took it really only takes about 10 minutes of just nothing going on no distractions You could even do a little 25 minute pomodoro would be more than enough time And sit sit silently in a chair with like a notepad Or a five by seven card and just and just start jotting things down These are the things that I love and bring me joy. They're good for me. I like them They make me feel better and it's not about making me feel better just today again. It's not exercise It's not I'm getting hot and sweaty and I love the way it makes me feel It's that I love to the process of training because of the goal we're working towards I love the process Of running barba logic the business. I love it. So it's my number one favorite thing to do on earth I love running this business and working with the people I get to work with and so Lay out those things that you do on a daily basis that bring you value especially today In those days where right now you can't Uh, your life is probably more simple Because you can't go to work a lot of you can't go to work and you can't go to school You can't go to the restaurants and you can't go have the meetings You're there's just more time and so you as you sit at home You know, I've watched people argue about these ideas of some people feel like there's so much more freedom in working from home And other people They're stuck at home with kids that they don't like and they wish they could go back to work and they wish The kids could go back to school like that's a that's a sad life for me Like I love being around my family and that doesn't mean my family's perfect And doesn't mean that my family doesn't sometimes drive me nuts or individual members of my family don't drive me nuts. Sometimes they do But I I'm pushing towards Investing in those relationships and as I invest in those relationships and give as much as I can Man, they return Threefold fivefold tenfold to me and I get tremendous value out of out of those relationships That are those great talks those great discussions those family meals those like those things are important to me again My list is my list Your list is yours But I think it's really important to take stock in Like literally writing down what are those things and so uh, if you need if you need some ideas to sort of spur that Go to back to episodes 94 and 95 listen to scott and I talk about our own Values and the things that bring us value and the thing Things that rob us of value and I would challenge you to make that list this week Next week we'll be back with chris. We'll talk about through our personality Tests those different things we talked about the understanding myself The meyers briggs the enneagram some of those others and see I would encourage you to do that So you can see sort of how it lays out and and I'm you'll I'm sure you'll be completely different from chris And I and I'm chris and I will be completely different will be on mostly opposites into ends of the spectrum We'll both be industrious, but outside of that. We're going to be all over the place So, uh, thank you so much again for giving us a few minutes of your sunday morning. I hope you have a A blast today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your sunday. I hope you have a great week With whatever you're doing in in in work or your family or those things that bring you value I hope you're able to identify those things and then also identify the things that rob you of value And then purge your purge your life as much as you can Of the things that rob you of value And focus on spending more time on those important things that are never urgent The important things that are never urgent that bring you value and bring you joy that last A lifetime last eternally last like whatever your belief system is there They certainly last more than a wednesday or a sunday and so take stock in that And uh, we will see you tomorrow morning. So thanks for listening