I am no longer in my 20s.

Here are some of my lessons and takeaways from the last 10 years of my life.

My 20s hold so many special memories and moments.

1. Graduating from college

2. Starting BetterWealth with really no clue how to run a business

3. Wrote a book (sold more than 19,000 copies)

4. Started a podcastBecame a YouTuber

5. Spent a couple of years in Denver, Colorado

6. Got married to my best friend

7. Built and worked with an incredible team

8. Moved to Nashville, Tennessee

9. Hosted 4 annual industry events

10. Became a father (One of the most life-changing experiences of my life)

11. A LOT of travel. (Our baby girl, who isn’t even 2 years., has been on over 40 plane rides)

12. Beating the odds of business failure and staying in business

13. Became an international public speaker (Spoke to well over 100,000 people in person all over the country and internationally, thank you, Mexico and Canada🙂)

I am beyond grateful for all these and 1,000 more moments and memories that aren’t even mentioned. With that said, here are 14 lessons and takeaways I've learned over the last 10 years.

1. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

2. Relationships compound exponentially.

3. If you want to grow and get better, it’s up to you to be the best student possible. Being proactive, humble, and teachable are magnets for wise mentorship.

4. Taking extreme ownership and having low expectations of others are the keys to being happy.

5. You will fall to your standards and habits.  You get what you tolerate out of life.

6. Value Leveraging™ - A talk and framework I developed for myself when it comes to business and investing.

Value - create value by solving people's pain and problems.

Leverage - the process of amplifying value.

7. You are your greatest asset. Society is designed to make you devalue it. I don’t think I will ever regret investing in myself! With that said, measure your return on investment by installing accountability for your inputs and outputs.

8. Your time and energy are far more valuable than money; protect them at all costs!

9. True freedom is not needing to have external validation for decisions.

10. When investing, focus more on risk and how you could lose money vs how much you can make.

11. Learn from people's praises and criticisms, but don’t let them go to your head. Not all statements are created equally.

12. Focus on inputs and outcomes: not yours or someone's perceived good or bad intentions.

13. Making a video to be the main speaker at your funeral is one of the most valuable things you can do while you're alive (not only will it be the most meaningful video you ever make, but the process of making it will change you while you're alive)

14. Instead of focusing on what you want to do, ask yourself this: “If this were your last day, what would you regret not doing?”

My default is living in the future of what “could be”.  Being present is not easy for me and is something I am actively working on.  If you're like me, having a mental framework can be helpful rather than just saying, “I need to be more present.” This is the best mental framework I have so far to help me be more present.

Death.

Death has a very sobering way to make you focus on what’s most important and not worry about all the things that aren’t.

While you will only die once, our life is filled with many mini deaths. When time passes, it is gone forever; everything in our past is a form of death. The reason I share this is the reflective state we get when thinking about our death or someone else's death shouldn’t be reserved for after you get a diagnosis or on your last days; it should very much be a way of life.

“This is our big mistake: to think we look forward toward death. Most of death is already gone. Whatever time has passed is owned by death.” - Seneca

Shout out to Ryan Holiday’s book The Daily Dad for putting me onto this mental framework.

One Last thing….

This is the very first prototype of my One Life Art. Art that makes me live more intentionally.  The red square represents a healthy person's average death date: Age 85 (if you have average health, this age is closer to 77). And while I hope to live long past that, I also am not guaranteed tomorrow. So while I am 30 years old, I have statistically lived over 35% of my life on this earth 😳

That’s very convicting and motivating all at the same time!

I have one of my favorite bible verses at the bottom for the ultimate perspective.

“For, ‘ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.” And this is the word which was preached to you. - 1 Peter 1:24-25

If God gives me another 10 years, I hope to steward it well 🙏

You have one life ❤️

-Caleb

P.S. If you're reading this, you can be one of the first to get a ONE LIFE art piece.