179 Connections, Masterminds and Action-Centered Results With Alex Barker

Alex Barker is an action-centered entrepreneur who has experienced impressive results from his many initiatives. One of those projects is called The 66 Day Experiment: Lifehacks for Wealth, Fitness and Sex. During 66 Days, Alex shares with the world the progress of his particular initiative. One season was 66 days of reading a book a day; another was 66 days of rejections. Alex is also a pharmacist and with all the things he does he is truly living in the now, taking time for family and for what counts in life.  [show-notes-bio]

Contact Info

• Website: 66DayExperiment.com
• Email: AlexMichaelBarker@gmail.com
• Podcast: The 66 Day Experiment

Most Influential Person

• Steven Covey (Author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People)

Effect on Emotions

• It's made me less of an emotional decision-maker. I used to let my emotions guide me when things weren't going my way, specifically in my relationship with my wife. Being able to step aside from my emotions and being able to calm down in times of turmoil; that has been so important in our marriage.

Thoughts on Breathing

Whenever I'm mindful, I'm breathing. I do meditation practice and breathing is something that I focus on. When anxiety influences me, I notice the breathing and the heart rate. Then I do some exercises to calm myself down.

Suggested Resources

• Book: The Bible
• Book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
• App: Brain.fm  (Music and sounds that help put you into a mindful state)

Mindfulness Meets Bullying Story

I was running a group full of start-up entrepreneurs and this is not when I perfected how to run groups. I wasn't using the format that I use today. I had one member of the group that wasn't a bully to other people but she dominated the conversation whenever she was the subject which was often. I remember having to deal with and taking a mindfulness step aside and thinking, this is ruining the group. Her behavior is not good cause it's influencing the other people. It's going to ruin this group.

What she was doing was, when she was in the hot seat, taking up the time and bringing a challenge forward, she would excuse away everyone's advice as to why it wasn't helpful or why it wasn't applicable. She would blame others within her family for her lack of success and she would have the same goals for herself every week. They wouldn't change because she never accomplished them.

I remember talking with another friend and telling him about this issue and coming down to the conclusion that I need to bring this up with her.

After talking with her, we tried it out for another week and she just wasn't changing so I had to have a difficult discussion with her. It was like firing a client; it was tough. Learning that less though was great because it made me realize, I gotta do a much better job at filtering out who I let into my business.

Mindfulness Suggestions for a Newbie

Go back to the first episode of this show (Mindfulness Mode) and start there.