Luis Barajas explains the E + R = O formula: Event plus Response equals Outcome. Instead of reacting from fear, define what you want and work backward to the responses that get you there. He lost 60 pounds and quit blood pressure medication by choosing deliberate responses to a health scare.
April 8, 2025
Almost 60 pounds
Welcome back. This is Luis Baragas. I think that one of the most important things that I'd love to share with you today is what I call the future responsibility formula. I stole this from Jack Canfield and from his success principles, and he took it in. In his book, he gives credit to somebody else that's been around for a long time, but it's one of the most powerful formulas that you can learn. And I wish they would teach this formula in schools instead of the Pythagorean theore or any other type of mathematical formula. This is the formula that'll literally change your life, especially with things going on right now. One with the economy, two with the stock market and other things that are going on. I mean, in the past week, I got calls from a client that was just diagnosed with cancer. Got a call from a client, the spouse just left him. And we had some other things going on and kind of shared this with them. And I want to remember to share this with you guys and how powerful it is. And let me just write some of this stuff down. So it's E plus R equals all formula. I actually have this formula in little yellow stickies all over my office, in my bathroom mirror to remind me all the time as well, is what can I do not only to have a better life for myself, but also to help others. And let me just share with you whatever event that's just happened, right? The event that's just happened or is happening in your life right now, whether the stock market's down, you're afraid of losing money for your retirement, again, just told that you were diagnosed, right? Most people right now, when they've got this really bad thing going on in their lives, they naturally, it's just natural. It's. They react, right? And most reactions are based out of fear. And so what happens is that for, I guess, the last 200,000 years, we've been taught that we where our brains were trained to keep us alive, right? For survival mechanisms when they were, you know, lions or tigers or bears out in the woods, when we lived out in the woods. And we had to be really careful about surviving. But when we react, we jump into this, the old reptilian brain, the amygdala, which were either fight or flight. And again, it's based on emotions that most of the times when we make decisions based on emotions, sometimes we lose logic or we lose common sense. And so the outcome is usually negative, right? Something that we want to focus on. So how do you focus on and how do you change this okay, so when something bad is going on in your life or something you've perceived to be bad, instead of focusing on the event that we actually sometimes don't have control over, is we want to focus on a positive outcome, Right? We want to focus on a positive outcome. So instead, right now, some people are focused on the event. And so what we want to do right now, even though what's going on, is how do we work back to gain the relationship with our spouse if they're leaving us? Or do we go to counseling? Is there anything that we can do? Maybe there's nothing that we can do, but we focus on what is it that at the end we would want to see that would come positive out of something that we don't have control over? And so now when we focus on writing down, for example, I'm investing for the future. I'm embossing for the long term. Maybe this is a great opportunity to get back in the market or invest in certain stocks. Like, I hear Amazon is. The Amazon's down, and maybe it's a great time to invest. I don't know. But the thing is, focus on what is it that you would like to see happen that would be a positive outcome for you? And then take a step backwards. And then we need to figure out how do we respond? Okay, how do we respond? Or how should we respond? Make a list of what needs to happen to get a positive outcome. Because again, you don't control the event, and the response takes you out of that amygdala, takes you out, and focuses on you really thinking about what needs to happen or what needs to change. For example, I was told a while ago that about a year ago that I had an enlarged aorta and I was carrying a lot of weight. So I said, okay, well, then how do I change this? I talked to the doctor. He goes, one is, you could lose weight. Two, you can start walking and exercising. Three, you can start eating better.
And so they put me on preventative, I think, blood pressure medication. And what have I done? I've lost almost like 60 pounds. I've been walking every single day. I'm off the medications, my blood pressure's down. So instead of saying, oh, I have a large aorta, I'm going to die, or something bad can happen to me. What do I need to do? Okay, the same thing is, what do you need to do right now? For example, if you think that there's a recession coming, well, how do you respond to that? Okay, well, then, you know what I'm gonna Spend a little bit less. I'm gonna put some more money in my savings account for my emergency reserve account. And where do I put it? I'm gonna look for a high yield savings account, an online account through different online banks. And what else can I do? Can I focus on my foundation? Let me just take a look at what my. If I have a trust, let me get that done. Let me take a look at, do I have enough insurance? Focus on the foundational part, how to create a better outcome. These challenges that we're having, for example, in the economy right now happen. You know, we've been fortunate that we haven't had really bad things happen for a long time. We had Covid in 2020, but prior to that, it was 2008.
When we had the last great recession. And so we were fortunate that for a long time things were doing great. But you know what this is. This happens often. You know, usually we see a recession that averages once every five years, five to six years, and it was due time. So whether we go into recession or not go into recession again, I don't know. But I can't control that. But I can control how much money I'm putting away my emergency reserves right now and where I'm investing it and trying to remove some of that fear and focus on the things that are bringing more joy in my life. Okay, the E plus R equals O formula will change your life. I'm telling you right now. I've used it for over a decade. And whenever I feel out of control, luckily I have all these yellow stickies that remind me, hey, focus on creating a positive outcome. And if I do, then how should I respond? What should my mindset be? What are some of the activities that I should be doing? How do I plan for them, and how do I execute them? Okay, hopefully this will help you to minimize some of the fear that's going on. And again, if something bad's happened in your life, I'm really sorry if you're going through it, and I hope this formula helps you. It.
