My life was filled with several limiting beliefs that were holding me back from attaining success. My first limiting belief was that if you worked hard, you would be successful. I also thought that an element of luck would factor into one’s success. My idea of what a successful life looked like was also very different from what it is now. Little did I realize that most successful people follow a strategy to guide them towards their goals and dreams. In this article, I am going to dive into the five steps you need to take to usher success into your life and provide examples on how I used this framework to achieve my goal of financial freedom.
Here are the five steps:
Know your outcome:
Most of us in life know what we DON’T want, but find it difficult to focus on what we do want. I knew in my heart that I did not want to be stuck at my restaurant. The problem was that I did not know what I did want. My breakthrough came when I was able to focus on what my ultimate goal was: financial freedom and controlling my destiny. When you begin to tell your brain what it wants, that is what you will begin to focus upon.
Here is a simple example of how your brain works. You go to the dealership and decide to purchase a silver Honda Odyssey (I would have preferred a sedan, but not an option with six kids). You leave the dealership, and turn to your wife and exclaim “I can’t believe how many people are driving the Odyssey.” What happened? Your brain starts to pick up information that you have never noticed before.
Begin to focus solely on your outcome, and remind yourself every day. I would write my outcome on my vision board and carry a note with me every day. I wanted to be reminded why I decided upon real estate as a vehicle for financial freedom. It’s pretty difficult to hit a target if you don’t have one.
Know why you want it:
I had a couple of reasons why I wanted to achieve my outcome. I wanted to feel fulfilled in life and I wanted to be a role model to my family. Those reasons fueled my motivation towards success in the multifamily space. I learned the hard way that reasons come first and answers come next. When I began investing in real estate back in 2002, I wasn’t sure why I was investing. I heard it was a “good” place to invest, but I didn’t have a passionate why. As the economy worsened and my displeasure at my business grew, the reason why became clear to me.
Take massive action:
Now that you are focusing on your outcome and have explained to yourself why you want it, it’s time to take massive action. I decided to use my lunch hour during work and any available time though out the day to dedicate to educating myself on real estate. I would often hear comments (especially from mom) that life is not only about work. Take it easy, money isn’t everything.
When you hear these comments, you are taking massive action. I loved what I was doing and it didn’t feel like work. I was excited to wake up and listen to a podcast or jump on a call with my coach. This massive action leads to momentum, and those little victories start to turn into bigger successes.
Know what you are getting:
The term sensory acuity is defined as how good your senses are at doing what they should do. You have to be able to look at what you are doing in an honest manner and assess whether it is working or not. Sensory acuity is also a measure of our intelligence. Intelligence is a measure of the number of distinctions that we can have for something. For instance, a person who has a high level of intelligence in apartment investing would understand cap rates, management strategies, repositioning strategies, commercial financing and market cycles.
If that’s the case, I was profoundly unintelligent when I began back in 2002. I had very few distinctions for apartment investing, and considered it very similar to investing in single-family homes. Learn to become present in the moment, and focus on what’s happening today.
Change until outcome is reached:
This is a difficult step for most of us. We delude ourselves into thinking that we have tried “everything” to achieve our goal, when in fact, we have tried only a few things. Thomas Edison is the prime example of this last step. He was famous for being relentless when he invented the light bulb. He knew his outcome, he took massive action and he performed thousands of experiments before he was successful. I find his mindset truly amazing. After every failed experiment, he would tell himself that he found one more way not to invent the light bulb. In the course of his failed experiments, he discovered other uses and inventions.
I began with a tri-plex, purchased a small shopping center, invested in a mobile home park and bought a mixed-use building. I decided to change my outcome and focus on multifamily properties. If I was unable to change my approach to investing in real estate, then I would never have been able to accumulate 674 units in three years!
Task:
Focus on what you want, know why you want it, take massive action, become aware if your approach is working and be willing to change your approach if it isn’t working. I realized that all of the other real estate niches were not working for me, so I decided to change my approach and jump into multifamily investing.
I hope this article has given you a framework to achieving your goals in life.