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What’s The Number One Reason People Invest in Real Estate?

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Or how is wanting properties like wanting a six-pack?

“I really want to make more money!”

This is often where conversations about investing start. Is this really the true reason why we want to invest?

Think about it this way. How many gym memberships are bought with the words: “I want a six pack for summer…” ?

Do we really want the six pack? Or are we after something else? Wouldn’t it be better to feel fit, healthy and confident when you wear that bikini or pair of board shorts to the beach?

My guess is it’s more about how we want to feel and less about the six pack itself. Maybe the six-pack is just shorthand, because we’re a bit too lazy to think about what will really make us content and confident in our skins.

Perhaps the gym membership is only part of the solution.

Why Invest in Real Estate?

Real estate investing isn’t that different.

Most of us start out thinking it’s all about the money. But what do we want more money for? When we really look at our motivations, we may find that we’re really after something else… something that will be better than a big bank balance.

To find out more, watch the first video in my five-part series on the basics of real estate investing…

 

Photo clouds in the skyPhoto by Mariam Soliman on Unsplash

What You Can Learn About Investing by reading Conversations With God

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Book Review: Neale Walsh’s Conversations With God

Here’s why you should read Walsch’s so-called chat with God. Even if  it sounds hokey or blasphemous. Even if it has nothing to do with Real Estate.

The title Conversations With God is probably one of the least controversial things about this book. Walsch’s premise is that his writing is a sort of revelation. He claims that the ideas in the book come from a divine source, with him as a kind of channel.

It’s a bit hard to see why it makes sense to go there.

Blasphemy or Atheism: Take Your Pick

Claiming you’ve had a revelation means you’ll probably offend a lot of religious people. The whole channeling God thing’s got a bit of a blasphemous ring to it. Along the way, the atheists will check out because they don’t want to hear about God in the first place. It’s not really a winning proposition.

But, and it’s a big but, wait! I promise there’s baby and there’s bathwater.

If you’re interested in mindful living and how we create our lives – and our financial situation along with it – consider these few lines.

Start with this whopper:

“Every human thought, and every human action is based in either fear or love.”

Which one of these are you running on most of the time?

Or what about this: “Life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation.”

and

“No prayer goes unanswered. Every prayer is creative.”

Wow! What if you applied some of this logic to how you practice real estate or your financial life more generally? Do you act like you’re creating all the time? Because you are. Are your actions and thoughts around finances motivated by worry, anger, Ego, competitiveness or anxiety? Or by creativity, joy and connection?

Conversation with God or not conversation with God, it’s worth thinking about. And it’s with a grain of suspension of (1) disbelief or (2) judgement for blasphemy that I suggest you read what Walsch has to say.

If you’re trying to make any kind of positive change in your life, or if you’re in the process of trying to wake up into a more mindful state of being, there’s some really interesting ideas in this book. The love and fear distinction was enough to make it worthwhile for me.

Offended? Keep Reading

Does it matter whether Walsch is talking to God?

I don’t think that is does.

I actually think it’s possible to make a wider comment on how we hear or read things in this increasingly polarized time. Just because part of what someone says or where they come from a triggers knee-jerk abhorrence in us doesn’t mean he or she has nothing good to say. It doesn’t mean we should tune out right away. To do so is our loss. There is baby and there is bathwater. Before we throw them both out, we may want to stick our hand in to see which is which! The quality of the baby might just merit getting your hands wet.

 

 

THE EFFORT EFFECT | From Arno Illgner's Warrior' Way Site)

THE EFFORT EFFECT | From Arno Illgner’s Warrior’ Way Site)

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From an article about Carol Dweck (THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE LINK HERE—Summary reprinted from Arno Illgner’s Warrior’ Way Site)

Researcher Carol Dweck’s study asked the following question:
“What makes a really capable child give up in the face of failure, where other children may be motivated by the failure?”
She studied results of a British soccer team to see why the most talented players at the start of the season tended to show the least improvement.

  • The difference seemed to be in the mindset of the person: fixed-mindset and growth-mindset.
  • Fixed-mindset people who attributed their failures to lack of ability would become discouraged even in areas where they were capable. Growth-mindset people thought they simply hadn’t tried hard enough and would be fueled by setbacks. Students referred to their errors as insufficient effort. Those children learned to persist in the face of failure—and to succeed. The fixed-mindset showed no improvement at all, continuing to fall apart quickly and to recover slowly.
  • Common sense suggests that ability inspires self-confidence. And it does for a while—so long as the going is easy. But setbacks change everything. the difference lay in the kids’ goals. “The mastery-oriented children are really hell-bent on learning something,” and “learning goals” inspire a different chain of thoughts and behaviours than “performance goals.”
  • For performance-oriented students (fixed-mindset): want to look smart even if it means not learning a thing in the process. For them, each task is a challenge to their self-image, and each setback becomes a personal threat.
  • Students with learning goals (growth-mindset), on the other hand, take necessary risks and don’t worry about failure because each mistake becomes a chance to learn.
  • How we label things: if some students want to show off their ability, while others want to increase their ability, “ability” means different things to the two groups. “If you want to demonstrate something over and over, it feels like something static that lives inside of you—whereas if you want to increase your ability, it feels dynamic and malleable.
  • People with performance goals, think intelligence is fixed from birth. People with learning goals have a growth mindset about intelligence, believing it can be developed.

You pick which attitude you think is best 🙂 !

MOVING WITHOUT MOTIVATION

MOVING WITHOUT MOTIVATION

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“When running up a mountain you can give up a thousand times. Just make sure your feet keep moving.”
– Japanese Master

Someone asked me not long ago about how to stay motivated after making a big, prolonged effort. The person had just lost a lot of weight and wanted advice on how to continue making progress.

There are a number of keys to maintaining motivation. 

1) Recognize your achievements.

We have a tendency to very quickly take our accomplishments for granted. After working hard and reaching an important milestone, it’s essential to take a minute to appreciate what you’ve done. Drink a glass of wine, stare out the window, and remember all the dreaming and effort that went into getting where you are.
Now’s the time to thank yourself for all the hard work you’ve done.

2) Be kind to yourself.

Sometimes, when we’ve given a whole lot of effort on something, we get a bit fatigued from changing our lives. Recently, I competed (and lost) in the French national kick-boxing championships. I worked so hard to get there, that for two weeks after the event I had trouble getting out of bed. After training twice a day and watching what I ate like a hawk, I ended up not being able to motivate myself for a jog and sitting eating chips and cookies in front of the television.

“What?” I said to myself. “How do you go from turning your body into a performance machine to behaving like a couch-potato?”

The answer is that it takes giant willpower and concentration to change your patterns or go after what you want. If you start to feel tired from the effort, it might be time to let up a bit and consolidate.
Don’t backslide, but tell yourself it’s ok if progress slows for a bit.
Even warriors have to rest.

3) Re-focus.

Rather than getting really worked up about the loss of motivation, take a bit of time to re-focus. What are your goals now that you’ve attained a certain point? Define your new objectives precisely. If you could have your life just the way you want it, what would that look like?

Write down what you want. The first step to attaining your goals and staying motivated is objectives so well-developed you can TASTE them. You have to really SEE what it is you’re working for. Motivation, in this case, comes by itself.

You might also want to check out Chris Pinckley’s book “Reality Creation 101”. This American personal trainer has great advice on how to create the future you want through visualization and manifestation.

Re-energized and re-focused, these three steps should put you back in the zone of pursuing your objectives.