Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives
I really believe that. It is also my belief that today people are struggling with motivation and looking to it for the strength to get things done.
Life moves by so quickly and between an investor’s need to market, screen potentials, manage the teams, and close deals there is this enormous need for energy to get tasks done.
I admit that I find myself lacking this motivation at times.
Reading, learning, and deconstructing lessons takes time. The discipline and motivation needed is huge, which is why I really appreciate the lessons from this book.
Lesson 1: The power of responsibility and expectations
We are, absolutely, able to influence our own lives and walk down a path of our choosing.
Yes, there are things that happen we cannot control. There is good luck, bad luck, and everything in between.
- Things don’t go our way
- The deal we priced and negotiated perfectly falls through
- Tenants flood a bathroom
- Mother Nature floods a basement
However, there is great freedom with choosing to be responsible for oneself.
If you have a starting point and know where you want to go then you can set high expectations for yourself and find a way to make it happen.
Personally, I remember a time where I was working a full time extremely demanding job, trying to get this website up and running, studying for my Realtor continuing education exam, and prepping a rental unit, all at the same time.
It was difficult but I knew that it was my responsibility to make it happen.
- My boss didn’t care if I had issues if problems happened at work
- The Realtor association wasn’t going to excuse me if I didn’t pass their exam
- My website traffic wasn’t going to expand on its own
- That tenant who signed her contract and had a concrete move in date wasn’t going to be cool if the first thing she experienced was a breach of contract and I didn’t have the unit ready
While it was tough there was also something powerful.
I knew it was my responsibility to make it happen and not only was I going to keep up at work, I was going to excel. Not only was this rental unit going to be clean and ready, it was going to be an amazing home.
Know where you want to end up then work backwards to create steps to reach the goal.
This expectation is a value, it is an identity I have, it was who I want to be, and it is my responsibility to be that person.
Lesson 2: Attention and distraction are choices
Focus is a matter of choice. What you choose to devote your attention to is either bringing you closer to your goals or a distraction.
In order to figure out which is worth your time you must know your why.
Quick plug, make sure your read my article on “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.
Once you know why you are doing something you can differentiate between it being a priority that needs to be accomplished or a meaningless distraction that needs to be avoided.
Sure, it feels good to keep surfing the MLS, we have all done that, however it is more important to be crunching numbers and actually analyzing properties. One is more important than the other though they seem similar in the first place.
Why is the analysis important? Because it will improve your understanding of the market, because it will actually help you find something that fits your criteria, because you will start to see patterns. That doesn’t happen when you are mindlessly clicking away on a whim.
What I like to do is ask myself questions to get motivated and make sure that I am focusing on the right things:
- What is the most impactful thing I can be doing right now?
- Is what I am doing bringing me closer or further from my goals?
- Is what I am about to do going to actually matter in the big picture?
- Is this advancing the relationship in the direction I need it go?
The above questions and any permutations you can make of it are extremely useful in real estate investing but also in any part of life.
Better questions create better, more focused, answers.
Lesson 3: Structure the environment for success
- Are you surrounding yourself with like minded individuals?
- Are you able to passionately discuss real estate with people who share your vision?
- Can I count on people in my tribe? Do I even have one?
The truth is that connections and aspirations far exceed qualifications any day.
I’ll take someone willing to work hard and develop real lasting relationships on my team over the most experienced investor with the wrong attitude.
It is going to take massive commitment and hard work to get it right with real estate investments so you need the right people to have your back. Besides, don’t most of us get into this field so we can have freedom?
In my dream of passive income, leveraged wealth generation, and sustainable cash flow then I do not have negative toxic people surrounding me.
We should be actively setting ourselves up for success. Remember way back in the first lesson where we take responsibility? Well we have the choice of who comes into our REI lives, and especially how long they stay there.
There has to be a unified collective purpose creating that beautiful win/win situation.
- Business partners sharing the hardship of business but also the profits
- Renters having a safe clean home provided by a responsible landlord
We often talk about screening tenants; we should actually be screening everyone!
Excellent book! This one is for people who are looking for motivation to get things done but also the techniques involved in crafting tools to remind you why you need to get take action in the first place.
The techniques that you find inside go down the rabbit hole of your mind and fan the flames to make sure that what you intend on getting done actually happens. And by now you all know how much I love making things happen!
I have three major values that I live my life by and focus is one of them (comment down below and guess the other two!).
Dr. Isaiah Hankel teaches us that the biggest obstacles are inside our own minds.
We can fix the inner world and find a purposeful way to create value for others by taking action.
Success is found through focused action.
Black Hole Focus: How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives
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