If you read much of the literature on success and peak performance, you will find one common theme that is consistent amongst the top performing people in most any category…
Surely you have heard stories of sports teams who have defied all odds to stage astonishing upsets. Those amazing performances usually have a back-story with a deep emotional driver that was so profound it enabled them to perform at a radically accelerated level that stunned the nation.
The concept works in all areas of life and it is something you can control. Adding (or dramatically exacerbating) the role of “purpose” in your real estate investing can have profound effects on your results, beginning immediately.
Not for high performance real estate investors it isn’t. Money is simply regarded as a means to an end, never the end in itself and certainly not the primary motivational driver.
Fortunately for you, if that is your starting point, it means that taking the time to re-orient your sense of purpose can have a particularly profound effect on your results in a short period of time.
It is unique for each person, and this customization is where the deep emotional driver comes from. In general, the most prominent goals are to generate sufficient amounts of passive residual income from the investment properties in your portfolio for two primary purposes:
 I listed those two broad goals above as an example of the general framework for moving beyond the goal of "making money". While concepts like "financial freedom" and "lifestyle design" are useful as a general framework, they are "abstract". And, as abstractions, they are not sufficient motivators for peak performance. The deep sense of "purpose" comes when you fill in the blanks for your own personal dream lifestyle.
Instead of saying "travel when, where and for as long as you want", you need to fill in those blanks with the most exciting motivational details for you personally and set your personal goals. So, maybe you want to travel to Tuscany, Italy, for 6 weeks this coming year with the man/woman of your dreams.
Once you have that, you need to go a level deeper. What is it about Tuscany, Italy that makes it your dream destination? What details about the desired experience can you put down on paper, because it is the details that are the real motivator. Perhaps it is the thought of staying in a Tuscan Villa with a gorgeous view. But that is still not enough, dig deeper. What are the sensory experiences you imagine? Maybe it is sitting on your patio, watching the sunset, while drinking an incredible bottle of Italian red wine. Think about the full sensory details of the experience--the view off your balcony, the color of the sunset, the sound of the cork coming out of the wine bottle, the taste of the wine, the smell of the wine as you swirl it around in your glass, what the romantic mood feels like.
Complete this exercise for the primary goals that are most important to you.
Maybe you want to create enough time to get out on the golf course an additional 2 times a week. How would that feel? What are the sounds, smells, and feelings of being out on the golf course at sunrise?
If you are able to recapture your time so that you never have to miss another one of your kids sports games, or maybe even help coach, how will that feel?
If you are able to hit particular donation goals (of both time and money) to charitable causes you care about, what tangible difference will this make in the people’s lives you are helping, and how will that feel?
Hone in on that and draw it out because these specific sensory details will serve as your core emotional drivers to succeed.
Every time we read something that we find inspiring, there is a level of emotional excitement that spikes, but then over time it fades because it is not continually stimulated. Same thing with the concepts presented here, which is why you need to find ways of sustaining this motivation after you complete the original exercise.
Here are two strategies for doing so:
Remind yourself of your goals on a daily basis with sensory stimuli and trigger your emotional desire to achieve them. One way of doing this is with a "vision board", where you aggregate pictures of the specific sensory details that are most inspiring to you about your goals (A picture of the sunset in Tuscany, the bottle of red wine just opened, the golf course at sunrise, etc), and then put them up where you can prominently see them everyday....maybe as the desktop background on your computer.
Create short term goals (benchmarks) and reward yourself along the way each time you hit one. It is crucially important that any long term goals include a path of short term goals along the way for which there are highly desirable rewards. This sense of accomplishment and success is imperative in sustaining your motivation and emotional drive.
Simply understanding the concepts in this blog post alone will not help. It is the daily application of the concepts in meaningful ways that separate the super-achievers from the average achievers. Reading this blog post alone will not do the trick. Applying the concepts with pig-headed discipline on a daily basis is where the rewards will be.
We are not legal, tax, or financial professionals. The content on this page is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as individualized advice. It is your duty to consult with your own tax, legal and financial professionals about your individual situation, applicable laws, and the suitability of any investment property for you personally. All real estate investing involves risks, which buyer assumes, and no specific returns can ever be guaranteed by anyone.
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