3 Ways to Overcome the ‘Vegan Effect’ (aka Negativity) in Your Life

In This Article

The “vegan effect” is this idea where people tend to get irritated at the choices that somebody else is making. Why do we do that when somebody around us goes vegan? Why do we naturally want to lash out at that person?

I’m not saying we want to go beat them over the head with a bat. What I’m saying is it irritates people when somebody makes a better choice for their life.

Now, can we be honest here just for a second?

Don’t we all generally, probably, deep down believe that going vegan is actually probably healthier. It’s probably healthier; you’ll probably live longer. I think there’s enough information out there that it’s probably a little healthier.

I know what you’re saying! The “vegan effect” is kicking in! You’re saying, “I don’t want to go vegan.” Or, “What about protein?!”

And if you’re vegan like my brother, you have a lot of really good responses.

Now, I’m not vegan. But why do I get irritated around vegans sometimes?

It’s because when other people make a choice to better their own lives, it makes me reflect poorly on my own decisions. I become a villain in my own mind, and our own egos don’t like us to be the villain. We don’t like to believe that we are doing less than perfect things or less than ideal situations.

So, instead of looking internally and asking, “Am I really eating healthy enough? Am I really doing everything I can to optimize my my body?” Instead, I turn it around and want to lash out or react to somebody else’s choice and explain why they’re the villain not me.

Because here is the truth: Nobody wants to be the villain in their own story. So, we tend to have to make somebody else the villain. Otherwise, we’d have to admit that we’re the actual villain.

And it applies across all different things.

The ‘Vegan Effect’ Impacts Real Estate Investors, Too

Specifically, I’m a real estate investor. I love real estate, love buying rental properties. I love flipping houses or buying mobile home parks right now. I have a fund. I have all this stuff within real estate and I love it.

But when I first got into it, the “vegan effect” caused a lot of people around me to not be very enthusiastic about what I was doing. A lot of people around me said, “Well, you know what? If you get into real estate, your tenants aren’t going to pay rent, and you’re going to lose everything.” Or, “Yeah, you know, my uncle Uncle Bob tried or Uncle James or Uncle Whatever tried real estate and lost his shirt.”

Somewhere out there, there’s like a million uncles with lost shirts from real estate.

And it’s not necessarily wrong. There’s probably a lot of people who have failed at real estate investing. I’m not saying that’s NOT the case. But why do people, when you decide to make a better choice in your life, react negatively?

It’s because of the “vegan effect.” It’s because we look at what other people are doing, and it forces us to analyze ourselves, to hold a mirror up to ourselves.

The reason this might be so important to you is because you’re just trying to get into real estate or really any business thing at all. You might be noticing that people tend to come at you with a lot of negativity.

“Well, you sure you really want to do that now? You know, you got a pretty solid job right there? You sure want to quit that job? You sure you want to do it?”

Remember, a lot of that negativity has nothing to do with you. It has to do with the mirror that those other people around you are now looking at themselves in. And they don’t want to be the villain in their own story.

Instead they make you the villain. They find reasons why they’re not NOT taking action on their life. They’re not NOT improving their life because they’re lazy. No, no, no. They’re not taking action because Uncle Bill lost money in real estate.

Related: 5 Surefire Tricks & Tips to Overcome Naysayer Negativity

They don’t want to admit that it’s their lack of action that’s really holding them back.

So, when you’re getting into anything, again, you’re going to have people around you who are naturally going to be against you. Or people who are naturally going to criticize you, or naturally going to put you down. Or people who are going to come up with all the reasons why it might not work. This is all because the “vegan effect” is making them look at themselves—and they don’t like that.

Let me give you three tips on how you can overcome that “vegan effect” in your life.

How to Overcome the ‘Vegan Effect’ in Your Life

1. Surround yourself with other vegans.

I’m not talking actual “vegans,” of course. I mean, surround yourself with other people who are already drinking the Kool-Aid.

If you’re around other people who are drinking the Kool-Aid, you’re going to be much more excited and not get that negativity. And I’m not saying you need to delude yourself or live in some delusion, but get around people who are actually doing what you’re trying to do. Then, they’re not going to be looking down on you. Instead they’re going to be helping you up—they’re going to give you a hand up. They’ll be saying, “Here, come up to this level!”

The same is true for CrossFit. Anybody know any CrossFit people?

How do you know if somebody’s into CrossFit? They’ll tell ya. Right? That’s the joke.

But the thing that’s interesting with CrossFit is everybody I know in CrossFit is really in shape—like really, really in shape.

And so when somebody tells me they’re in CrossFit, what’s my first reaction? Well, you know, people get hurt in CrossFit. You be careful with those CrossFit things! Right from the beginning, the “vegan effect” takes effect.

But CrossFit people are known to build solid relationships with other CrossFit people. This is because you get around others who are all building each other up. That’s why it’s so important to associate with people in real life and online.

I mean, if you’re on the BiggerPockets Forums, you’re going to naturally get other people who are helping you and building you up. If you are going to local real estate clubs or local real estate meetups, you’re going to find yourself surrounded with people who are wanting to build you up.

So tip No. 1 is to surround yourself with others who are accomplishing what you’re trying to accomplish.

2. Recognize that the process is what gets you the results.

You might not see it right away, and you might start questioning your own choices.

For example, if you decided to go vegan, you know for two, three, or four days, you might be like this is really hard. I’m not really enjoying this. I really want to eat a steak.

But if you went and just jumped back into a steak, you’re never going to get that progress. You’ve got to get through that. And so the way you get through the difficulty, the difficult times, is to remember that results don’t happen overnight. Results don’t happen from a one-time thing or a three-time thing or a 10-time thing. Seeing results happens through the process.

Related: 5 Reasons a Positive Attitude Makes Winners in Real Estate Investing

I like to say, “Progress happens through process.” And process takes a long time.

It might take you weeks and weeks of learning to be able to pull the trigger on analyzing some real estate deals, and it might take dozens or even a hundred times of analyzing a real estate deal before you feel comfortable to be able to make an offer. But recognize that all results are just a collection of choices and processes, and trust the process that you’re doing—trust that you will get there.

It’s the same thing if you trust that by going to the CrossFit gym every other day you’re going to get the results you want. If you trust that by going vegan, you’re going to lose the weight that you want or be healthier or live longer. Trust the process.

Don’t just look at the immediate results. That’s how you can get through others’ negativity.

3. Don’t try to convince those who are negative toward you otherwise.

You don’t need to convince anyone otherwise. Don’t try to convince them why real estate is actually the best thing ever or why your quitting your job was a great idea. Instead prove it to them by the results. Show them what you’ve done. Let your results speak louder than your arguments.

Use their negativity as fuel to go in and dominate in your new investment or your new business or your new adventure or your veganism. Use the results.

So, full transparency: my brother has lost a ton of weight. He looks amazing, and he’s super healthy. His skin cleared up, and he’s doing awesome since he went on the vegan diet. Whenever we hang out now, I’m a little bit less likely to make fun of him, because I can see the results of what’s happening. His results are speaking louder than any kind of logical argument might.

So those are my tips for you today on overcoming the “vegan effect” in your life.

Did you enjoy this post or the video above? 

If so, comment below or give the video a thumbs up on YouTube.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.