Balancing life one wall at the time

[Daniel Segovia]

Hello BP Family.

First as foremost, thank you BP for all the content the team is constantly putting out. It is the daily notification on podcasts, YouTube videos, Instagram, etc., what motivates me to stay engaged.

However, I want to share that there are times I feel burned out. I am a newbie; I do not have a long track of successful real estate stories to tell. But I have a dream, I have a desire to succeed, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and one day, I hope to look back at recount the sleepless nights and stresses that laid the path to a better future.

I have a 9-to-5 job and with the social distancing rules in place, I have been doing more teleworking. This sounds great, at least I thought it was, but I was not ready to be a teacher, a dad, a worker, a landlord, a cook, and an investor all at the same time. Please, don’t take me wrong I love my kids very much, they are the reason I want to be a successful investor. But finding the balance has been difficult.

The irony of this social isolation is that I want to spend even more time with my 9 and 8 years old. I aspire to be their teacher and a positive role model who provides quality time. I want to do all that and more, but how can I do it right when I am burned out keeping up with everything else?

I had a goal to have my current property out for rent by April 1st. So I thought, I did not make the self-imposed deadline. For example, adding trims and painting a single room takes me a long time. I feel guilty because my progress is so slow. Sometimes I don’t have the energy to do not even one hour of projects. But when I finally get going, I work until exhaustion, sometimes it is late into the night and I am still working. I go to bed to wake up three hours later to squeeze working in the projects before the kids are up, or before I get back in the computer to my day job. I feel guilty when I stop working on the projects because I feel the days keep passing and my property is not producing.

If there is a trophy for making poor financial decisions, I think I would have a room full of them. I have made so many mistakes I no longer distinguish a good one from a bad one, lol. I say this because I think I am finally doing the right thing by listening and reading BP's content. I want to BRRRR this property, I want to feel I made progress, one step at the time even when I feel beaten. I am full of bruises, but I am not defeated.

Yes, I didn’t meet my own deadline, but as long as I keep going one wall at the time, I will be done soon enough to see my property producing. My immediate goal is for my kids to see the fruits of my work. I hope they will see their dad, even though alone as a single dad, is taking the steps towards the bigger goal. I decided to work on the projects but not at the expense of my health and family time. My youngest turned 8 yesterday, it feels as if it was yesterday I had her in my arms for the first time. They are growing way too fast. The walls can wait another day, my kids need me right now.

Life is a work in progress. So, let’s keep going.