The Ebb and Flow of Chasing Your Dreams

For everyone who feels they struggle with consistency in action and energy and fears that this characteristic is what is holding you back from success please know you’re not alone, and you can still achieve great things. I will try to highlight the emotional roller coaster I tend to struggle with on a daily and weekly basis as I work to try and achieve a goal of reaching 150 units by age 30. If you have tips or advice beyond what I am doing please comment, and if you haven’t tried some of the coping skills I use please try them and let me know how it goes!

Looking back on the last 12 months, I can honestly say that I have seen a measurable amount of success. Friday May 1st 2015 I received notice of acceptance for a great job that was to start the 3rd week of May as a program manager for a systems integrator in the ship building industry. May 2nd 2015 I graduated from Michigan Tech University in a traditional 4 years with a degree in Finance. Moreover I was able to graduate with only $22k in student debt. A week after graduation I had a signed purchase agreement to a 4 unit multifamily property in the town I was to be moving to. I secured the property using a commercial and private loan for $0 down. After a long year of renovations and filling the last vacancy I was living rent free by December 2015. Meanwhile I was working on a deal to close a 16 unit property and on March 1 2016 I closed the deal with only $5k of my own money into the property.

Needless to say, yes, I have seen a lot of measurable success in the last year. But even while things seem to be rolling I have struggled a tremendous amount. On a daily basis I feel like I am on an emotional roller coaster trying to determine if I have been making the right decisions or if my strategy is scalable to reach my 150 unit goal. Some weeks or days I am on cloud 9, and others I find myself questioning every action I make, and have made. It’s tough… there is no doubt about that. Whether you’re trying to close your 1st deal, 2nd deal, or about to break $1m mark in property ownership like I am you will question yourself and have internal battles. Some days I feel like I am the most confident person in the world, and the next feel like I am on a plane with no engines falling from the sky about to crash into a cliff…

So how do we fight these internal emotional ebbs and flows that reflect so heavily in our energy levels? The following are some of the strategies I use and highly recommend.

1. Understand your why.

The most important thing you can do in your life is understand your why. Why do you wake up every day and do the things that you do? Why are you in your town, your career, your schedule, or have the friends you do? To answer these questions you need to understand your life’s mission. Pick 3 to 5 of the most important things and write them out. There are a lot of great articles on how to do this, but you need to find the strategy that works best. By doing this, it will help you ground yourself every time you question what you are doing or get down about your current situation. If you know the task or situation you are in is going to make significant and measurable progress towards one of your major whys then you know to keep moving forward.

What are mine you might ask? Here you go.

• Live a life of travel and adventure through sailing the world’s oceans and bodies of water.
• Create long term financial wealth for my family and organizations I am passionate about.
• Give back to the world by inspiring others to follow their dreams and help teach people through the experiences I have had in my life.
• Keep my family and friends close, but encourage them to create and chase their own dreams.

2. Have a clear and defined vision.

Once you know your mission and have the ability to answer your why questions you can create a vision. How will you achieve the goals you have in your life. What avenues for making money will best achieve the goals you have? Where do you need to be living and who do you need to surround yourself with? When you create a clearly defined vision and write it on paper you commit yourself to achieving that vision. Your vision aligns with your why, and your daily actions need to make measurable progress towards your vision.

A clear vision also helps you to take a moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and feel what your definition of success is when you are struggling. Know what a day in the life of you looks like from start to finish and what goes on the highlight real for the end of each week, month, and year?

3. Run your numbers once, twice, a third time, then jump.

While this is primarily focused on the idea of pulling the trigger in the game of real estate, it also applies to any decision you need to make in life. Evaluate the pros and cons, check your work against your why and your vision, then evaluate the pros and cons one more time. If everything positive then move forward. Regardless of our decision we almost always will experience a bit of buyers (or actioners) remorse. Know you made a calculated decision that you thought would better your life’s situation and move on. By using the same internal process each time you make an important decision you can be confident that every action will get you closer to where you want to be in your vision.

4. Limit your daily decisions.

This may seem like a funny thing, but I find it very helpful to limit my decisions on the small things. I create routines in my activities, food, and dress to be sure my mind is free of the noise of small decisions and available to focus energy on the bigger problems. I have bought the exact same pair of Levi jeans for the past 5 years. If I go out for lunch I go to either Subway or Jimmy Johns depending on the errands I have to run but always order the exact same thing. When I cook at home I eat the same breakfast every day, and typically eat the same lunch and dinner for every meal during the week. I don’t go shopping in stores or online for little things unless necessary. All these actions and routines help me because I don’t get distracted from the important things like investing my time and money into my physical health, relationships, and my business.

5. Know your escapes.

Each Saturday and Sunday I like to go paddle boarding or go for a hike. These things get me active so I don’t need to go to a gym during the week. They get me outdoors in the fresh air so I can take deep clean breaths to clear my mind. They also get me away from the phone, computer, properties, and other things that cause stress in my daily life. These escapes help me balance myself so that I can get focused and energized for another week of work.

While there are other things I do in my life to keep focused and moving forward when I get down these are the major things I feel make a difference for me in my life. I still struggle on a daily and weekly basis with my energy and positivity towards my progress. But by knowing my why, having a vision, having a process to make important decisions, eliminated the number of small choices I need to make, and knowing my escapes creates a routine that has resulted in a decent amount of success over the past year. I firmly believe that by continuing to follow these steps I will be able to reach my goal of 150 units by age 30 and set off on a circumnavigation around this amazing planet.