Please excuse my language but 2015 is going to be a cr@p year.
Okay, it may not be that bad, (although for many of us it will be) but unless we start to plan now the chances are it’s going to be mediocre at best, in fact probably disappointingly similar to many years that have gone before.
It’s at this time of the year, with the run-up to Christmas and the New Year, many of us will be wondering what 2015 holds for us. We may have big plans and big dreams but the truth is that 2015 is unlikely to be very much different from any other year, that is unless we plan for it to be different.
We need to recognise that if we want 2015 to be a great year (in property) then we need to start planning for it now, and not leaving it until January 1st before we start to think about it.
Why is that? Because unless we plan for it to be different the chances are we’ll take all of our current poor and limited thinking, our bad habits, our lack of vision, and our lack of action into 2015 and then wonder why nothing changed. If anything does change, whether for better or for worse, it will be because events dictated it, rather than because we created it.
If things can change (for the better), if 2015 is going to be our best year (in property) ever, we need to be intentional about it and take full control now.
In the words of the motivation experts, we need to, “Make the event, don’t wait for the event”, but even more than that we need to control the event and not be at the mercy of the event.
Put like this, this might sound rather gloomy, even depressing, but it doesn’t have to be. There is a simple 5 step process we can follow which will give our best year (in property) ever, if we are prepared to put in the preparation and take action. I’ll be introducing you to that process later in this series of posts.
So where do we start? As preparation, even before we start to use the 5 step process, we need to make sure that our heads are in the right place.
Ideally we need to go into the New Year with the right mindset, and having started to develop the right habits and actions which will help us to achieve, especially the belief we can achieve.
Mindset is so important for success, especially having the right beliefs about what we can achieve.
As I get older, and as I experience more success personally, and as I get to mix with more successful people, I have come to realise that often the only difference between success and failure is belief.
The most successful people have an unshakeable mindset and believe they can do what they set their mind to do. It’s said that, “The person with the most confidence wins”, and successful people are confident that ‘they can win’ even if they aren’t entirely sure how they are going to do it.
And they are persistent. Persistence is the next best asset to keep us going, no matter what happens, and no matter how many times we fail. Some failure is inevitable, but if we keep on despite the failures, success will become inevitable.
Developing persistence is a bit like developing muscles or fitness, and comes from regular practice.
A big motivator for practising persistence can be by developing compelling reasons to achieve whatever it is we want to achieve.
If you have enough big reasons, perhaps four or five “Super Reasons” why you must succeed, then you will be motivated to keep picking yourself up and to keep on going, even when things (inevitably) don’t go your way.
So it’s important that as a habit to take into the New Year we develop our mindset everyday. That can be by listening to motivational material, hanging around with motivated and successful (but not delusional people) and by having a mentor, especially a mentor who has achieved what we want to achieve and can show us how to do it.
Apart from developing our mindset what else do we need to do to make sure 2015 is our best year (in property) ever?
Simply we need to follow the 5 step system which we will begin to look at in my next post.
Here’s to successful property investing
Peter Jones
Peter Jones B.Sc FRICS
Chartered Surveyor, author and property investor
