The next step in overcoming fear is to recognise that often fear is caused by, or fed by, ignorance. The antidote to ignorance is information and knowledge but of course it needs to be the right knowledge. Strangely many people are not discriminating in choosing their source of information. A good example of this is the old saying “if it’s in the papers it must be true”. Perhaps I’m just jaundiced but, in my experience, whenever I have read in a paper about a subject I have a reasonable knowledge of, I can see that the article is flawed and factually incorrect. If this is true of subjects I know about it, it’s more than likely that this general statement also applies to the other articles and columns as well. The point is that the press and the media is probably the last place you should be looking for property information and you certainly shouldn’t decide your strategy and plan based on tabloid hype and hysteria.
Similarly, if you are going to obtain information and knowledge from others, you need to be selective who you talk to. If you talk to your non-property investing friends, there’s a good chance you are just going to hear rehashed press comment. If you are going to seek advice, and by the way I think this is a good thing to do, you need to seek the advice of those who have actually done it, and preferably those who have done it successfully.
The last part of our cure is just to determine to yourself that you will “do it”. In order to succeed in property I would guess that all of us are going to have to push through our comfort zones in some way or another. And as the term suggests, that is going to feel uncomfortable. So resolve that you will take action whether you like it or not, just as I resolved that I was going to go into estate agent’s offices whether I felt like it or not.
A clever motivation expert once said something along the lines of “successful people do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, whether they feel like doing it or not”. That’s quite a challenge to live up to but the more you do the things that need to be done, especially when you don’t really feel like doing them, the easier it gets.
Believe it or not, taking action is like using a muscle and the more you exercise it the stronger it’ll grow. And the more you exercise it the easier it will become.
And remember that practice makes perfect. If you’re not used to doing something, it can feel awkward and clumsy and not natural. But the more you do it the easier it becomes. In the end, it becomes second nature and you can do it without even thinking about it. You’ll be pleased to hear that many of the steps we need to take to property success are exactly like that, and you’ll soon find that doing things which you couldn’t have imagined yourself doing six months ago can become second nature.
Here’s to successful property investing.
Peter Jones B.Sc FRICS
Chartered Surveyor, Author & Property Investor
