Ready, Mindset, Go!

Your mindset, more than anything else, will dictate your future.

I’m forever indebted to my first mentor, Rick (Rixter), for opening my eyes to the magic of mindset. He stressed how important the right mindset was for both setting and reaching my goals.

At first, my understanding of this concept was simply intellectual. I believed it, but I didn’t grasp its truth at a deep level. That came with time, experimentation, firsthand experience and evidence. As I read, watched, listened and learned, I adjusted my thoughts and behaviours (very sluggishly, I admit), slowly gaining confidence in myself, expanding my horizons of possibility and what I could achieve, raising the bar, resetting my goals and taking on greater challenges.

Perhaps I’m a little slow, but it wasn’t immediately obvious to me that those I knew who were doing extraordinary things were all thinking differently. It clicked eventually though, and I made every effort to massage my mind and tinker my thinking in such ways as to enable me to achieve more.

My environment, experiences and upbringing shaped my thinking. I’ve identified four pivotal areas to catalyse change:

Networking and circle of friends – the most vital factor.

Get around people who are succeeding in areas you want to excel in. So much change in mindset happens by osmosis. Hang around an ordinary person doing extraordinary things and you can’t help but start to realise you are capable of the same–their ambition, confidence, determination and successes will rub off on you in a big way. Who are your role models, mentors, friends, acquaintances?

Voracious learning.

Over an 18 month period I devoured well over 100 non-fiction books, dozens of lectures and attended numerous courses. Every one of them had an impact on my thinking. Together, their compounding benefit can’t be overstated. A great number of people who knew me before and during this focused period of expansion began commenting on the significant changes they were seeing in me.

Don’t focus on too narrow of an area for too long, either. Things that may not seem relevant or interesting now may be vital in the future. Be a life long learner on a wide range of topics.

Goal setting.

Aim as far out on the horizon as you can see. As you move a little closer, you’ll see a little further and can adjust your goals to again be as far out there as seems tangible.

Forget your comfort zone.

Being comfortable is an enormous impediment to growth. Get uncomfortable with comfort–it’s a recipe for stasis. Challenge yourself, stretch, learn and grow. What happens when you attempt or surmount a challenge is marvellous. You gain experience, your capabilities expand, your confidence grows, things that were uncomfortable become comfortable and your sphere of what’s possible swells.

View your mind as a piece of clay and shape it to your greatest benefit.

 

Well done Steven. I believe what your doing is developing a sophisticated mindset ready for great success. I've been saying for many years, it's the foundation upon which everything else sits on. Property knowledge, experience, skills, everything rests on this foundation. Doesn't matter how developed the other factors are, they are all reliant on a strong foundation. Many think this is nonsense or overrated. Hence, they achieve mediocre results. Its really that simple.

Anyway well done mate.

 

Great post Steven

 

awesome post!!
for anyone starting their journey should read this more than once, and if you dont get anything from it come back to it in 6months or so. i was in the same boat thinking it wad all malarkey but now iwant to read so many books and you tube and get a hold of anything i can! it has to click in your head and within yourself before it all makes sense!!

 

Always keen for book recommendations.

 

I just found the book thread

https://propertychat.com.au/community/threads/book-list.100/

 

In my opinion this is a fantastic book on shaping your philosophy for major success.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/298739.The_Seasons_of_Life

 

Excellent post Steven, and I wholeheartedly agree with Bob Shovel, it's something that a newbie should revisit again at a later stage.

I've only myself started looking at mindset as the thing that will dictate my future in the last 18 months or so, thanks to Leo's post on SS about Les Brown and Jim Rohn, real inspirational and eye opening.

 

Motivational post - love it!

 

Very good post Steven, thanks for motivation, was great to meet you the other night! Your determination is truly inspirational!!

 

Cheers all. There'll be more of these from time to time Just sharing some things I have learned along the way.

Nem, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you. I'm inspired by how swiftly you have taken action. It's remarkable. As are the amount of things on your plate and your ability to still find time to learn, grow and take on new challenges.

 

I believe Real Estate Investing is playing the long game, many investors change their game plan too often, or get out before they gain the experience necessary for their success.

The fear of financial pain is also an emotion to overcome, without it you may never take on any risk

 

Totally agree with all the posts. I find it funny when people try to provide me their 'professional' tips on how to invest in properties and I am always happy to listen to people because I may learn something from the experience, but I particularly get annoyed with people who "talk the talk, but don't walk the walk". Or having a family member telling me that the banks can repossess the properties anytime they like. Sorry but we don't live in a communist regime and as long as I am making the repayments, than I am honoring my end of the contract. I know that some of my friends are affected due to the State Government wanting to acquire properties to expand on the Harberfield and Homebush for the expansion of the M4 east tunnel plans. And also when someone mentions that due to not having having the certificate of title to the properties that technically it cant be claimed that its ours.

 

Fantastic post Steven... I couldn't agree more.

Its the mindset that keeps your focus on the "Why" and NOT on ALL the "Why Nots" popping up along the way!

Once again great post and thanks for the mention - glad to help.

 

Great post Steven.

 

Networking and circle of friends – the most vital factor.

Get around people who are succeeding in areas you want to excel in. So much change in mindset happens by osmosis. Hang around an ordinary person doing extraordinary things and you can’t help but start to realise you are capable of the same–their ambition, confidence, determination and successes will rub off on you in a big way. Who are your role models, mentors, friends, acquaintances?

Great advice steven any tips on how you met more like minded investors besides this forum?

 

Truthfully, most of the investors I know I met via Somersoft directly, or indirectly (through people I met on Somersoft introducing me etc). The meet ups that happen regularly are a great way to connect with others and things expand from there. They're worth travelling for. It sometimes involves a round trip of 3-4 hours for me to attend meet ups.

Skype, email, phones, private messages work pretty well too. I had coffee with two people from this forum on Sunday and spoke to two others on the phone (hi if any of your are reading).

Obviously, you'll meet plenty at property seminars/expos too but they might not be quite as savvy and experienced as a lot of the members here.

Early on when I started on Somersoft, a few people reached out to me. I'm glad. I should have had the initiative to do the reaching myself...

Perhaps you can keep an eye out for investors up your way and get in touch We're pretty friendly.

 

Thankyou for such a detailed reply! Sydney would only be a 4 hour round trip for me so not much different to what you have been doing! Plenty of useful tips ,I'll deffintly start reaching out to more people I've been pretty lucky my partners brother lives and breathes property and my parents introduced it to me at a very young age and would always talk about it at the dinner table other then that tho I have a few close friends that know the exact details but I can tell they don't really understand.

 

My pleasure. Getting around the right people is SO important. I'm super frugal but I would jump on an international flight anywhere on earth to spend 5 minutes with the right person. ("value", not "cost").

4 hours of travel is a great chance for 4 hours of reading (or many other things). The commute is not even relevant if used well

I think there's a meet up on Saturday if you're free. I'm up in Brisbane house hunting otherwise I'd be there.

You are lucky to have some people close to you who have been bitten by the bug. I had no one. Enter Somersoft.

 

Great post thanks Steven. Didn't say hi at previous meetup but must introduce myself next time - I see you are interested in physics too! not many of us about