the biggest internal threat to our success

Just wanting to share my observations of human behaviour when it comes to almost anything, but my experiences and observations here relate to working with and speaking with property investors (mostly aspiring investors, however I see the following with people already with a few properties too)


PLEASE NOTE - my intention around sharing this is to help bring to light what gets in the way for many people, It is not about judgment or criticism. I am hopeful that we can all keep our comments respectful and gentle, so we can help encourage and awaken people to the "head stuff" that gets in our way.



humans are scared by nature, we will find any reason not to do something , especially something we don't have complete control over (or a perception of control over)

Plus....

generally speaking we hate making decisions and will avoid, deflect and try our hardest to not decide. It's human nature. Most of us avoid making decisions because we are fearful of loss, fearful of making a mistake and are thinking "what if I get it wrong". Most of the time there's been a mistake that has occurred previously which runs scripts in our mind. "what if it happens again" "what if I am not good enough" "what if I am not smart enough" our past mistakes often control our decisions in the present time. Especially if we have not forgiven ourselves for our past errors.


What I see weekly is people who have everything ready to go, everything is lined up perfectly, house paid off, loads of savings, finance ready but they can't move forward. I would say that over 50% of my clients have been thinking about investing for more than 4 years before finally getting to the point of taking action. and then, it takes them another 6-18 months to actually take the final step of hiring someone like me to get them over the finish line.

The underlying reason is fear. But people do not know they are feeling fear, so they can't help themselves through it and short cut the cycle of staying stuck.

So what they do instead is hunt for the 1 thing that seems like a good reason not to buy NOW. Finding something that seems logical and feasible gives them the ability to sit and not move forward, but what is really going on is that fear is running the show and the "reason" is 99% of the time BS.

Because everything else can be accounted for (what ifs, risk management etc), the one last thing that people lean on as the reason not to move forward is "what is happening in the market right now and what will happen in the future".

This is the one thing no-one knows with absolute certainty, so it is an easy one to get hung up on. Particularly when as humans we LOVE certainty. Exactly what will happen next is not a certainty. We can predict it with a reasonable amount of confidence, but we can't guarantee it. So this is often the sticking point that prevents people from moving forward.

People ask what is happening in the market, no matter what I say is happening in the market most people will find something that I have said and make it a negative and use it as the reason not to purchase, even when it isn't logical, it's not what I said or they have interpreted in a different way than how it was meant (ie draw an incorrect conclusion about what the facts mean).

According to fear the market is always........
- "too hot"
- "too cold"
- "about to burst"
- "just burst, lets wait it will go down more we can buy cheaper if we wait"
- "lets just see what happens next month" (there is rarely anything that is going to happen within the month that would change anything. Very occasionally there is a very sound reason to wait - ie) elections, policy changes)
- "the newspapers are saying its going to go down another 40%"
- "its a really bad time to buy" (usually when it is against the herd and the best time to buy)

then the market goes up again and here is the rest of the reasons I hear about why it isnt a good time
- "It's about to go up, lets just see if it really does"
- "I just want to see if it keeps going up"
- "I'm not sure yet, I want to make sure its not about to turn again" (This happens at about 20 to 12 on the property clock)
- "Oh no, its gone up too much, we will wait till prices drop"

Then prices come to a halt...and you guessed it, we restart the whole second guessing game again.

How to overcome fear

1) Learn to recognise what fear looks and feels like for you personally
2) question your logic, are you actually making decisions because they are sound or is it just fear looking for "reasons" that are really just excuses posing as really clever reasons
3) Self talk - ask yourself, what am I afraid of...... write it all down
4) then on the other side of the page write down 3-5 things you could do IF this fearful thought became a reality
5) work out if there is a piece of information you are missing that is causing your fear and then go find the info or a person who can give you that info
6) Rinse and repeat - hunt for your fears and practice getting rid of them. With practice you begin to move faster with things you want to do in your life, become more decisive, more confident in yourself and more confident that if things did hit the you know what, you have at least 5-6 strategies and back up plans in place.


Don't let market fluctuations spook you!

Every market offers a downside and an upside, so use it to your advantage. Purchase when YOU are ready and your finances are ready and then make the most of the purchase by taking advantage of opportunity in the market you are buying in.

• Markets will always go up, down and stay stagnant for a period of time.
• Play the long game.
• Keep your head level and keep your eye on the bigger picture.
• Know you WILL 100% make several mistakes and you will keep making them, no-one built a portfolio of property without making heaps of them, the only difference is that they studied the mistake, kept going and got better each time.
• IF you make a mistake, just pick yourself up again and KEEP GOING. Don't let one mistake cripple you from making decisions and following your dreams (disclaimer - if you continually make super big mistakes - get help - you are a disaster zone and a glutton for punishment..... but if they are just small mistakes.... don't worry about it, you're learning!)
• Forgive yourself for not being perfect
• Forgive your past mistakes
  and if you want to fast track your internal work on your head game there are plenty of therapies and tools you can use to support yourself
  
  - hypnotherapy
  - kinesiology
  - EFT
  - visualisation ...... I'm sure there is many more that I have never heard of too.

 

Couldn't agree more. I would say FEAR and GREED is where people lose money, those that fear may never take the risk and hence opportunity and those that overcommit and then gamble more and more taking unnecessary risks.
I was one of those people that would over analyse and had fear, until some people answered my questions, then when I read some books and understood the concepts took a chance, that risk. The main change for me was a DESIRE, an emotional purpose, I wanted to have passive income, so I would forgo anything that would stop me in the way...
I would say, what if I lose money on property, and the reply was, how much can you lose, say there was a downturn and for some reason you needed to sell, you still would not lose all, yes maybe 10-20% plus costs, but would resale for some value, at least land component.
So one of my questions answered...
Then I said what if I and partner lose a job, and the reply was, you are both young, working, if you lose a job won't you look for another one, so yes I suppose so, I would take any job, so next question answered.
So on and on my questions became answered and then I thought let's try and see how we go, as passive investors, following someone else's system!
You see most people are really irrational human beings, just see herd mentality at action, buying when confidence is super high, selling stocks when falling down, so most unfortunately will not go against the trends.
This comes though with experience and it does take guts, but the KEY is the START, taking that first step....

Same was applied with various undertakings, start-ups businesses.

Many mistakes learned along the way but IMHO the key was taking that very first STEP to START.....

 

People seem to ask a lot "what should I do?" like there is one "right" answer.

What I have learned is that often there is no "best" answer, just different options with different good outcomes.

I sold a property in Melbourne that I could have held.

If I held then I could have sold for more 2 years later. That's a good outcome.

Instead I rolled the funds from the sale into two projects in Perth where I created a lot of value and great cashflow from them. That's a good outcome too!

Which was the "best" option? No idea! They were both good options with good outcomes. I don't think there was a "right" answer.

So, for people who are scared to act because they might do the "wrong" thing or might not pick the "best" option, my advice is to pick a good option and run with it. It doesn't have to be the "best" or the most "right". Good is good enough!

 

I'll say it's hard not to fear these days when many markets give such little returns, and fundamentals do not stack up for buy and hold property in many markets. If your adding value then it's all about the numbers and if they stack up I say go for it, but I'm assuming most of your clients are buy and hold/hope investors getting 2% returns then hoping growth over time. Seriously though, buying and hoping approach is speculation/gambling, this is probably why your clients fear so much.

 

Reminds me of the adage about pointing the gun but being too afraid to pull the trigger.

I recall as a 12 year old, spot lighting for rabbits near Mudgee, .22 BRNO semi auto with a Bushnell 3 x 9 variable scope, hanging out the passenger window.

The frozen rabbit was 40 metres away, middle of my cross hairs, couldn't possibly miss......but I just couldn't pull the trigger.

Out of nowhere a fox grabs the starry eyed rabbit and whisked it away.

All of a sudden two thunderous bangs came from nowhere. It was Boogsey, sitting on the bonnet of the VN with his 12 gauge over and under. Loaded with SGs, the fox and rabbit didn't stand a chance.

So the moral is if you hesitate just a little you might double your catch. Like Boogsy who earned more respect that night than he has ever. Hesitate too long and you get nothing.