We’re already a couple months into 2015. What is the year shaping up to be like for you? Is it going to be the same as every other year? Or are you going to finally make the change you’ve been thinking (and dreaming) about making?
You know the change I’m talking about. The change that you wish you could make. The change that you dream about when your boss comes by and tells you to stay late. The change that you dream about when you miss another one of your daughter’s piano recitals because of work. The change that you dream about when you try to pay your bills each month.
THAT change. The change you dream about when that gets your heart racing but you think is totally unachievable.
You know what change I’m talking about... the life that you want to live versus the live you’re currently living. Chances are, the life you’re currently living isn’t how you want to be living.
I say: Make 2015 the year that changes everything for you. Make 2015 the year that you quit your job and start living YOUR life on YOUR terms.
Here’s my 3-step process to do that...
STEP 1: GIVE YOUR HEAD A SHAKE
Many people will read this blog post but only a few will ever act. By December 31, 2015, I suspect only a small handful will look back over the year and say “yes, I made the change in my life and now I’m living it the way I want to live it.” And as for the rest of the readers of this post? They’ll still be commuting to work, doing what the boss says, missing more recitals, struggling to pay the bills.
The reason is kind of depressing, actually: People want to live life on their own terms but they also get really comfortable and become creatures of habit. Every morning, every single one of us wakes up and we ask ourselves: “will I take a chance on something today or will I do the same thing I always do?” and our brains are hardwired to tell us to stick to our patterns.
It goes back to our caveman times, I guess, when we needed to stay safe and not get eaten by a saber-tooth tiger so we stuck to predictable patterns and didn’t venture too far away from the cave. Fast forward a couple million years and we’re still protecting ourselves from saber-tooth tigers by living the most predictably routine lives ever.
There’s nothing wrong with routine but it does have a huge drawback: It makes us comfortable and when we get comfortable we get lazy and when we get lazy we aren’t willing to change.
End result? You dream of having a better life for your family but your current level of comfort (even if it’s not always happy comfort) keeps you from making the changes necessary.
Worse yet, I see MILLIONS of Americans on this path… a path toward impoverished retirement: They work had at underpaying and thankless jobs and don’t put away enough money for retirement. They dream of making a change that can help them achieve financial freedom but their current level of comfort (even if they KNOW it’s inadequate to help them afford retirement) keeps them from making the changes they need to make (even if they KNOW those changes can help them afford retirement).
So give your head a shake. (A gentle shake). Tell yourself to WAKE UP and realize that the comfort you feel in your current life isn’t the best life you can live. Tell yourself that you can have the life you want to live by simply breaking out of your comfort zone and venturing a little bit (just a little bit) farther away from the cave than you have been.
Heck, you’ve already decided that the life you’ve been living isn’t the life you want to be living. You know that in your mind. Now it’s time to give your head a shake and get that thinking out of your mind and turn it into action.
STEP 2: GET EDUCATED
Lots of my students agree with step 1 and many will say “okay, DM, I’m in. Let’s make the changes in my life that need to happen.” And after a brief moment of silence, they say, “so what do I do now???”
So step 2 is to get educated. You need to start learning about HOW to change your life. You need to figure out what’s working for other people and do what they do. (Good news: You’re on this blog, reading my stuff... which means you’re already part of the way there because I show my students exactly what I do; I don’t hold anything back).
There are many ways to get educated and I recommend that you do all of these: Read voraciously – blogs and social posts, read books, listen to podcasts. (GREAT NEWS: Here’s a list of things I’ve written that you can read and listen to. Check them all out for a full picture of how to invest)...
- MarkEvansDM.com/blog
- https://www.facebook.com/markevansdm
- http://therealestatepowerhour.com
- Virtual Real Estate Investing Made Easy
Get coaches and mentors. All top players have coaches and mentors (I have more than one… and Deena and I just invested nearly SIX FIGURES to hang out with my mentor on a yacht for a week. It was INSANELY awesome... I’m not suggesting you need to drop that much money right off the bat but I just wanted to show you that investors at all levels are willing to invest in their own education… I’ve been at this for 18+ years and I’m still learning every single day).
Not sure where to start? Well, if I were in your situation, I’d sit down and write out every single question I had about how to change my life and how to invest in real estate. I’d write questions until my hand turned purple and I ran out of pads of paper. (Seriously, I’d fill up a couple pads of paper of questions, and you should too). And then I’d start digging into the resources I listed earlier for answers. And I’d stay up all night every night until I found all the answers I needed and had put them into a step-by-step plan.
Anything you need to know or don’t think you can do, write it down and see if there’s a solution. For example, one of the biggest things that hold people back from changing their lives is a lack of money to invest in real estate. So if that’s something that is holding you back from investing then write it down. And as you study, you’ll learn that there are several ways you can invest WITHOUT SPENDING A DIME OF YOUR MONEY. You can wholesale deals, which is a great way to get into real estate investing quickly, or you can invest by tapping into your 401(k) or IRA with a really cool, little-known trick. Or find great deals and use private money from a private investor (I don’t recommend this in the beginning but there is a a lot of money out there for investments). All it takes is some education and you’ll discover the exact path you need to take to change your life.
Which leads me to my third and final step for quitting your job and changing your life in 2015…
STEP 3: TAKE MASSIVE ACTION
I can make you a guarantee: If you are truly serious about making changes in your life and you get up every single day and take action, you WILL change your life. I guarantee it.
Unfortunately, most people SAY they want to make changes in their life but they don’t do anything about it (they get stuck at step 1), and those who push through and start getting educated often mistake education for action (they get stuck at step 2). Only those who first give their head a shake and then get educated and then TAKE ACTION (massive, relentless, daily action) will actually change their lives.
So what does that mean? Well, let’s compare two people, both of whom want to change their lives through real estate investing and who have taken some time to get educated.
Person A gets up and goes to work. They come home tired at the end of the day. They watch some TV and then go to bed, telling themselves that they’ll get to it tomorrow or on the weekend. (Although when the weekend rolls around, they are busy doing work around the house, trying to catch up on all the stuff they didn’t have time to do during the week).
Person B says: “I’m going to invest this year to change my life. I’m going to give up TV, give up just a little bit of sleep each day, and give up a part of my weekends, but it’s an investment into a better life for me and my family.” And so they get up every morning, half an hour before they used to, to get educated and to answer questions that they have about investing. And when they get home at night, they do a bit more reading and then put into action the things they learned. And on the weekends, they make a big list of actions they can take and they work hard until each one is done.
Which of those two people do you think is going to see changes by December 31, 2015? I promise you that one of them will and one of them won’t. I can make that promise because I’ve seen both types of people pretty frequently.
Sometimes taking action requires you to give up a little bit of something right now, temporarily, like television or even an extra hour of sleep. But if you commit to yourself to give these things up for 2015 and instead invest the time taking ACTION, you will likely make such a profound change in your life by the end of the year that you can spend even more time watching TV and sleeping (or doing whatever else you want to do!!!) than you ever did before.
Most people look at investors who are really rocking it out and they say: “How can I get to that level fast?” Well, I didn’t just accidentally trip into real estate investing and suddenly find myself reaching a level of investing that allowed me to float down a canal in Venice with Deena.
This picture represents the massive action and even a little sacrifice to get there... Back before I was actually doing deals, when I owed another business, I used to get up at 4 in the morning to take action on real estate investing BEFORE I went to my other business to work.
Today I live where I want and travel the world and work whenever I want from whichever beach I want to work at. But it’s only because I took action that I can do that.
"Show me someone’s top 10 habits...
and I can predict their future" -The DM
Ready for change? Just do these 3 steps.
Yeah, it’s that simple. Don’t make it more complicated.
I know you’ve already decided to change your life and live it on your own terms. You dream about it night and day. Now it’s time to do something about it. So give your head a shake, get educated, and take action.
This is YOUR year!!!
Your friend and mentor,
Mark Evans DM,DN
PS, I want to put you on the fast track. So earlier in this blog post I mentioned that a lack of money sometimes kills the dreams of people who want to invest but think that they don’t have the money to do it. If you wrote that down on your pad of questions, then you should go check out show #28 of The Real Estate Power Hour podcast because I’ll reveal a little-known trick that can get you going faster with money you don’t even realize you have.