Archive for setting goals
Situational Spirituality at last!!
Posted by: | CommentsA friend sent me a picture, (don’t panic I’ll show you in a minute), that really illustrated why I got you to put your goal into a positive visible phrase yesterday.
Sadly the NLP and guru brigade have mixed up a lot of scientific truth with a lot of mystical sounding spin to make you buy their next programme or whatever, however the truth is that our brain has a remarkable ability to help us if we let it.
I once heard a scientist say that if we were cars and our brain was a 100 cylinder engine, most of us are running on less than 8 cylinders.
People who are creative like artists and musicians or those who push their brain activity like doctors and other academic pursuits may get up as high as 20% but that’s about it.
So we have 80% of our wonderful brain available to solve problems for us if we ask it to.
And that is why encapsulating our desires into a daily viewed phrase starts to unlock our subconscious ability to create ideas and solutions to achieving that goal.
I can hum/sing the theme song to Welcome Back Cotter, The Greatest American Hero, MASH and Miami Vice after not hearing them for 30 years because I imprinted them on my brain daily.
By imprinting a statement that requires action daily onto my brain I will not only remember it but am making the first step to achieving it.
So seeing you may not have done it yesterday when I suggested, please go back quickly and start creating change now you know why it is critical.
You will be AMAZED at what ideas will start to come to you as you allow your God given ability to be activated.
So back to my mates pic:
You will forever laugh at a lot of bumper stickers now I have shown you this genuine,untouched real estate pic from Northland in New Zealand.
Prior to becoming vacant this phrase ended in “LORD”
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Get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Creating Change
Posted by: | CommentsSo following on from Friday, how do we get from an idea of change to the execution of change. As I said on Friday we tend to over complicate this so instead of giving you the goal setting and planning speech I want to give you just one simple thing to start.
Take the one thing you want to change and re-frame the desire into a positive “confession”.
So my “Recover or surpass the net worth position I had in 2007″ I would rewrite as “I am achieving my goal of $XXXXXXXX net worth” OR even “I am thankful that my wealth is now greater than it was in 2007″.
Now take that one simple confession and write it on a card or print off a few copies and put it in at least 3 places that you will see daily. Above your computer, on the bathroom door, on the fridge, anywhere you DAILY see it. You can abbreviate it or even draw a picture to represent your statement if you don’t want your actual words on display for others. However you do it the critical thing is that when you see the card or phrase you instantly know what it says.
And that’s it. DO that today. I’m not going to even tell you why, just trust me. NO hard core planning, time-framed goals blah, blah.
Just one simple positive confession that you think about a minimum of 3 times a day.
More tomorrow!!
Now get going and Stay Safe ~ Dean
K.I.S.S.
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We all have a tendency to make things more complicated than we need to. The adage “Keep It Simple Silly” is a good one when it comes to goal setting and planning.
Having decided, (as we have right?), that 201 is going to have it’s socks rocked off we need to now decide what that looks like.
So today is a simple first step. Think about what you would like to change in your life. And keep it simple.
If the thought of change or growth is daunting maybe just think of one thing you would like to change in your life right now.
We generally over estimate what we can do in 12 months and seriously underestimate what we can achieve in 5 or ten years because we complicate short term goals to a point where we simply give up.
So mine for 2011 is:
1. Recover or surpass the net worth position I had in 2007. That has a dollar value attached to it of course so that becomes my financial goal for 2011.
2. Spend significantly more time with my wife and kids in 2011. That has a time goal attached to it so this becomes my time management and planning goal for 2011
You get yours done and we’ll develop things further together tomorrow.
You will only grow in your life if you decide you want it so do you want it my friend?? If so then stick with me, do these “silly exercises”, they can change your life 
Get Going and Stay Inspired ~ Dean.
Doing the do!
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Well I had a wonderful evening inspiring people at the Wanganui Property Investors Association last night. I am just wired for doing that, can’t get enough of it!!
What was amazing was that most attendees last night are actually investors . Typically only a tiny percentage of people who hang around the investing community actually do any investing, bBut everybody I spoke to last night actually owned property and was in the middle of deals. Maybe smaller towns which are often factory and agricultural based have a better work ethic?? Certainly the number of active investors there is way over the average.
So what about you? How much time are you spending dreaming about what could be and how much time taking action to make it happen. It’s amazing what you can do when you start. It may be hard, it may take time, it may involve 1 step forward and 2 steps back for a season, but if the goal is worthwhile and you persevere then the results will be 110% worth it.
There is an oft quoted cliche that says that most people fail and give up 5 minutes before they would have succeeded. This is of course unprovable and meaningless but the sentiment behind it is valid and true. If you actually do something and don’t give up you will eventually make enough mistakes and start doing the right things to succeed. Only death can stop you yet most of us give up long before that.
So take a page out of the Wanganui PIA’s book and decide that you will take some action and jolly well succeed and achieve some things in your life. Now would be quite a good time to start
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus @ www.MassiveAction.tv
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Eat the Rich??
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There is a very sad and bizarre debate/attack going on in New Zealand at the moment surrounding executive salaries. Sometimes an emotive subject brings out the dysfunction in a culture and in New Zealand wages and housing both do it.
People earning millions of dollars a year are being attacked for being overpaid and the companies that employ them, many are quango’s or large monopoly style organisations, are being hammered for irresponsibility.
So to me this is just patent nonsense. I have never read such drivel as I have in the last couple of weeks about it. If someone can find a way to get paid a fortune every year without being dishonest shouldn’t we celebrate their success?
If someone has skills that are so honed or valuable that a company recognises it by paying them 5 million a year we should be emulating that persons methods shouldn’t we? But oh no not in New Zealand, instead we get stuff like this:
“Eyebrows and ire were both raised by recent reports of big bonuses – contributing to even bigger remuneration packages – paid out to the executives of some of our leading companies. Even when those companies had seen profit margins fall substantially.
Nothing more strongly suggests the lessons that seemed such a clear legacy of the global financial meltdown a few brief months ago have been quickly and conveniently forgotten.
Even the justification offered by the spokesman for the Institute of Directors was redolent of a distinctly pre-recession complacency.
“If we are to attract the talent we need,” he solemnly intoned, “we have to pay salaries to match those paid in the rest of the world.”
Sadly because this writer is a senior person at a university he is listened to. What people don’t understand is that university lecturer’s are basically “poor people”. They are happy to earn an academic salary instead of ever generating real wealth for themselves. Put another way, they have no idea what they are talking about.
This culture of success bashing is highly toxic and contributes to our poverty as a nation. This is really a serious problem that we need to fight against. Every one of us should be thinking: “How can I increase my net worth and income by a MINIMUM of 20% every year”.
If we thought about it we would start to achieve it and as we achieved it we would become a wealthier nation. This attitude of increasing wealth is evident in Australia for example where they have compulsory Super, (generating huge wealth individually and for the nation), and the general sentiment I hear everywhere there is one of “How do I get ahead?” instead of NZ’s “Why won’t the government take from the rich and give to me”.
These laughable commentators should be required to have achieved great financial success and achieved great poverty before they are allowed to comment on either, then they would at least talk some sense.
So I implore you today to set some fresh income goals for yourself. Why not aim to double your income in the next 12 months and see how close you get to it. Understand that it is both achievable and desirable for you to get paid sa much as you can for your time and even more for your abilities. If enough of us do this we could shift this stinking Helenesque culture back to the cesspit it came from.
Here’s to wealth and prosperity with honesty hard work and integrity. All you people clamouring for more poverty please emigrate
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus @ www.MassiveAction.tv
To get the latest investing information on time and for free make sure you get my regular newsletter here
Enjoying the roller coaster?
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It’s certainly an interesting time to be alive isn’t it. We can now definitely say that nobody really knows what is going on.
In Iran we have an election that is simply being rejected to the point of death.
In the USA we have billion dollar bailouts that haven’t even slowed the carnage down, let alone arrest it.
In England we have corruption issues and the nation is basically bankrupt.
And on the NZ Herald website today the top national news stories are Big Wednesday and Air New Zealand’s cheap airfares. So at least we have our priorities sorted .
And on the property front things are weirder still. I’ve had very “ordinary” properties for sale since October without a serious offer suddenly sell at full asking price and at the same time have had a very saleable property not even attract 60% of genuine value. There is no silver bullet or secret weapon with property in this market. Utilising your skills to help those wanting to buy or sell is a low risk strategy currently and if you are cashed up then it is a pretty good time to be going shopping. But anything leveraged is difficult right now because of ongoing uncertainty.
This is also a good time to be working on your own skills, whether that is getting more financially literate so you can analyse deals better, working on your personal development so you are better emotionally equipped for the stresses of property or simply taking stock of your life and ensuring you are spending time on and with the people and things that really matter to you.
This market will change and given enough years everybody will forget about it, but your friends, lovers, memories, children and adventures you only get to live once.
And don’t be afraid to admit your mistakes and change your world view if that is required. I know I have rethought and readjusted many things in the last 6 months. Situations, events, failures all come to give us feedback so we can grow.
So whatever “stuff up” is looming large in your mind today remember it is just an event. You will get over it. It is never as bad as it looks.
I’m not quoting meaningless platitudes to you here, I am sharing with you things I know to be true. I have days when a head on car accident would be a good solution to a problem, but given time, help and advice, I don’t die. It does end. Sometimes it works out way better than I expected. So I adjust my life to what works. Let me finish with one example.
As a “new school” property investor I embraced the “never sell” mantra and I could see all the reasons why it was good. In addition to the “why sell assets that are going up in value” there was also the luxurious thought of being able to say I owned 10, 20 or 30 properties.
I also remember becoming quite set in my opposition to “old school” types like Olly Newland and others who taught that it is good to sell down when the time is right and never sell was a bad idea.
So we go through the last 9 months in the New Zealand property market and I now understand why Olly et al said what they do. It’s because they have been through this before and they are therefore wiser. Their position has been achieved through the crucible of experience. And that is something we can do every day. Learn through our experience. I now know that owning 50 rental properties is a 2 edged sword. And I was wrong to bag the old investors whose wisdom is well……. wise!
So don’t waste this opportunity to learn about yourself and reassess your goals, your rules and your life.
People think fresh scars are ugly, but on an old battler they engender honour and respect.
Make sure you become old, don’t check out early.
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus @ www.MassiveAction.tv
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Who do you love?
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Or we could ask ourselves “Who do we have our faith in?”. I don’t mean in a super spiritual way in this case but I have been thinking about our basis for decision making in this context.
For example if I wanted to go kayaking I have done enough flat water kayaking to make a decision for myself about whether a particular day or spot was safe enough for me. But if I wanted to go white water kayaking I would contact my friend Fritz, who is a professional white water kayaker and ask him whether he thought I could handle a particular spot. I would then go and inspect it myself and unless I thought I could do it safely I might still decide against it or ask Fritz to come and do it with me.
In other words I “love myself” enough to ensure I don’t injure or kill myself by taking actions that are dangerous or outside of my skill set. And I have enough faith in Fritz to add his skill to my common sense to make the best decision I can. Now this is definitely a good thing, but it also has a downside in that I may not do something that would have been safe for me to do but my fear stopped me. However I would rather let fear stop me sometimes and stay alive than ignore my fear and die.
So if we relate this to my industry of wealth creation and property investing it becomes even more complex because almost all action required to begin to shift our financial or personal development state is going to instantly generate fear. Unlike kayaking the likelihood is that you are unhappy with your current situation and looking for answers so fear is probably already your enemy.
There is no easy solution to this issue other than understanding that it exists and choosing to find a way through it. For myself I find that deliberately looking for things to push against works. For example with my property investing I set a goal to get a seven figure property under contract. The thought of that was terrifying, so I started visiting open homes of multi million dollar properties just to get used to talking big numbers and exposing myself to my fear so that I could “befriend” it. In time making multi million dollar offers became normal.
One of my mentoring students recently was telling me how there were no good deals in his city, ( how many times have I heard that!!), so I made him put in a certain number of offers before we went any further. After doing 50% of what I had asked him to do I got an email hoping to not have to do the other half. I stayed strong and refused to answer any other questions until he had completed the task. He did do it and when he emailed saying he had completed it he also had a potential good deal on the go. So his fear of making multiple offers and his belief that Wellywood has no good property deals is now changed!! He will never struggle in that way again because the evidence is now there that his fear was unfounded.
So what is your “thing” that keeps you from moving forward?? And once you figure that out, what are you going to do about it??
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus @ www.MassiveAction.tv
