Real Deal REInvestor Network

How do you find direction in your life and in your real estate investing? And why is finding direction important anyway? Put it this way: if you were to set out in your car driving from New York to Los Angeles, all the way across the country, you’d be going in the right direction just by heading “West”. But is that the most efficient way to go about a journey of that magnitude? Of course not!

So to continue from Part 2….

After deducting the “necessities” from the average person’s day-to-day routine, most people honestly have an average of something like 2 hours and 42 minutes per day with which they have to work to change their life for the better– just like “Johnny Wealth Builder” the average guy we profiled in my last article.

If you don’t believe me take the challenge yourself and get really disciplined for one month in recording your time expenditures.

I hope you do, and I hope you find that all your free time is going to improve your lifestyle and help achieve your goals.

But for most people, they simply must use their discretionary time more intelligently than many of the activities that are popular to spend your “free” time doing— activities that add NOTHING of value to a life. And, if these people care… if they truly care… about improving their lifestyle and achieving their goals…

This Has Got To Stop!

So, what comes first? What’s the action plan for getting every second chance out of every minute we’ve got?

I’m gonna tell you what I think, and what works for me (usually anyway!) but, before I do, I want to make an important observation: Many people hate it when I write stuff like this. They think I’m judging them, or else they think this type of information is not as usable or tangible as the hard-hitting techniques in business they’d prefer to see.

That’s crap. If my working with a lot of high achievers like the contributing instructors in The GReatest Real Estate Giveaway and others has taught me anything it’s that the fundamanetals (i.e. how we choose to spend our time) are often more important than what we know. These readers don’t want to get the fundamentals right… no… they want to skip right to the “details” or the “magic formula”. But, listen up: your life, just like my life, is already filled with details, tons of them, to the point that your mental file cabinet is tossing out more information EVERYDAY for lack of use or need than your computer could ever hold…and, of all these details, almost NONE are doing a darn thing to enhance our life.

Unless you’re clear on the basics, the details just pour over the cup.

Here’s something else: Success in life or in business isn’t necessarily complicated. I honestly think it can be and should be simple. The real answers are, really, so simple… they are almost corny. But “simple” is like Forrest Gump’s momma said: “Simple is as simple does”. Simple does NOT by any means mean “easy”. Running an ultra marathon over broken pavement in the scorching heat of Death Valley is very simple. All you have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other for 50+ miles. (No Alan O’Brien, I do NOT want to sign up to run in your next marathon, sorry bub, try someone else!)

Simple as can be. Difficult beyond reason.

I want something for each of us in Real Estate Web Academy, something kinda big. I want this year, starting TODAY, to be absolutely special for you. I want you to achieve more this year than you have achieved in all the previous years of your life. Of course, that means you’ve got a lot of “details” to attend to in the coming 365 days… but to really achieve something of note… you’ve got to attend to the right details.

In order for this to be that year for you…we need to get this in pinpoint-specific focus for you. Let’s see if I can get a commitment from you. Just for approximately the next 30-days. Just from the time you read this letter and the time your calendar pops up “Finally Done!” 30 days from today. I’m not gonna lie. This is gonna be SIMPLE. In fact, it could even be EASY. But for some of you…you just won’t do it regardless of how much you realize it could benefit you greatly.

Oh well. I’m throwing it out there for everyone anyway.

This commitment will cost you maybe 20 or 30 bucks and will likely take less than five minutes of your time for each of the next 30-days.

Here’s all I’m gonna ask you to do: Go to a local drug store, a Radio Shack or wherever and get yourself one of those cheap micro cassette recorders and 30 of those little micro cassettes. You’re welcome to get a digital voice recorder and pay more (they’ve got some awesome features), but that’s not necessary and I’ve yet to even figure out how to use the nicer digital one I have but hopefully soon!

Keep your recorder with you at all times during this month experiment and use one micro cassette each day to keep a running “time log.” Use it approximately once every hour of your day to take a quick bearing on how you spent the preceding hour. Your audio entries should only take a few seconds each.

They should sound something like this:

“7:15 to 7:50:” Drove to office.

“7:50 to 8:40:” Breakfast and newspaper

“8:40 to 9:30:” Returned work emails from coworkers about upcoming project

Etc., etc., etc.

That’s it.

That’s all I want you to do. I know, I know. You’re already twelve steps ahead of me. In fact, you’re ready to graduate without taking any tests because “you already know what this is all about”.

Think ol “Johnny Wealth Builder”, our average guy with his 2 hours and 42 minutes per day to spend (invest) to better his life already knows the basis of my evil convoluted scheme to change his life for the better?

Baloney.

“Johnny Wealth Builder” most likely doesn;t have have a clue. Please just trust me on this. All you’ve possibly got on the line to lose is $20 or $30 and a couple or three hours out of one lousy month.

Flip the coin over and all you’ve got to possibly gain is everything you’ve ever wanted to achieve in this life.

Think I’m exaggerating? Think again.

So to continue from Part 1….

We’ve each of us got to get this straight in our head: The only thing (except for God and chance maybe) that is going to make any difference at all in our life… is…

What You Do!

So, what are you and I going to do with those 8,760 hours you’ve got to work with in the next year?

Well, it’s not going to blow your pants down if I remind you that what you do with a lot of those hours will be outside your immediate power. For instance, you’ve almost got to spend approximately 2,920 of those hours sleeping. True, you could sleep less than 8 hours a day… but… that will likely be counter-productive to you. The most recent research indicates the vast majority of Americans need MORE than eight hours of sleep per day… and yet… most of us get less.

Which, of course, makes us a nation of people who are sleep deprived… and… sleep deprived people suffer from fuzzy logic, poor critical thinking skills, make bad decisions, and are more at risk for all types of bad luck and health problems.

Whatever you do,most of us shouldn;t try try to become more productive by getting less sleep. That tactic will backfire on us. UNLESS you have a clear idea in your mind that you are one of those rare, rare individuals who is wired differently to require less sleep and even thrive on less— and make sure it’s not just your opinion but something you often hear from other people who have observed you— unless that’s the case, sleep 8 hours, ok?

By the way, did you know that domestic housecats sleep an average of 16 hours per day and lions in the wild sleep an average of 20! Be honest, and think about this. Search your memory for the animal in your estimation that is always happiest. That just seems to have an inner reserve of contentment that just oozes out of it. That literally purrs with pleased satisfaction (whenever awake). I think the happiest mammals on earth are domestic housecats. You should see my girlfriend Teather’s cats (maybe I can talk her into giving me a picture to post for you!) Jack and Tai…they are so darn content it’s irritating.

But then again, I’m thinking it may be lions. But what do I know about lions, I’ve never met one.

Note to self: sign up for safari soon.

Tick, tock. OK, I don’t want to give you the thought that I’m wasting your time, which is growing more valuable to you by the minute, right?

But…

I love sleep, don’t you? So sleep more. Just remember to get your 8 hours and remember above all that whether you are the lion or the gazelle, if you want to survive when the sun comes up- you better be running!

So, moving on…after chopping off the time we need to spend sleeping, we’re down to 5,840 hours to work with in the coming year. Assuming you’re playing with a full deck upstairs and you’re not yet rich or retired— you want to make some money in the next year, right? That means you’ve got to spend a significant amount of time earning enough just for the needs of yourself and your family.

Not to mention ‘getting ahead’- which if you’re a member of Real Estate Web Academy I’ll imagine is a HUGE priority for you.

To do this, let’s say you still work the proverbial 40 hours per week. You know, that old grind your 9 to 5 if you’ve got one.

Actually let’s take it off of YOU.

I don’t want to get this too personal, as that can sometimes hurt folks. Let’s say instead of “you”, we’ll call a generic person who could be reading this “Johnny Wealth Builder” (kind of like John Doe..feels better when it’s anonymous, eh?)

Also, “Johnny Wealth Builder” has got to get ready for work, get to work and get home from work. Some of you have a long commute, some are lucky enough to work at home… but… I’m going to decide how much me “Johnny Wealth Builder” spends on this arbitrarily, randomly, and some may even get out the Webster’s and smack me with “capriciously”, but, hey, it’s my show!

Let’s say our friend Johnny needs an average of 10 hours per week to get ready, and get to and from work. Yes, that is a random number. But this isn’t science class, folks!

Since you may be miffed, here’s a bone for our ‘proverbial case study’. Let’s give “Johnny Wealth Builder” a two week yearly vacation and a regular J.O.B… which means… “Johnny Wealth Builder” is going to use up 2,500 of his hours (50 hours per week times 50 weeks per year) on work-related activities and vacation (which everyone needs and deserves from time to time!).

We are now down to 3,340 hours we’ve got left in the coming year that “Johnny Wealth Builder” can choose where to spend or invest that time to better his life..

Tick, tock.

Ah, but we ain’t at the end of our subtractions yet. No, Sir. But rather than beat the dead horse and continue to pound the nail and belabor the point… let’s make one more big deduction for what I’ll call “Necessities of Life.” This might include getting your car repaired, playing with your kids, giving time and encouragement to your spouse and friends, spending time with family, dealing with the mail, shopping for groceries, , shaving, taking some “down time” to let yourself recharge… and so on.

The time necessary to take care of the “Necessities of Life” will, invariably, differ from person A to person B… but… I honestly can’t even imagine these very basic day-to-day activities taking anyone (who actually has a life, anyway ) less than at MINIMUM 3 to 4 hours per day…

Where does that leave “Johnny Wealth Builder” ? This means that he’s going to have to burn up at LEAST another 2,000 hours from the pile of time he’s got stacked up for the coming year.

Now, I’m gonna take a break from all this arithmetic. Even with these “simple numbers”…you’ve got the idea by now, right? You can see now that the average Joe we called “Johnny Wealth Builder”, you can see his time slipping away, can you not?

I wonder if you can, friend, follow me as we inch a bit closer to the truth: Contrary to what I said earlier, “Johnny Wealth Builder” (and perhaps you?) really does not have the full 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, totaling 8,760 hours to decide what to do with in the coming year.

In truth, with such a high percentage of our hours already reserved, “Johnny Wealth Builder” probably doesn’t even have 1,000 “discretionary” hours to decide what to do with in the next year. That’s a bit of a humbling thought, but I doubt you’re prepared to challenge me on it. Most people literally cannot envision and implement a lifestyle that has more.

That gives any of you who see your life like “Johnny Wealth Builder” something like 2 hours and 42 minutes per day with which you have to work to change your life for the better.

And, I feel certain, most of you have lives so keyed-up, hectic, and jam-packed with activities that… truthfully… you only have a fraction of even that small amount of “free” time each day. And, I hate to do it but I bet whatever amount of discretionary time you do have, if you’re like most people…. you use almost none of it to seriously advance the quality of your life.

But you’re NOT like most people, are you? No, you’re here trying to improve your performance and results in every area of your life…and you recognize that “free” time is NOT “free”. At least, I imagine that’s the kind of 15,000 people who’ve thus far joined our happy community.

But for most people, they simply must use their discretionary time more intelligently than many of the activities that are popular to spend your “free” time doing— activities that add NOTHING of value to a life. And, if these people care… if they truly care… about improving their lifestyle and achieving their goals…

This Has Got To Stop!
- Danny Welsh
Director, The Greatest Real Estate Giveaway

How are things? Do you have time freedom in your life? Do you own your time?

Do you find yourself moving forward in your investing business and career, and you’re growing as an entrepreneur with unstoppable momentum?

Great!

This brings me to the subject of I want to talk about… which is directly related to everything much of my own struggles as an entrepreneuer, and probably a lot of what I’ve ever written about success or investing. I’m about to illuminate something you really, really need to think about.

Listen to me: just 365 days from today, one more entire year will have passed into oblivion, recorded into history, engraved in stone. It doesn’t matter who you are— mother, father, teacher, preacher, businessman, president— 365 days is all you are going to get in the next year. No more, no less.

Broken down, that comes out to 8,760 hours… or 525,600 minutes… or… 31,536,000 seconds.

Tick, tock.

Now, let’s say you are richer than old King Solomon and you’re willing to pay through the nose to have more time in the coming year than other folks. It’s not so much that you want more time, per se, not for the use of it….you’re just so rich that you want something other people can’t have. Let’s say you want just 10 extra minutes, just ten measly little minutes that could as easily be used brushing and flossing extra vigorously as doing anything important like transporting a cardiac arrest patient to the hospital or exciting like hitting double overtime during March Madness (yeah baby! Go U of L Cardinals!) and sinking the winning three pointer.

Let’s say you just want TEN minutes…just enough to show how important you are…

and you’re willing to pay one million dollars for each of those 10 minutes.

So you’ve got 10 million dollars to throw away on a flight of fancy that has no real significance. I mean, really, what could you do with those extra 10 minutes, anyway, assuming you could get them?

Doesn’t matter.

You can’t buy them. They’re not for sale.

You couldn’t even buy one extra minute….or even one second… for 100 billion dollars. Time is not for sale. It’s as simple as that. Not at any price under the shining sun. During the next year, not one single solitary person is going to have more gross time than you and nobody (except those Lost Souls who regularly go to the self-checkouts at Wal-Mart) is going to have less.

The time we get from day one to day 365 is the great equalizer that ties everyone together. No one person gets any more time in the day than any other person.

So what’s the point? Well, check this out. Here is the “so what” of it: The difference from where you are right now, today… and where you will be 1-year from today, depends on one thing and one thing only. It depends on…

What You Do with Those 8,760 Hours You’ve Got to Work with in the Next Year!

Tick, tock.

As much as we like to think positively, what you just think about isn’t going to effect any change whatsoever, and change, dear reader, is what you’re looking for in your life— isn’t it?

Ideas without ACTION are just waiting to get dusty and surrounded by cobwebs.

Although no one will deny the power of goal-setting and knowing what you want and communicating it clearly to yourself and to others, I have to break it to you that what you just plan isn’t going to create any significant change either. Just planning’s never resulted in my successes, nor anyone I know.

How you feel isn’t going to make a great difference. What you read; what you learn; what you study; what you discover… none of these things… none whatsoever… is going to make a single scintilla of difference about where you are 1-year from today.

We all need to get this straight in our heads: The only thing (except for God and chance maybe) that is going to make any difference at all in our life… is…

What You Do!

So, what are you going to do with those 8,760 hours you’ve got to work with in the next year?