“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” —Andrew Carnegie
Last week I celebrated my 34th birthday and as I reflect back, I can say a huge contribution to my view on life has been defined by setting goals. Many of the goals I’ve set for myself I have achieved, but certainly, most definitely not all! Throughout my life I’ve attributed my optimism to my extroverted nature, but more recently I’ve come to understand that my habit of “stacking W’s” more than anything is the reason I consider myself to be positive, optimistic, and why many of my friends always find it baffling when I reveal to them my past struggles with self confidence and negative self talk.
Setting goals whether small and obtainable or grandiose and unimaginable changes the perspective we have on what we can become and experience in life! – Me (And maybe someone else?)
Just Getting Started
During my early professional career my aspiration was scaling the corporate ladder – I wanted to rise to become the CEO of a company. Two goals influenced this aspiration. One, I truly wanted to help others and make an impact. Another huge driving factor to that aspiration was the goal to have my own team. (You can tell my focus was very narrow in my imagination of that dream) Nonetheless, because of this goal early in my career I sought experience, education, and connections that I believed would enable me to learn and grow to scale the ladder, while also making an impact on my teams, in my work, and in my community.
If you’re not used to setting goals I believe a great starting point is by setting goals that are rooted in who you want to become, what you want to create, or the legacy you want to leave behind. I went back to school to get my MBA, I would take on new and unfamiliar projects at work, and I would commit to a healthier lifestyle. All to serve the goal of becoming a great leader. I sought opportunities to lead, influence, and grow a team at every step of my corporate journey until I could no longer chase that goal, but luckily my journey would not end with my corporate career.
“You cannot expect to achieve new goals or move beyond your present circumstances unless you change.” – Les Brown
Leveling Up
It wasn’t until I started listing to podcasts about investing in real estate that I began to imagine a world where I could have a team of my own without needing to climb any sort of corporate ladder. By the time my corporate journey would end by my goals to become a CEO, build a team, and make an impact. Same journey, new path. This new path is to leverage real estate to unlock financial freedom, yes, but also so that I can build a team of my own! This would require new skills, a new way of thinking, and more education.
Before new beginnings I set new goals and following more experiences I do a debrief or retrospective to reflect on what I’ve learned.
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”– Jim Rohn
To grow my real estate business I would listen to real estate investing podcasts every single day. (Thank you Bigger Pockets!) I would practice analyzing properties. I would go to meetup events in the city. This was all while still working my full-time job and serving on two local nonprofits here in the city. If you knew me during this time in my life the 2nd week of the month from Monday through Thursday I had something going on from the moment I woke up, until bed time. (and sometimes past my bedtime)
Now I can admit, that at times I would get burnt out, but I haven’t met anyone who works passionately at anything who has never felt burnt out at some point. The important thing is to make time for breaks, rest, and recovery. I also realized a good exercise routine would enable me to sustain my performance, as well.
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”– Tony Robbins
My Own Hero’s Journey
I had experience helping my dad manage his rentals back home, but to own and manage my own properties was going to be a new adventure. After searching for months, I found it, perfect property to BRRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat), I was going to do a 203k rehab loan and then it happened…COVID – The deal fell apart. It took changing my lender and my agent to make it happen, but perseverance prevailed.
I bought my first multifamily property here in Chicago and in the first year I had to deal with maintenance issues, evictions, BUGS, and more. “This is part of the process” I would tell myself. Then…the flood! I’m talking 14″ of sewer water type of flood, all while we were in California. Get this, we were at a real estate investing conference and I was so defeated, I considered returning back home just to see what I could do, which in all seriousness, was not much!
“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”– John Wooden
We began making calls. Who can help me resolve this while I’m half way across the country? Despite the generosity of our residents, neighbors, and friends who pumped the water out, delivered fans and dehumidifiers, and even changed them for us, i was still pretty beat up despite all we accomplished in the last few hours. Admittedly, it was Ori who pulled me out of my funk. She took me to HER happy place, but it was perfect, just hanging out at the beach with her. I was confident in that moment that with her by my side, we could achieve all of our goals!
That moment revealed to us how important it was to have a team. My dream, my goal, was no longer an aspiration, it was essential to my success. Since the famous flood we have built a small but mighty team of nearly 10 between our contractors, partners, and our rockstar Operations Assistant. Today I am no longer motivated solely by becoming a CEO, technically I’ve achieved that, but it’s merely a title. I tell people all the time, sometimes setting goals is just the start of the journey, you may discover you no longer want that goal or simply achieving it will unlock the next.
Don’t Wait Any Longer
A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee
Start today!
- Imagine yourself living your perfect life; it’s 5-10 years into the future; you’re not working because you have to, you’re working because you choose to; what are you doing? How did you get there?
- Set a goal you know you can achieve before the end of the day that will take you one baby step closer to this goal and do it. I call this stacking W’s.
- Then set a goal that will require you to learn a new skill, ideally a skill you’re using in this perfect future
Even if you never achieve this goal, look at all you accomplished on the way!