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Why New Years Resolutions Set You Up For Failure

By brioproperties,

Happy Yuletide cheer to you all! It’s the season of Christmas trees, champagne, and resolutions.  Humans are creatures who always wish to be better than what we are, its in our DNA.  So every year after Christmas and before January 1, we look back on the previous year and whine about what we didn’t do or how it didn’t meet our expectations.In a moment of inspiration we scribble down sentiments meant to correct us in the New Year.  We broadcast them to friends (or the world via social media) and say “Next year will be different” because we believe that somehow when the clock strikes midnight on January 1, we have reverse Cinderella syndrome.  We don’t turn into pumpkins, mice, or horses, rather we go from being our old selves to being Cinderella whose powers of self-change are magical.  Then January 16th comes, we look in the mirror and we are still a pumpkin, mice or horse and it turns out it was just the champagne that made us think we were Cinderella.

Now I am not saying to heck with self-improvement. In fact I am a big proponent of self-improvement. It’s a cornerstone of my philosophy and brings me joy in life.  I am always on some project of self-improvement. Not because I am negative towards myself, but because I am conscious of the fact that I am not perfect and I want to be a more accomplished person.  This past year I worked extensively on teaching myself Edwardian cursive and it is now my default mode of handwriting.  The year before I had focused on reading more. I used a Reading Challenge that pushed me to read 12 books. So by all means, create goals of self-improvement, but do yourself a favor and structure your game plan wisely.

  1. Don’t fall for the idea of reverse Cinderella syndrome.  You will not magically be able to cope with life changes on January 1 when you wake up with your hangover.  In fact, you may be in the worst position to do such things, especially if you are known to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder.   Write out your goals in the beginning of October and start the tasks before Halloween.  Doing this ensures that your tasks will be close to becoming habits by Thanksgiving and are less likely to be thrown off course by holiday havoc.  It takes around 45 days to form a daily habit. Around that 45 day period it becomes more like nature than a thought process. Keep in mind the that days 14-21 are usually the worst. You may have a nadir of existence during that time where you find it hard to press on with your goal.  You will really have to draw on self-discipline at that time.
  2. Make goals AND tasks. When we make a decision to improve our lives we often forget to write down steps to take.  Not having these steps lined out can make the goal seem unattainable.  As an example, if you were dropped off at the bottom of Mount Kilimanjaro to climb it as you are right now you would be unprepared and would fail.  But if you had been give a list of tasks to prepare for the climb (like climbing gear shopping list, training schedule, etc) your chances of reaching the top are increased. Your goals for self-improvement are no different. They need clear small tasks.  These help keep you on track and also serve as little victories.  If your goal is to learn French, your tasks can be as simple as “Listen to a french song on Monday and translate it; and on Fridays research random words you are using into French.”
  3. Don’t look at your life for the negatives you want to change.  Looking in the mirror and saying “God I am fat” will not inspire you to make a long term change.  You’re creating a negative mental association with the tasks needed to reach your goal. Instead,  get inspired.  When you look in the mirror think, “I’d love to be able to complete a 5K.”  That is a positive goal that can lead you to losing shedding body fat.
  4. Lastly, pick goals and tasks that inspire you.  If you dread the thought of treadmills and step climbers, don’t include those in your tasks for your goal to lose weight.  Trade them out for Yoga or decreased sugar or carb consumption.  (Note: I don’t claim to be a dietician. Just an example.)

It’s not too late to make goals for self-improvement for 2018.  My suggestion is to brainstorm in January after the holidays and initiate them in February when the holidays-less gloom has begun to wear off and it’s possible that the first signs of Spring are showing.

Happy New Year!

Corina Eufinger

WAA Board of Directors

Owner CRC Investments

Owner Brio Properties

 

CategoriesEntrepreneurship

Productivity Is a Constant Demon

By brioproperties,

In the past two years I had noticed a sort of phenomenon with myself. I realized I haven’t been consistently paralyzed by a to-do list.  Don’t get me wrong I’ve had some stressful days that are jam packed and of those days (which aren’t a high number), I’ve only been distraught or depressed at the end of the day a handful of times. Today I clicked yet again on another article regarding time efficiency and productivity.  Everyday it seems I am bombarded with productivity or efficiency material geared towards entrepreneurs and real estate investors.  To the point where I began to wonder: “Was I defective as business owner and investor because I don’t have that overwhelmed feeling?”

Assuming I am not defective in those areas, I began thinking about what other reasons there could be as to why I don’t have that feeling.  Afterall, society was telling me my feelings should be different. It’s a fast paced world and much is expected of us.  There are so many different types of pressure that we feel throughout the day and many of them are subconscious. We don’t recognize it is or interpret it as pressure.  “Oh I’d better watch Dancing With The Stars tonight because everyone will be talking about it tomorrow.” Sounds harmless right? It is in fact another way we put pressure on ourselves.  We re-enforced a feeling that we have to watch it so that we can be able to converse with people tomorrow.   

The first thing I realized as I “meditated” on this idea of productivity is that I have always been a planner, a list maker, etc in some form.  For my 9th birthday I asked for a wet wipe board.  Which I believe my parents assumed was for any other purpose than goal setting and to-do lists at my age. I still remember my Dad coming into my bedroom and being shocked to find my new wet wipe board was already written out with lists and tasks before he had a chance to mount it on the wall for me.  I knew this pre-programming was not the only reason I lacked a feeling of being overwhelmed with my to-do list.  There had to be more.  My life is much more complicated now than when I was 9 years old. Also if it were truly as simple as creating a master board like that, everyone would do it.  

It’s a mentality that involves motivation. Being productive and achieving a mentality of efficiency requires having motivation.  When we are motivated we are less likely to put off the to-do list in favor of watching the latest reality show or sitcom everyone is talking about.  The emerging mentality is that “adulting is hard”.  Adulting is anything that involves responsibilities and a to-do list.  I am curious why “adult” became a verb and a negative one at that. Doesn’t anyone remember the days from when we were kids and how we longed for the ability to make decisions and be able to experience the world? We should not settle for “adulting” being the negative norm and “Netflix and chill” being the positive norm. We need to motivate ourselves to act or else in 30 years we may be disappointed that we spent our adult lives constantly doing “Netflix and chill”. I have a sneaky feeling that those who embrace this mentality are underproductive and in the end depressed about being underproductive.  

Prioritization is a must. As we go through our lives it’s important to prioritize.  As entrepreneurs and business owners it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks that we believe are urgent or falsely important, that we never make time for the actions that could further our investing career (like networking and education).  Urgency should be reserved for something that will expire or be ineffective if done at a later time. (I.e. Going to the bank doesn’t have to be done that day unless you need the funds to cover your mortgage payment.) Important items are actions that would make a difference in the efficiency and viability of your business, family life, etc.  (I.e. Learning the new features that were rolled out by your accounting software, going grocery shopping because your child has no items left for a bag lunch.)  Once you know the difference between the two it will keep your mind clear and keep your stress level down because you can clearly identify the tasks that are truly of impact in your life at any given moment.

Allocating time effectively is something that we all struggle with from time to time, or on a daily basis.  Some people take time efficiency to the extreme by using their kids soccer games to be attached to their smart phones and working or even dreading sleep because it isn’t time productively spent to them.  Time efficiency first stems from knowing where you spend your time.  One of the books I read years ago recommended tracking your time spent from wake-up to lights off for two weeks to get an idea on how much time you spend on various tasks. We might not even be aware of the amount of time we spend watching tv, youtube videos, and web surfing (the biggest productivity suckers of today’s modern age). I was appalled at my two week breakdown when I got done with it.  While I thought I was doing well because I would set a timer for internet surfing, what I didn’t realize was how many of these 15 minute sessions I allowed! My short term memory had trained me to believe that because I had limited myself to 15 minutes that I was doing good. Evaluate how you use your time. Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad Poor Dad says “We all have the same 24 hours in a day. It’s what we do with those 24 hours that ultimately decides our financial future.”

There are two books I recommend for those wanting to delve more into the topic of productivity and efficiency.  There are so many books on the topic but these are the ones I’ve found that are best fit for entrepreneurs.

  • The One Thing by Gary Keller
  • Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Corina Eufinger

WAA Director of Records

Owner CRC Investments

Owner Brio Properties

CategoriesEntrepreneurship

How To Come To Terms With Delegation

By brioproperties,

How To Come To Terms With Delegation

“When you delegate something, the person will only do it 80% like you.”

I don’t know where credit is deserved for the phrase, I heard it on a Youtube video months ago.  But it struck a cord with me.  The speaker went on to explain that this didn’t mean the end results were different, just the individual steps or order of tasks that lead to the end result.

As entrepreneurs and real estate investors, at some point most of us will grapple with the problem that our investments or business are more than we can effectively manage on our own and if we want to grow more we have to bring on help.  This is also a crucial tipping point for real estate investors and entrepreneurs.

Why? Because it’s also where most will falter and become stuck as a 100% self-employed business.  They become fixated on the idea that no one will do it like exactly like them.  That’s the stumbling point that prevents them from expanding.  Exactly like them.

It is true that no one will ever do something exactly like you do.  As a day to day example, consider your dishwasher.  If you delegate the task of the dishwasher to your spouse or significant other the end result will be the same but they will do it their own way. Maybe you both wait for the dishes to cool before emptying it, and you both start with bottom rack. But your spouse may put items away going left to right across the rack rather than grouping similar items and putting those away together.  They may remove the silverware caddy and take it over to the drawer rather than just pull out the silverware.  But you both fill the bottom rack with dirty dishes before pushing the rack back in and moving to empty the top rack.  The end result is still a dishwasher that is emptied of clean dishes and loaded with the dirty ones.  They did it 80% the same as you (give or take) BUT they ended up with the same result. Focus on the outcomes.

When you bring on help, whether it be your spouse, child, or outside hire establish procedures so you can ensure a similar end result while the smaller steps can be left for freedom of choice.  For example, an accounts payable procedure would serve as a guideline to help the new hire get the same end result of paid bills properly filed under the filing system and recorded with the correct G/L account. But they can be allowed freedom to tweak the minor things so it works for them.  Delegation is about letting the minor aspects go in the bigger picture of efficiency.

It’s also about understanding that our passion can’t be duplicated in other people.  It is an undeniable fact that very few people will put the same passion and work into your business that you do. You are heavily invested in it.  That doesn’t mean someone else can’t do an exceptional or adequate job at helping you manage aspects of your business. But for them it is a job. Something they leave at a given time of day and return to the next business day.  You can still get great workers who have enthusiasm for investments or simply want to do a good job for you.  Hired help if you find the good gems out there will manage the business 90-95% as “good” as you would, realistically most hired help will fall between 80-89% as good as you.  You trade a percentage of your “good” for some extra free time or sanity for yourself.

I have no problem delegating tasks for my  investments as long as the end result is the same and the task is at least 80% as good as what I would have done. Doing this gives me more time work on other ways to put my rental income to work for me. I can look at more properties, read up on industry trends, or devour a new real estate book. To me, that’s a fair trade off as long as I capitalize on using my free time efficiently to either make me happy or further my goals.

Corina Eufinger
Owner Brio Properties & CRC Investments

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