If you’re anything like me, you might be a privileged white male living in Canada who had a pleasant upbringing. You might have also received a decent university degree, setting yourself up for “success” in life.
The problem with all of the above, and with hitting a certain level of financial success in business, is that you can reach a level of complacency.
What do you I mean by this?
To be frank: if you have’t really, truly struggled much and you reach a level of financial stability where you’re not worrying about a roof over your head, how do you create that drive, hunger, motivation needed to build something truly great? To take a 6-figure business to 7-figures?
I found one solution, and it’s called a mortgage.
Long story short is that I’ve been thinking of getting into real estate for a few months now and am a day away from putting in an offer on a property.
I think this relates to solopreneurship and maybe you in a few ways:
1) a property is a form of investment, which many people don’t know much about and probably don’t think enough about. Making money is great, but if you don’t save and grow it, you’re losing half the battle
2) in the last 6 months or so, I think I reached a level of financial stability and “comfort” with my law practice that has affected my motivation. In other words, you don’t wake up with that raw energy and drive to double revenue because your current revenue is pretty nice. But this isn’t good.
3) I believe Grant Cardone preaches exactly this – to make enough money to afford a real estate investment, dump it into the property and then go make some more money to fund your next one as it will keep you hungry and focused.
This 3rd point is so important and so fitting for me right now. I’ve been doing well, I’ve been financially stable, and I’ve probably been less “hungry” than I was in the first 6 months of my business simply because I didn’t need to be.
But this incoming mortgage is waking me up, and fast. And in the best way possible.
Assuming my offer is accepted/mortgage is approved:
- I will be taking a huge chunk out of my savings account – no more thinking “oh it’s okay if I have a few bad months because I have a lot in my savings account”
- I can’t get out of the mortgage like I can a rental agreement
- the mortgage payment will be more than what I pay in rent, meaning my monthly expenses will be going up
And this is all amazing, because I already feel the fire burning and the pressure to put the petal to the metal.
Are you looking to add more motivation yourself, whether it be in general, or for your small business, or for anything? Put some financial pressure on yourself.
Doesn’t have to be by buying a property, it could be making another form of investment, contributing a big chunk of regular savings to a registered account (so you know you won’t have instant access to it), or some other way.
Get creative, or shoot me a response on my email list if you want help brainstorming.
Also, if you do decide to put some financial pressure on yourself, make sure to keep your self-care habits going and monitor how you’re handling it emotionally. Due to how hectic things were with the condo, the last 2 weeks were a little hectic, and more importantly, threw me out of my routine.
Because I had less hours in the day and I do everything I can to defend my 7.5-8 hours of sleep per night, it meant I had to cut into some meditation time, some reading time and some workout time.
And after a week of that, I could feel it…
It’s funny because those little things, the self-care stuff, can’t really be quantitatively measured – at least the outcomes. It’s hard to do it for a few weeks and then say “boy, I feel 35% better since I started this stuff!”
I mean you could, but it would be very subjective.
I’m saying all of this because after about a week of crashing my routine, I could 100% feel the difference. My sleep was suffering, I didn’t have as much energy during the day, and I wasn’t waking up with the same motivation and positivity.
And that’s okay.
In fact, it’s going to happen in life many more times. Especially for a group of busy people like us.
The key is to notice it and catch it asap and try to get back on track. Even getting back into it for the last 2 days since Wednesday has made a huge difference and I’m glad I caught it when I did.
Anyway, keep tabs on yourself on a daily/weekly basis, and if you notice anything a little different or off, do an audit of your routine – is it in check? Are you making enough time for self-care?
Because we all know how important it is. And if you want more of this stuff, don’t forget to sign up to my weekly email list here.
