Your habits are your life. If you think about it, your entire life is based on what you do on a daily basis! There are times when we all give in to temptations. I know I’ve spent my fair share of weekends on the couch binge watching a great show (shoutout to all the Stranger Things fans that lost their July 4th weekend on the series 😄).
But no matter how badly we want to give in and be lazy, we all have some non-negotiables in our lives. A non-negotiable is something that you tell yourself that is “non-negotiable”. No matter how badly you’re feeling or how lazy you may seem, these are things that you do unless there’s a specific reason why you’re unable to do it.
By having strong non-negotiables, you’ll be able to accomplish great things. Here are some of mine.
Ever since I left my full-time job, I changed my alarm setting from 5:45 only on the weekdays to 5:45 every day. I’m forced to hustle and work harder now because I’m accountable for myself. If I decide to sleep in and slack off then I’m only hurting me.
Since I don’t have traditional working days anymore, even the weekends are working opportunities. I like waking up early because it allows me to get work done and enjoy the rest of the day afterwards. Working at night has never been good for me because my mental energy plummets significantly after 5 pm.
Waking up early isn’t easy, especially on cold mornings. The best way to wake up early is to put your alarm clock on the other side of the room. That’ll force you to get up to turn it off and will get your blood pumping. I only set one alarm and never hit the snooze button.
The next thing I need to do is hop in the shower. The shower wakes me up and makes me feel fresh! Back when I used to sleep in, I would wake up around 9 AM, watch YouTube in bed until 10, and feel groggy the whole day. By forcing myself to wake up early, I get all my work done before anyone in my house is even awake!
It’s definitely challenging sometimes, so I do allow myself to take a nap to catch up on sleep. I may change this habit to allow myself to sleep in one night/week. We’ll see. But until this, waking up early is non-negotiable!
If you’re my friend on Facebook, then you know I post A LOT of stuff. I don’t want to come across as a spammer, but my content was created with a lot of effort and I believe that it can help others.
I’ve committed to consistent content creation. Release 2 podcasts a week and host 2 meetups a month. I’ve been doing this for a few months now and it’s been a consistent habit.
I’ve been trying to write a blog post (like this one) once a day, but it’s been challenging. I also don’t feel like the daily post has been super helpful. I believe it may be great for SEO purposes, but doesn’t do much in terms of branding or informational purposes. After-all, all I’ve been doing is rewriting an interesting article that I found on the Business Journal.
Youtube has also been another avenue of content creation that I’ve been pursuing. I had a free consultation call with a big Youtuber in the Real Estate space and he gave me some great tips on how to become successful with it. He creates 3 videos a week and does all of his own editing. The key is in the quality and consistency. I believe I can do that as well. Within 3 years he has made Youtube his #1 revenue generating source with over 700,000 subscribers!
The podcast episode releases and meetup events are non-negotiable, we need to see what I do with the blog posts and the Youtube videos. No matter what I decide, one thing is for sure: Consistency Wins!
This non-negotiable trait should be to go to the gym EVERYDAY. However, I know that going to the gym everyday is not great for you because you need to let your muscles rest. Life events also get in the way. My strategy is to just go every day unless I can’t.
My workouts consist of 8 random exercises, 3 sets with 10 reps each. It takes me about 45 minutes to an hour. I usually start with pull-ups but end with a core workout. There’s no pen and paper, no set routine.
Am I missing out on potential GAINZ? Sure, but I treat my workouts like brushing your teeth. If you just go to the dentist twice a year, your teeth will fall out. But if you just brush your teeth for 2 minutes every day, then your teeth and gums will be healthy.
I’ve been going in and out of the gym everyday for the past 10 years with no set workout and no set agenda. But by working out consistently, I’ve maintained my physique and look healthier relative to a majority of my friends in my age group. If only I ate better though….
Flossing is an important non-negotiable that I have. At this point, it’s been so ingrained in my daily routine that I feel super weird if I’m unable to floss right after waking up or before going to bed.
I obtained this habit when I first got Invisalign. When you have Invisalign, your teeth are trapped. Your natural cleansing system (saliva) can’t pass through your teeth. Anything you ate will be trapped in there with it. To get away from that nasty feeling, you need to brush and floss right after you eat. By doing this for 3 years, I developed the habit of flossing all the time.
Flossing is great for you and has many health benefits!
This latest one is a non-negotiable that I’ve recently set for myself. Last night I had a brainstorming session with my girlfriend about what I need to do to make my business thrive. Ultimately, the only thing I need to do is to get a massive amount of leads.
Leads can be generated by consistent door-knocking, sending out direct mail, cold calling, or talking to agents. Based on my interviews with many successful investors, one of the best ways to generate a massive amount of leads is to speak with many agents in the area.
I’ve generated a list of all of the properties that were sold in the Santa Clara county, and filtered the agents that have sold between 8-4 properties in the last 12 months. The reason I did this is because I believe this is the ‘sweet spot’. These agents have a decent amount of deal flow that they may have an opportunity, but not so much deal flow that they already have many investors on their list.
I personally hate cold-calling people, and prefer to have them come to me (who doesn’t prefer that?). But I realize that this is something that has to be done. To be honest, I’ve been having a great response to my cold-calls, I don’t know why I get scared.
This is something that I need to do on a consistent basis and needs to be a non-negotiable. I’ve even booked a time slot on my calendar every day to do this task.
Think about the things that you do that make you feel like a better person. What are the tasks that are non-negotiable to you and how do they affect your life?
What would happen if you lost your will power and gave into your temptations?
Leave a comment below and let me know!
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What a brilliant and useful guide for starting real estate discussions! For anyone working in the real estate sector or simply just wishing to have meaningful conversations about real estate, this blog post is a treasure.