+ Ben Chai shares the essential processes you need to know in order to reach the dreams that you’ve chosen for yourself
Dreams are the life blood of our hopes. Dreams are what keeps them going when life gets tough. However, why is it that so many people’s dreams are taken with them to their graves? The answer is simple.
People who seem to achieve their dreams don’t just talk about it or make doomed New Year’s resolutions. These people find out everything about their life dreams. Whether their dream is to dance, paint, become a security expert, travel, act, write, or become a property investor, they will read books, use Google, Youtube, and their friends in that industry to find out as much as possible about how to transform their dream into a reality. Once they have sufficient education, they will begin to take small steps towards the reality of making their dreams come true.
The dreams into reality process goes through four stages (not necessarily taken in sequential order). Each stage is important in helping to transform their dreams (or goals) into reality. It does not matter whether the goal is personal, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, or financial. These four stages are essential to not only helping make your dreams come true but will also help you to master anything you put your mind to.
To illustrate the four stages of dreams into reality, we will use the example of the goal to make passive income out of property.
Stage 1: You need to educate yourself
Getting education is a MUST for any endeavour. For example, if your dream is to be an actor and you are not reading books or watching videos and films on acting, then you can kiss your goal goodbye. Your goal is nothing more than a daydream, a whim that you thought “it would be good to do XYZ one day”.
Ditto for becoming a property investor.
Education on the various aspects of property is abundant in this industry. You have only to go online and search the phrase “how to make income from property” to find an abundance of videos, books, interviews, and articles on property investment. Facebook has several hundred property groups that you can join just to learn passively from their conversations.
If you learn better from a teacher and shared experiences, then there are a variety of physical and virtual classes where you can be educated with other property investors. Obviously, this style of education will cost you, but for many, having a teacher is a more effective way of learning. If you are thinking of paying for education then always do your research and find out how useful people have found your chosen property education company.
Stage 2: You need to talk to others on the same path
Most industries and professions have meet-up groups, events, and exhibitions. In the UK property profession, there are PIN (Property Investor’s Network) meetings all over the country. In other countries, people organise meet-ups using social media such as Facebook. It is important for you to find people who have similar passions to network with.
By networking with others you will be able to commiserate over costly mistakes with others who have made exactly the same mistake. You will be able to learn from their successes, mistakes. Depending on how well you relate to others, you can also be given leads to good deals or be offered to be part of a group to buy a substantially larger property or set of properties worth millions.
Networking is important – so if you are attending property classes, make it a priority to stay after class for tea/coffee/nibbles to chat with others. If you are attending a property exhibition, then network with, and discuss with other attendees how their property journey is evolving.
Stage 3: Dreams need you to take action – any action
Anyone can be an armchair critic. Don’t. Remember this is your life, your goals, and your dreams. There are such things as paralysis by analysis and education overload. In fact, I banned one of my mentees from attending further property classes until they put into action many of the concepts they had learned in the first three courses.
If you have never viewed a property, if you have never spoken to a mortgage broker, and if you have never spoken to a solicitor, you’re on your fourth property course and fifth book you are reading on property then…..STOP. You are wasting your teacher’s time, you are wasting your fellow student’s time, and most importantly you are wasting your own time and money.
A good friend of mine had this phrase: “You need to be in the game to be part of the game”. If taking action scares you (and let’s face it buying your first property is scary) and you spend your time hiding behind excuses about “needing to know more before…..” then you will never achieve anything.
The world is filled with so-called “property investors” who have never bought anything. By the time they have finished their tenth course, they can no longer remember lessons from their first course and the industry has moved on so that elements of their original courses are now out of date.
Be a doer, not a talker.
Stage 4: You need to get a mentor
In practically every area I have excelled in, I have had a one or more mentors guiding me and helping me on my journey. You will need different mentors at different stages. It’s important to break down the various aspects of your goal and find a mentor that can help you with each of the aspects.
In terms of the property world, the first mentor will help you get through the scary part of buying a property and advise you on whether you are handling components of your first property deal correctly, what you can improve on, and deciding if it is a bad deal.
Remember that mentors are simply guides – it doesn’t mean they are 100% correct only you will know, although at the beginning of your journey your mentors will probably be pretty accurate.
There are many types of mentors you will need in the property investor circle, for example;
- Mentors who can help you with raising finance
- Mentors who can help you buy properties for a pound or a dollar (yes it’s possible),
- Mentors who can help you buy multi-million dollar properties
- Mentors who can help you with the legislation behind renting to multiple people
- Mentors who can help you with building regulations and planning.
- Mentors who you can just cry with and who will help you with your overall strategy
Hopefully, this article will help catapult you into the fantastic journey of reaching your dreams. Whether it is property investment or any other life goal don’t let them die with you as daydreams, take these four steps and turn your goals into reality.
For more on making your dreams become a reality check out:
More from this writer:
- The seven deadly sins of business owners
- Understanding the gift of betrayal
- Stories illustrating the gifts from betrayal
- How to eliminate betrayal with PANDAS
- Why being busy is a waste of time
- The truth about positive thinking
- How to increase your edge
Our free Financial Freedom Coaching group has hit over 1,000 members! Head over there for daily motivational advice, entrepreneur tips, and access to some of the UK’s best business minds.
If you found this article useful, be sure to share this article using the buttons on the side.
For new articles straight to your inbox join our mailing list.
Comments are closed.