When Later Becomes Never

The Excuses Problem

Having worked with people so they improve their performance to achieve great results for over twenty years I am all too familiar with excuses. I’m also fully aware that I have used my fair share.

The problem with excuses is we tend to soften them down to a gentler word we refer to as reasons. Reasons, at the end of the day are excuses. Ironically, I was going to write this yesterday but instead I chose to do it later which became today.

So, we have established that the soft name for excuses is ‘reasons’.  These reasons make your brain think it is acceptable to ‘not perform’. This reduces our ability to act on something we are either struggling with or find difficult but do really want to achieve.

When it comes to property developing, we know that finding a deal can be challenging. I’ve often heard Bob Andersen say that it’s not uncommon to bin twenty deals because the numbers don’t stack up. For a newbie property developer, that can take time and it can tax the brain. It is the frustration of the ‘brain tax’ and the pile of ‘no deals’ that enhance our need to find reasons to stop looking or even worse, do it later which we know means not at all.

One of the best ways to ensure you break the habit of implementing reasons that reduce your performance and productivity is to know your why. Why do you want to make more money, is it to leave a legacy, is it to improve your current situation? Perhaps you want to give up your current job and work for yourself? What is it that initially gave you the desire to get into property?

Whatever your why is, you need to be pulled to it. You must want it intensely enough that it is at the forefront of all decisions because life will get in the way. You know already that you get busy and are pulled in different directions that stop you achieving what you want. Jobs, relatives, kids, sports, time, family, or just going fishing or shopping. You know the reasons you use, acknowledge them. Once you have decided to be committed to becoming a property developer, make an action plan about how and when you will allocate the time to do it. Then you simply stick to it.

Do it now, because you already know that later becomes never.

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