How many of us start something and leave them unfinished? I know I have done this in the past whether I like to admit it or not. I believe it’s fairly common. Something else would come along and would sometimes pull my interest or get me to forget or lose track of what I was supposed to accomplish.
There is a Russian proverb that says, “If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one.” I agree with this and believe that the trick to being successful is to go small and simplify. Try to ignore things that are stealing your time and focus on doing what you should do. Not everything matters equally, correct? So, focus on what matters most. Go as small as possible and do a few things well.
Most people tend to do the opposite because they think success is time-consuming and very complicated. They try to do too many things all at once.
Do you overload your calendar with long to-do lists and you start feeling overwhelmed? The problem with trying to do too much is that even if it works, adding more to your work and your life without taking other things out can bring more things to you that you don’t want.
This habit can result in added stress, disappointing results, long hours, lost sleep, poor diet, and most of all, missed moments with people you love and care about. Going small is the answer for you because it has one purpose and it works all the time. Why? Because it’s one purpose is to ultimately get you to the point of your next rising step.
When we see someone who has a lot of knowledge, they learned it over time. When we see someone who has a lot of skills, they developed them over time. When we see someone who has done a lot, they accomplished it over time. When we see someone who has a lot of money, they earned it over time.
The key is over time. It’s one thing at a time. You must stay focused, pick one thing to work on and continue until you get to the next step of your journey.
Everyone also has one person in their lives who either means the most to them or was the first to influence, train or manage them. No one succeeds alone.
For me, if it was not for my mother, I would not be where I am today. It was her entrepreneurial spirit that pushed me to start my own business at 22 years old after I graduated college. Having my own business, I was forced to learn about taxes, having employees, dealing with landlords, product lines and learning the importance of customer service, where building rapport and getting people to like you come first.
It was about four years into having my own business and after I had my ups and downs, I finally figured out what worked and what didn’t for what I was doing at the time. I had set up my systems and my stores could run without me being there full time. That is when I started to think about my next step and how to invest the money I was making.
That’s when I became a real estate agent and started learning about the market and started buying houses. I was focused on that one next task in my life. I learned the ins and outs of how realtors worked and the local markets.
My next step came when I met my friend Dara, who put me in touch with a rehabber that I worked with for a year before I branched out on my own and started renovating properties.
I thought that rehabbing houses was fun until I started running into problems with contractors, getting permits, dealing with timelines that were out of my control and the worst, dealing with hard money lenders where I had to sign personal guarantees. It was around this time that I was frustrated with where I was, what I was doing, and was searching for the next thing to help me in my real estate career.
That’s when I met Marko Rubel and got involved with his coaching program as a student myself. Things did not happen overnight even though I had real estate knowledge, I had to learn to do things differently. I focused on the different creative strategies Marko teaches, and most of all learned how to market to sellers.
So, what is the one thing that you should do right now? For some, it may be learning to become better at appointments. For others, maybe practice on how to deliver a presentation, make a pitch and develop negotiation skills. Whatever the next step is for you, you can only achieve it by practice.
Remember, go small and pick your one thing.
To your success,
