Your life-long personal financial management and investing journey can feel like a roller coaster. 

You get a raise, yay! The stock market crashes, boo. You find a duplex to investing in at a great price, score!  Foreign transaction fees hit your credit card, thumbs down. 

Occasionally, the extreme highs, lows, and multiple medium-intensity moments occur all on the same day. Luckily, when you invest in commercial real estate, that roller coaster experience is a bit less volatile when compared to the stock market, but the highs and lows still exist. 

Every investment requires you to take on risks in exchange for the potential upside. You can (and should) do your research, vet the markets, and interview operators, in an effort to make an informed decision about the risk you’re taking on. But you really have no idea what might happen. 

To wade through these waters over the long haul, it takes a bit of grit, the ability to talk yourself back up the hill after tumbling downward, absolute determination, and sometimes, some thick skin. 

Your mindset is responsible for 80% – 90% of your success

Shocking, right? Yes, only 10%-20% of your success hinges on your knowledge, tactics, and the mechanical details you implement. Mindset has become quite the hot topic lately, but how do you cultivate a grit-oriented growth mindset that fosters investing success?

This article will share several mindfulness practices, the power of vision boarding, and a few other exercises that some may consider to be woo-woo. I can’t keep these from you in good conscience, because they’ve positively impacted my financial life.

Make Your Dreams and Wishes Physically Visible

I heard a story recently about a real estate investor and how he made millions, lost it all, and then rebuilt it. His strong conviction in the power of a physical vision board really got my wheels turning. I can only imagine what it must have been like to have $50 million to lose in the first place!

I, too, have made vision boards and pasted pictures of objects and locations that I thought were far-fetched at best. Some of you practical, analytical folks may be questioning my sanity right now, but I’m telling you: vision boards work. 

Ready for a scientific fact? The reticular activating system in your brain recognizes the goals you make physically apparent (by cutting and pasting pictures onto a poster board) and subconsciously draws you toward those individuals, locations, and things in real life.

When you have an on-paper visual depiction of your greatest objectives and aspirations, you’re less likely to forget why you’re striving and more inclined to take tiny steps in the direction of achieving those goals.

Maybe those hopes and dreams will come true after years of hard effort, or perhaps you take baby steps toward your major objectives and achieve them in five or ten years. Nonetheless, gazing at your goals every day has scientific, yet seemingly magical power.

Use Your (Potential) Pain As A Tool

Intentional journaling may help you achieve a major objective-setting endeavor. I’m not talking about waking up and jotting down your feelings, disappointments, and daydreams over a cup of coffee every morning. Instead, this is a very focused 30-minute goal-setting exercise.

Here we go!

Get a 10-minute timer, two sheets of paper, and a pencil. Within the next ten minutes, you’ll brain dump all of your greatest wishes and aspirations on one piece of paper. Write as quickly as possible without analyzing what you’re writing. Fill the paper with the most amazing places you want to visit, the most expensive items you wish to own, and the most prestigious events you want to attend. Hold nothing back, even if it feels completely out of your league, crazy, or even impossible at this time.

When your 10-minute timer is up, underline your number one over-arching goal and circle your top three one-year objectives. On another sheet of paper, write each of those four items with plenty of space between them.

Set your 10-minute timer for another go, and this time, write a short paragraph under each objective about why you must accomplish it. Perhaps you want to show your kids what’s possible, break a family trend, or that one of those objectives has been a life-long ambition of yours. Use emotionally charged phrases to convey feelings and emotion as you write.

When the timer dings, set it for the final 10 minutes. This time, write beneath each goal what horrible agony you’ll suffer if you don’t achieve it. Will you let someone (or yourself) down? Or be trapped in a cycle of failure? Or will you allow yourself to be proven inferior by the world? Detail the immensely painful assumptions and feelings you’ll experience around failure.

People don’t make daily choices out of comfort, they do things to solve a pain point. Customers purchase items, participate in events and undertake journeys in order to alleviate their problems. This technique works because, by using pain as motivation,  you’ll react eagerly to alleviate perceived suffering.  So don’t just read this through; Stop right now and complete the exercise; these next 30 minutes may alter your trajectory.

Make Your Dreams a Reality by Verbalizing Them

Claiming your goals aloud is one approach to developing a positive mental attitude toward money. Whether your friends or family think you’re nuts doesn’t matter. If you speak your objectives verbally, in full confidence that they will come true, you’re more likely to achieve them.

This is where a daily writing practice might be useful, or you may use affirmations every morning to boost your confidence in yourself as someone who can achieve the goals you’ve set. Many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, have utilized similar measures, whereas others, such as Demi Lovato or Jim Carey, have taken more action-oriented approaches by writing themselves a large check or posting on social media that they’ll sing the National Anthem at the Superbowl.

Another method to make progress using verbal power is to replace negative phrases in your everyday speech with ones that convey confidence, hope, and possibility. As an illustration, replace “I just can’t seem to get over this issue” with “I’m grateful for the chance to learn something new and develop.”

I’m not telling you to be a happiness robot, but rather, that you be aware of your thoughts and the language you use internally and externally. Start speaking as if your goals are attainable and have already been fulfilled.

Implement A Gratitude Practice

Gratitude is at the core of every achievement. Practice expressing gratitude for where you are in life, what you’ve learned from your experiences, and for the accomplishments that lie ahead.

A gratitude practice may be done through meditation, where you take 5-10 minutes each day to close your eyes and think about all the wonderful things you have. Journaling your appreciation is another excellent method to express your thanks.

Have you ever heard of a gratitude vision board? You can create this powerful tool by pasting pictures of your children, accomplishments you’re proud of, and experiences you enjoyed onto a poster board. This is just like a vision board, except it’s full of things you already have and are thankful for. Each day, allow yourself to be emotionally engrossed in thanks when you see this board – for the individuals, places, and things who have added value to your life.

A gratitude exercise can be done at any time throughout the day, during a morning or evening routine, or even while exercising! Make a strategy to be grateful for all that has happened and all that will come your way, and put it into practice in your daily life.

Allow the Universe to Return The Favor

Now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with money, financial freedom, or real estate investing. When your mindset is in a good place, you’re clear on your objectives and have implemented gratitude exercises, energy (typically in the form of money) flows to assist you in achieving your goals.

So, no matter how silly you feel, start employing mindset work to build the life you desire. Create a personal regimen that leaves you feeling like your lofty ambitions are now real and feasible. You’ll be more likely to conduct research, spot possibilities, seize opportunities, and build relationships if your objectives are in view.

Perhaps you’ve decided to invest a million dollars in real estate one day, and you come across a strategy that encourages you to put $50,000 at a time into various stable commercial assets (we know of a few!)

Then you come up with a brilliant idea to save (or earn $50,000 more) each year, specifically and strategically toward your big goal.

Practice gratefulness, go through the 30-minute goal-setting session, state your objectives verbally with the universe, and make a vision board; if you don’t, you’ll never know what might have occurred if you did.