Fear is part of human nature and is hard wired into our brains from a very early age to equip us with a survival instinct and keep us safe.
Unfortunately fear also holds many people back from realising their full potential, personally, professionally and certainly financially.
Fear is a very strong emotion. But so too is the dream.
The #1 thing you can do to conquer fear is to put more weight on your ‘dream’ scale, than you do on your ‘fear’ scale. Simply put, if the dream is strong enough, so should your desire to overcome the fear of taking steps to achieve it.
Many people who enter the world of property investing usually come into it with big dreams and have more than likely negotiated with themselves the fear vs dream equation.
Whenever you are fearful about something, ask yourself if you have good enough reason to step out of your comfort zone? If your reason or your ‘why’ is not strong, it’s highly likely you will succumb to fear and do nothing.
If you’re afraid of taking action or making a mistake, the easiest action for most people is to ‘think about it’ for 6 months or so. And then, before they know it, 6 years have flown by.
This is why we always encourage people to start with a dream, to create a powerful why that propels you into taking action and importantly, motivates you to keep going.
Once you have a compelling reason to face fear, you can start to conquer it by taking calculated risks, surrounding yourself with the right people, getting advice on putting a strategic plan in place and realising that although it’s a long journey ahead, you’re on the right path to achieving your dream.
By keeping your dream or your end goal in mind every step of the way, you’ll soon find that your original fear has ‘magically’ disappeared.
Another thing to keep in mind, is that when you’re faced with a decision, whether you take action or not, you’re still going to go through the same pressure that comes with any important decision-making process.
Why the why conquers fear
Here’s a great analogy we use sometimes in our seminars when the question of fear comes up.
A group of friends get together and have the idea to travel to another country. Everyone’s all excited until they hear some news about bad weather, or a possible airline strike or political unrest. All of a sudden, we become afraid of going because of all these potential problems.
So we pose the question to the audience; “who do you think among this group will still go overseas.” And the answer is, “the people who HAVE to go there for a specific reason.” You may have to visit sick relatives, pick up your child, or collect a huge sum of money. The more compelling the reason to go, the less fear there is about going. The fear is still there, but another, stronger emotion has overcome it.
If you focus on the difficulties or the negatives in property investing, or anything in life for that matter, the fear will win every time. But if you focus on the dream, or where you’re going, and you have people around you who believe in your dream, you’re in the best possible position and mindset to be successful.
The #1 Risk Factor in Property Investing
People spend a lot of time analysing the property market, in fact, you could spend months, years even, falling down the internet rabbit hole of property investing advice about what to do, what not to do, when to invest, where to invest and so on.
While I certainly advocate for due diligence, when people ask me what is the #1 risk factor in property investing, my answer is always, you.
If you lack motivation and never get started…
If you have no compelling reason to do what it takes to become a successful property investor…
If you’re not equipped with the mindset that this is a long-term journey…
If you think you know everything there is to know but still haven’t taken action….
If you lose faith selling too soon and giving up too early.
those are your biggest risk factors.
4 steps to turn fear into action
I’m a big believer that any decision or even a wrong decision is better than no decision. If you do nothing, you will achieve nothing and learn nothing. Even if you make the wrong decision, with the right attitude, at least you can learn and grow from the mistakes you have made. The good news in property investment is, it is such a forgiving form of investment and, as long as you hold your property for the long term, a wrong decision at the time can turn out to be a right one. Imagine you made the wrong decision 30 years ago to have bought 5 of the worst properties in some of the worst suburbs in Sydney and still hold them…
So, what you waiting for?