Push Yourself Harder Than You Think You Can

Who do you compare yourself against? Your friends? College buddies? Siblings? Parents? Boss? Upstairs neighbor? You know what – competition is healthy to a point, but ultimately, serious competition (even if you’re in the Olympics) gets you absolutely nowhere – and fast. Sure, you might run faster (at first). You might do more (at first). You might get a whole bunch of fan fare, enjoy a whole bunch of applause….

However, when you only focus on the end result, you’re not focusing on the all-important method. The method is what gets you where you want to be, time and time again. Sure, you might be lost and stumble upon the right destination because you’re in the general vicinity – but, when you know just which street to turn down and when, you guarantee you get there every single time. When you focus on the competition, on the taste of victory, you don’t focus on the technique that’s propelling you forward. To get really good at something, to crush the competition, here’s what to do: forget about them.

1. Focus On Yourself

When you spend too much looking at what others are doing, you’re not perfecting on just what it is that you’re doing. One size never fits all, in anything: you must find the technique that works best for your particular skill set. Whether it’s running or investing, when you look at what the competition can do, you don’t learn what you can do!

2. Focus On Your Path

What are you doing? What are you running on? What’s the ground beneath your feet? When you focus on what’s ahead of you, it’s all but impossible to gain great traction below you – and great traction can make or break your success. Without seeing what it is that’s ahead of you, you can’t make the right moves – and when your gaze is stuck on things way ahead of you, you’re not able to plan any of the right moves that will take you where you need to be.

3. Focus On Achieving Your Own Goals

You know what – don’t focus only on those big ‘carrot’ type goals that dangle in front of you almost impossibly. When you do that, you are bound to get discouraged. Focus on goals you can actually achieve – whether it’s running one mile, buying one property or taking one class. The bigger goals – they’ll come in time (as the result of all of your work toward smaller, more manageable goals).

Key Takeaway For Everyone
Want to do something great? That’s awesome. Find heroes. Find inspiration. Don’t, however, focus so much on the competition that you forget to learn how to do what they’re doing. You need to build endurance. You need to develop muscles. You need to cultivate your own technique to do it – your way.

Key Takeaway For Real Estate Investors
Sure, some real estate investors are doing million dollar deals in their sleep (we guess). That being said, how many really are? What, really, is realistic for you? Don’t set your goals so high you’ll never achieve them. Start small. Focus on numbers that work. Focus, in general, on what works.

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