I have a goal, and that is to increase passive income, to the point that my passive monthly income exceeds my current average monthly expenses. The best way for me to fail, though, is to ignore the ambivalence within me about producing that passive income.Before I go any further, about my own goal, I want to share with you a key success factor to achieving your most important personal or business goal. In order to continue to move forward on your path of personal growth and development, you must become aware of the critical constraints that are getting in the way of your completion of your most important goal. Think of a critical constraint as a bottleneck on a highway that forms when there is an accident. Or, you can think of a critical constraint as that kink in the hose that prevents the water from flowing through to the other end.
To achieve you main goal, you first need to analyze all the action steps that you need to take in order to achieve your objective. Next, you need to look at each of those steps and ask yourself which step is holding you up in your progress toward achieving your goal. Next, ask yourself, why am I not achieving this goal already? This is a tough question, because it requires rigorous honesty and personal accountability.
If your goal is to increase your income by 50%, ask yourself, "Why am I not earning at that level already? If you want to become more physically fit, as yourself, "Why am I not exercising every day?" Asking these tough questions of yourself is a key success factor, because 80% of the critical constraints are not outside of you, or outside of your business, but rather, they lie within you! Therefore, you have to have the courage, discipline, and honesty to examine yourself and the obstacles within you (beliefs, attitudes, limiting ways of thinking and speaking to yourself), and to come up with the commitment and decision to act in ways that will help you overcome those obstacles.
In conclusion, some of the questions the most successful people ask themselves are as follows:
- What is it in me that is holding me back? What am I doing, or not doing, that is holding me back?
- How will I overcome these critical constraints?
- Who do I know who can assist me with removing these critical constraints?
So, when I ask myself what is holding me back, the following answers come to me: I have often struggled with the idea that it would be ok to pursue wealth, having been brought up in a service oriented household, where my parents were both very frugal. I was not sure that it was Biblical to pursue money. However, what I have come to believe is that wealth is neutral, and that it can be a blessing if I am generous, and if I steward it with the intent of blessing others with that wealth.
One of the ways I am planning to continue to increase passive income is through investing in real estate. I have reached a point, after securing my first real estate investment last year, where I have to go forward with my goal to become, at minimum, a millionaire real estate investor. However, I have noticed that I have not made much forward progress in this arena. So, in examining my own internal constraints, here is what I have come up with: "I don't have enough time" "It could be too risky, especially in this economy" "Credit is too tight, and I am maxed out right now" "I don't know enough"
What I'm Going to Do About This During This Week!
Now that I have identified my mental obstacles that are holding me back, here is what I intend to do about it this week. First, I will prioritize my time, so that I am utilizing focus management, versus time management. I will make reading and learning about my specific niche of real estate investing a priority every night this week, so that I will be overcoming my internal objection of 'not enought time.' The approach I am taking with my business partner right now is to engage in finding deals for other investors, so that there is no money out of our own pockets. This will take some time and sweat equity, but it will be a way to build up enough savings in order to invest in the next piece of real estate that comes our way as a good deal. I am going to address the 'I don't know enough' constraint by continuing to read the material that I have been putting off researching due to my ambivalence. Now that I have asked myself the tough questions, I am ready to move forward toward my most important goals. I hope you are now ready to do the same!
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