Two Years Later…

It was painful to put a shirt on.

My arms and shoulders were in absolute rebellion when I had to lift my arms above my head.

And of course, today was the day we were taking down the giant Christmas themed framed artwork over the fireplace to put away until next season…

Seriously…I had to use my 12 foot folding ladder to get it down.

And my arms did NOT want to cooperate with me in getting this done.

Because two days before, I had gone to an early morning bootcamp workout to say goodbye to a friend of mine who was leading it.

If you have ever been to a bootcamp workout, they all say to modify the exercises so you don’t injure yourself, right?

But when you are surrounded by so many gung-ho people…the peer pressure to push through and get those extra pushups done is intense.

If you have never done a bootcamp style workout…

Some would say you’re missing out…others would say you have dodged a bullet…

*smile*

The one I went to was 45 minutes of non-stop exercises…

pushups

planks

sprints

squats

more pushups

backwards running

pushups

arm circles

did I already say pushups?

It was INTENSE.

And me…not having done bootcamp workouts in…um…quite a while…I was pushing myself to the limit and further to keep up and not embarrass myself.

Finally, it was over.

“Recover, recover…”

Thank you Jesus it’s over.

I went throughout the rest of the day no problem.

But the next morning…my arms were sore.

The second morning…it was AGONY to lift them…

And I had to get the giant artwork off the wall, carry up stairs, and store it safely.

Honestly, I was pretty worried I was going to drop it and it crack up and get destroyed.

Fortunately, somehow I was able to get it done in spite of the pain.

I know, I know.

It was totally my fault that I was so sore. I pushed too hard at the bootcamp. I hadn’t prepared for those levels of intense effort.

In the weeks since, I haven’t been back to a bootcamp. (still running, just not a bootcamper at the present…)

Honestly, I should go to more bootcamps, not fewer…

But how many times do we do the exact same thing in other areas of life?

We focus on some intense effort over a very short time frame and then get discouraged with the result…

10 phone calls to brokers today looking for deals and none of them took me seriously…

Awesome email explaining our investment model and no one read it…

5 deals analyzed today and they are all junk…

Intense work and we end up discouraged and frustrated.

I think it’s because of the truth in this statement:

“Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a month. We overestimate what we can do in a year, and underestimate what we can accomplish in a decade.” — Matthew Kelly

We are really good at getting into a frenzy of business and feeling productive.

But not so good at finding the actual productive work and sticking to it in the longer term.

There’s a reason we have the term, “Get rich quick scheme”.

Because they are schemes…not plans.

I heard it once…if the shortcut actually worked, then it wouldn’t be the shortcut…it would be the regular path, because everyone would use it.

It’s incredible what you can accomplish when you focus on the long haul.

Two years ago, I had ZERO real estate investing experience. No doors, no portfolio, no anything.

I took a leap and invested over $5k in some education and made a commitment to myself that I was going down the path of buying apartments.

Literally, two years ago I was standing outside my house waiting for my cousin to pick me up so we could fly across the country to attend a conference on buying apartments.

Five grand.

Three days. (actually it turned into four because our plane flight home was delayed/cancelled and we had to stay an extra day)

But the commitment after making that investment kept me pushing when I got back home and caught up back in the frenzy and reality of daily life trying to figure out how to pay bills and feed 4 small children.

The commitment to grow, to persevere until the soreness turned into strength.

Until the setbacks turned into success.

Two years later…today…I’ve been on the GP side of 10 different deals.

Helped raise over $6,000,000 in private capital from individual investors.

Seen my life transform for the better.

Less stress.

More freedom.

Hard work? of course.

Stressful days? (weeks?…months!?) yes.

Worth the effort?

No question.

Don’t give up on your dream of freedom because you pushed so hard that you were sore for three days.

You can do this.