Struggle is inevitable when you choose a path that’s worth going down. Along that path, particularly one that isn’t traditional on the road to financial freedom, you will face doubt. It can and will come from many different directions. Whether it be friends, family, associates, or anyone else, the doubt others project onto you can have a detrimental impact if you let it. Once doubt starts to creep into your mind, it becomes like a leech. Maintaining belief in the presence of doubt will ensure your ability to come out on top of any adversity you face.
Combatting doubt and doubters
When the tentacles of doubt creep into your head after continuous reinforcement from others around you, it can be pretty hard to shake. Depending on your personality, doubt will either break you or it will create a chip on your shoulder. While obviously having a chip on your shoulder with something to prove is a good thing because it will motivate you to work harder, the wise action step to take here remains the same regardless of what kind of personality you have. Cut the people that doubt you out of your life or at least limit your interactions with them until they understand and respect what you are trying to do. Of course, that can be extremely difficult especially if the people you’re facing the most doubt from is your immediate family. However, when an idea continually gets reinforced in your head, you begin to believe it and it becomes a constant internal struggle to remain consistent. Fighting a battle with yourself will undoubtedly lead to burnout, conflicts and outbursts with people close to you, and many more negative consequences. That’s why, in my opinion, it is best to cut these particular people out as much as you can while you establish yourself. Replace those people with those who share your vision and hold you accountable. These types of people will have your back and tell you how it is. They won’t sugarcoat what they think, however, their criticism is constructive and helps you grow rather than diminish you. While that all sounds great, where exactly do you find these people? Well, the answer is multilayered but fairly simple, and the advantages we have today with technology being as advanced as it is has a huge part in that!
Best practices for finding the best people
In the technology age we live in today, finding the right people to associate with in order to achieve mutual goals is fairly simple. Go on Facebook and look for groups that are in your niche and join as many of them as you can. Create connections with people within those communities and organize phone calls or zoom meetings and see how you can help each other get to where you need to be. This is exactly how I found some of my business partners and definitely where I learned the most about financial freedom. In the past and still to this day, I listen to real estate related podcasts almost daily. One day while listening to the BiggerPockets Podcast, I came across an episode where they interviewed a man by the name of Pace Morby. Pace is an absolute master of creative finance in real estate and I was mesmerized. I joined his free Facebook group and listened to all of his content, and eventually joined his paid mentorship. Within that mentorship, I was able to network with the community and meet some of the most selfless and intelligent people I’ve ever met. After struggling with a deal I had under contract, I was offered help by one of my now business partners and the rest is history. We are now on pace to own 100+ doors by the end of the year! This all came from surrounding myself with the right people who believe like I do that anything is possible. We continuously ask ourselves how we can get something done rather than deem it out of our realm of possibilities. We pick each other up and constantly reinforce positivity in each other every single day.
Another method that is great for finding amazing people is to go to networking events in your area for your niche. This is a great strategy because it allows you to meet people who live close by and speak with them face to face which at least for me is more personable than on the phone or even on zoom. Ultimately, there are endless ways to find the right people who will help propel you to greatness and lift you up from the doubt that clouds so many people’s heads.
Affirm the good over the bad
As we talked about earlier, when you hear something over and over again, your brain may begin to believe it is true. This is just as true for doubt as it is for positivity. To combat doubt, I’ve found that writing down positive affirmations with your goals and trajectory within them and reciting it every day is the best way to capitalize on the idea of reinforcement. Because I reinforce that I will own $10,000,000 of real estate by the end of the year and outline my strategy for doing so every day, in my head, I’ve already achieved this goal. By no means do I mean this in a cocky way. What I do mean is that when you reinforce these types of ideas enough, it gives you the confidence to go out there and actually get it done. When you truly believe in something, your actions will reflect that belief and you will find a way. Positive affirmation in conjunction with the right crowd are the superpower that will unlock the gateway to unlimited possibilities.