Crush This Year Part 3: Embracing Challenges

Hey, Cody here with another awesome lesson in our series about how to crush this year. For today’s lesson, we are going to learn how to embrace challenges. But first, if you missed the previous lessons, here they are so we can all get on the same track:

• Crush This Year Part 1: Killing Fear and Failure
• Crush This Year Part 2: The Positivity Hack

Now, I want to share a little metaphor to help you reframe the challenges that you will inevitably face as a real estate investor. Any time somebody tells me that they have a problem that they need solved I immediately say,

“Hey, you don’t have a problem. You have a challenge.”

You see, problems are annoying by nature, and just the word problem to me has a negative connotation, so I like to call them challenges. To me, a challenge is an opportunity for growth. To help you understand this concept, let’s take a look at a metaphor:

Problems vs. Challenges Metaphor

Here you are… The circle around you represents your being, your sphere of influence, your current ability to handle any situation that happens within this circle.

 

 

 

 

 

You’re going about your day-to-day life, and then one day, unexpectedly – BAM! – a problem arises that kneels to the side of your circle and settles just outside. Naturally, you head on over toward the problem, but as you get closer and closer to it, you reach the end of your circle.

 

You panic because inside you start to feel uncomfortable. You don’t know what to do or how to handle this problem, so naturally, you retreat back to the center of your circle.

 

 

For a while you just ignore the problem like it’s not even there. But then one day, out of nowhere – BAM! – another problem arises just outside your circle again.

 

 

Once again your brain says, “Hey, go and deal with this,” so you charge toward the problem, smack against your own personal barriers, panic, get uncomfortable, start to get afraid that you’re not going to be able to find the solution, and you give up and retreat right back to your comfort zone.

 

 

Over time, the problems just keep coming and coming until the pain starts to become unbearable. This is the point where you finally stop seeing them as problems. You start to shift your mind-set and start to look at them as challenges that must be figured out – and figured out right now, for your own sanity.

 

 

This time, you charge toward the challenges, break through their barriers and something awesome happens. Your abilities start to grow, your comfort level starts to expand and now you’re able to handle many more challenges that you once thought were way too hard to overcome with a new found energy.

 

 

Now, the whole moral to the story is that in your real estate career you can have many experiences like this, but…

I want you to look at each problem as a challenge that you’re just so excited to take on because you know that with each solution that you find, you’re going to get the result that you’re looking for and you’re going to have professional and personal growth.

Well that wraps up today’s lesson, but keep an eye out for the 4th and final installment in this series: Crush This Year: How I set Goals.

Until next time then…

Keep it real,

Cody