5 Lifestyle Changes to Make Now to Build Wealth in 2020

We are going to discuss some lifestyle changes that can massively affect your results in 2020. People often underestimate the impact of such changes, although they all work together to compound our results.

If you’re reading this, then I’m assuming you’re wanting peak performance and top results. In order to attain that, we have to make radical changes and be willing to try things that are outside of our current comfort zone—and perhaps even outside of our current knowledge base. But it’s an opportunity for us to take inventory of where we are, make applicable changes, and bump up our game.

As such, throughout this article, you will need to evaluate yourself. And we will discuss practical ways that you can improve the areas that need improving. It’s imperative to be honest with ourselves, however, in order to grow and attain our goals.

I even provide some exciting wealth exercises for you to work through, so you can accelerate and amplify your results!

The Most Important Thing to Do in 2020 (and Why)

I’m writing this article with ruthless compassion for you all and with best-in-class results in mind. After all, this is about building wealth. And to build, we need to grow. If I was rooting for anything less, then I’d be shortchanging you. Your success is more important to me than that.

I do believe there is much financial wealth to be generated and created this year. After all, within chaos lies opportunity. But I also believe it’s prudent we position ourselves well now so we can take advantage of the opportunities that are highly likely to follow in 2021.

What I mean by that is the opportunities that will potentially arise in 2021 are likely to trump the opportunities available in 2020. So think of 2020 as the year of preparation. It’s time for us to reinforce things fundamentally so we have a seriously strong foundation.

Despite Everything, Real Estate Prices Haven’t Fallen—Yet

Let’s get real. We are not seeing a massive drop in real estate pricing just yet. It will take time to see massively discounted real estate pricing. In my opinion, it’s unlikely we will see any major price changes before the end of the year—at the earliest.

When the stock market crashes, it does so at lightning speed. Real estate, on the other hand, takes much longer to react to economic circumstances.

I’m mentioning this because people see the early signs of economic chaos and think, “Yes! This means discount real estate deals next week!” Although it typically does mean we will get discounted pricing at some point, it takes time for the full impact to hit the real estate sector.

Why This Is Relevant to 2020

As a massive generalization, we are likely at the height of pricing in the real estate sector. Historically, we were due for a real estate/economic correction regardless of COVID. The additional layers of complexity from the pandemic have only amplified economic circumstances and effects.

When things change economically, there is a lag time before you see an impact on house pricing. Here are a few reasons why:

Sellers still want to sell high (or for what’s been considered normal/fair prices in the most recent past). This is unlikely to change until enough buyers start coming in wanting to pay less. It takes a while for the agreement between sellers and buyers to balance out before new pricing (in this case lower pricing) is established.
An after-effect of poor economic circumstance could result in more homes coming on the market for sale for a variety of reasons, such as sellers wanting to downsize, reduce exposure or risk, sell while the market is at (or close to) the top, or liquidate to be better positioned for potential upcoming discounted pricing. This seller sentiment does not happen immediately and can take months to have a real effect on pricing.
If the above happens on a big enough scale, we can see a higher supply and lower demand, which affects people’s sentiment on pricing. Homes may stay on the market longer; sellers consider lowering prices to offload these assets, and we begin to see pricing drop.
Some heavily impacted by the crisis may be forced to foreclose, be evicted, etc. These processes take a little while to play out and cause a lag in terms of when the properties become available on the market. We’ll experience additional delays in this instance because courts were temporarily shut down. As courts open back up, landlords can continue with currently “frozen” evictions and begin new evictions. (Needless to say, we can expect a significant amount of new properties coming available on the market once these evictions go through. Match these evictions with the amount of properties people are looking to offload, and we can expect to see a significant change in housing supply as early as Q2—but more likely in Q3.)
People generally become more cautious due to the “unknown,” which means less demand.
If and when rent pricing needs to lower to suit market needs, then house pricing may lower so deals can still pencil out.
With interest rates increasing and financing becoming more expensive, this will also likely mean that real estate pricing drops to accommodate.

Of course, there are some newbie investors who seem to think the sale is on already. So, there may be a little false start in activity. But overall, the combination of the abovementioned, among other factors, realistically means we shouldn’t expect to see any significant real estate pricing changes (except perhaps in commercial retail space) until early 2021 or later.

What’s certain is, with the current amount of unemployment, with unlimited printing of U.S. dollars through quantitative easing, and with lasting (and perhaps repeated) effects of lockdowns, heavy impact will be felt.

Recently, I wrote an article about some key economic circumstances we need to take into consideration. It’s loaded with links for further education on many of the aforementioned topics.

As much as we may want to make massive profits in 2020, it’s more realistic that 2021 will be the year for real estate investors to really provide massive value and fulfill many people’s needs—which, of course, equals the potential for massive profit.

Having said that, 2020 is a critical year. We can build wealth now, as well as be best positioned for next year. To do so, it’s prudent that we check our current foundation and strengthen it anywhere possible. We want it to be strong enough to handle processing a high amount of deals throughout the “sale”—however long that lasts.

Again, this article is written for people who are seriously looking to take massive action and get monumental results. One can only stack so much on a weak foundation before it collapses. So, strength is paramount in these circumstances. The stronger our foundation, the better the results.

It’s also important to highlight that when we get pressured into “having to” or “needing to” perform, it’s amazing how quickly we can get things done. This concept is also referred to as Parkinson’s law: “Work expands so as to fill the time which is available for its completion.” So, the more time we dedicate in advance to a certain task, the longer it will take to complete it, even if it could have been completed in a shorter period of time.

Put simply, we get more done by giving ourselves less time to do things (or get less done by giving ourselves more time to do things).

Here’s another way to look at it: Consider the difference between cooking in a skillet versus cooking in a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker (obviously under pressure) cooks significantly faster than a skillet.

With COVID-19 and the resulting economic landscape, there’s pressure on us to perform. So, it’s time to bump up our game and amplify our outcome. Think of it as something good to come out of all of this. We’re enhancing our performance.

Pressure to perform creates a good type of stress called “eustress.” Eustress means beneficial stress—either psychological, physical, or biochemical. It’s the type of stress that weightlifters and Olympians put on themselves to grow and become better.

We too can use this pressure to our advantage. Following are some lifestyle changes that will massively affect our overall success.

1. Education as Your New Entertainment

National sports have stopped. There are more people than ever at home right now. You can barely go to the pub or the movies.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I’ll let you decide—although one thing I can guarantee is that within these changes, lies a massive opportunity.

Clearly, by nature of your reading this, you take education seriously and are yearning for more to propel you toward that which you desire in your financial future. Of course, massive action will need to follow the education you attain. We will talk about that more as we progress through this article.

There are many people right now who are wasting tons of time watching senseless TV, which drives them no closer to their goals. A quick reality check for us as successful investors is to ask ourselves the following: “Is what I’m doing right now working toward bringing me closer to achieving my goals?”

Ask this at any point during the day.

We will become the physical manifestation of what we spend most of our time doing. If we spend most of our time drinking beer, watching sports, sitting on the couch, eating junk food, and buying useless gadgets, then it’s likely we will end up fat, lazy, and broke.

On the other hand, we can cultivate an environment for massive financial success if we instead spend our time:

Learning everything we can about markets
Considering the current and near-future state of the economy
Deepening our skills in our chosen investment model or asset class
Figuring out how to raise capital
Staying up to pace with different financing options
Soaking up self-development
Honing our negotiation skills
Maintaining long-lasting business relationships
And so on

When I first started, I absolutely obsessed with everything that would propel me toward attaining financial freedom. I dropped all my pastimes and hobbies (except surfing and physical exercise), and I replaced that time with reading books, attending live events, participating in home study courses, going to meetups, networking (and networking and networking!), and committing to education (and education and education!).

By doing so, in 18 months, I went from not knowing a thing about financial freedom or real estate to holding solid conversations on these topics and knowing exactly what I needed to do to become financially free.

During that time, my friends were like, “Come to the game, man!” or “Are you coming to the pub?” or “Really, you’re doing that real estate education stuff again? How boring!”

Fast forward, and after 18 months of educational immersion, I moved on to purchase my first mobile home park. I had a negative net worth, unseasoned credit, and a mere $2,000 in the bank. But I’d learned how to put deals together, and I brought partners in on the mix to get the deal across the finish line.

Just two-and-a-half years after my first deal, my wife and I became financially free. If I had not committed to everything I mentioned above in the 18 months prior to taking massive action, I can’t see how I would have been ready to do what I did. And to this day, I’m spending at least two hours a day on continuing my education or deepening my knowledge in certain areas.

Maybe you already are taking massive action. But perhaps you need to bump up your game? Only you can HONESTLY answer this. (I encourage you to be super honest with yourself.)

Dan Peña is a business mentor who teaches millionaires and billionaires to do bigger and better deals. His mentees have accumulated over a trillion dollars of deals since taking his mentorship program. The one thing he is relentless on is microscopically dissecting his mentees’ schedules and calling them out on any and all of the time they are wasting not attaining their goals.

Whether you like Dan Peña or not is irrelevant (some don’t like how direct and harsh he comes across). He gets results and one of his main points is to evaluate our schedules and maximize productivity to attain what we really want.

Have you already attained all your financial goals? Likely not. By nature of you reading this article, it leads me to believe there is still some gas in the tank toward improving your financial future.

Wealth Exercise No. 1

It’s time for a real deal reality check. To evaluate where you are with managing your time, keep a log of every half-hour chunk of your day, every day for a month. Then, at the end of the day, add up the amount of time you spent on improving your financial future.

(FYI: Checking emails and social media is not working toward your goals. It’s simply maintenance. More on this later.)

I’m talking about actions you take that are generating income or that will generate income as a result of said actions. When most people do this, they are often surprised by how much time they are NOT working toward their financial goals.

Unless the entertainment you are absorbing serves you and your financial future, then limit it to a total of 10 hours a week or less. Unless we are growing, we are dying. If we are honest with ourselves, there is no end to education—we learn until we die, or we die slowly by choosing not to grow.

The question is: are you honestly spending enough time productively and effectively working toward what you really want in life?

2. Build or Enhance Your Power Team

Wanna crank up on deal flow and completed deals? Leveraging the power of a team is a simple way to achieve this.

Are you doing everything yourself? Or are you leveraging the power of your team to accelerate and amplify your results?

There is only so much one person can do in a day.

Wealth Exercise No. 2

This is another solid reality check to evaluate the EFFECTIVE use of your time toward generating revenue. This will allow you to determine what to outsource to your power team and what to spend time doing yourself.

Create a list (or spreadsheet) where you write down all the tasks that are needed in your business/as an investor. Then highlight each task in one of the following three categories:

Green = Critical tasks that MASSIVELY drive up your revenue

This may entail putting deals together, negotiating deals, putting in offers, creating sales copy, building highly valuable relationships, critical strategizing, etc.—things that significantly drive up your revenue or NOI. These are the tasks you need to spend your time doing, as they are critical to your business. Do these things before lunch, as they’re the most important tasks of your day. Spend most—if not all—of your time in the green. After all, green is the color of money!

Yellow = Tasks that SLIGHTLY drive up your revenue

This includes managing capital expenditure projects or remodels, hiring and firing staff, being on or hosting podcasts, writing articles, creating content, working on your website sales page, branding, media, marketing, building relationships, etc. Do these smaller revenue-generating tasks after lunch or even outsource as needed.

Red = Tasks that generate NO revenue

This is ordering materials, bookkeeping, creating spreadsheets, making a logo, getting a website built, customer support, fulfillment, video editing, social media, logistics, etc. Do not spend any time on red tasks; these are to be outsourced. This is where you build your team to support revenue. There is no money to be made doing these tasks, so you don’t spend any time doing them. You simply manage the people that do these tasks for you.

Wealth Exercise No. 3

This is a second test to evaluate if you are properly outsourcing.

Figure out how much you earn each month in dollars. Now, divide that dollar amount by the number of hours you work each month. Then, my friend, you have your hourly rate of what your time is currently worth.

Got it? Great!

Take that hourly rate and apply it to all the tasks within your business and evaluate if each task could be done by someone else for cheaper than your hourly rate. For example, if you are worth $50 per hour and you can get something done for $20 an hour by someone else, then keep making your $50 per hour doing what you do best, and instead pay the $20 per hour to someone else and keep the $30 in change!

We need to use our time effectively if we want to amplify success. There are plenty of people who make $50, $100, or even $1,000 an hour, who are wasting their time doing tasks they could pay someone a mere $12-$20 per hour to do. This matched with the “green, yellow, red” method above will let you know what to outsource and what to spend more time doing yourself.

These are easy exercises to do, and I recommend visiting them both on a quarterly basis until you get on a solid flow. Check in on an annual basis thereafter. As we grow, there’s more and more we can outsource. On the other hand, not outsourcing is choking us off from growing.

Need to bump up your game?

Consider getting interns or hiring virtual assistants (VAs). I have used both and now lean toward VAs, as they typically require less training. VAs are also very cost-effective for the amount of work they put out. You can pay them per hour or per job.

I do have friends who swear by interns—it seems to be working very well for them. So, you can decide what’s a good fit for you. I simply prefer VAs, as I’m all about performance-based work to motivate people.

When you start seriously looking into what tasks a VA can do, the list is pretty much endless.

Upwork is a VA website that I’ve had good experiences with in the past. Do your own research, though, as there are many VA websites. You will need to make sure whoever you choose is a good fit for your personal circumstances and needs. Of course, you will interview them to ensure as much, because you are a wise investor.

3. Strengthen Relationships

Start off with yourself. If you don’t have a good relationship with yourself, then you won’t have good relationships with others. This is often overlooked, and it’s a critical place to start.

We have all heard of that person who gets divorced three times then says, “I must have bad luck, ’cause all of my exes were really bad people!”

Clearly, there was a common denominator: the three-time divorcee. That person likely needed to work to improve themselves in order to make better decisions, have higher standards, set boundaries, develop mutual respect, and create a harmonious and loving environment for their partner to want to treat them the same.

The more comfortable we are with ourselves, the more we can provide value and help others.

Next, look at your immediate family. Do you have the support team you need? Can you contribute more to them where they need it, so they provide more support to you? What can you do to improve things?

Don’t blame others in your family. Take a hard look at how you can inspire change (if needed).

Remember that actions speak louder than words. Let your actions do the talking. Successful businesses are led by example. Relationships and families are no different.

Next, take a look at your relationships with your lenders, your hard money guys or gals, your contractors, your title rep, your insurance representative, any agents or brokers you work with, your managers and staff, your attorney, your bookkeeper or CPA, etc. What can you do to strengthen these relationships, so that you stand out amongst a crowd of your competitors?

And because many people are out of work in 2020, there’s an opportunity to provide value to them. You have the ability to create work for people right now—therefore providing value by outsourcing tasks while simultaneously building wealth.

Maybe it’s simply time to reach out and touch base with those you have not spoken to in a while just to let them know you are thinking of them. We don’t always have to have an agenda or get something out of everything. Think of a time when someone reached out to you simply because they care and wanted to check in with you. I’m assuming that made you feel great.

Who have you thought about but not called lately?

Wealth Exercise No. 4

For those of you fully committed to bumping up your game, call five people you have thought about lately but haven’t called. Have no agenda. You are simply calling ’cause you care.

Deals are all about relationships. Think about how many people are involved in one simple real estate transaction: Realtor, title, insurance, contractors, surveyors, inspectors, CPA, attorney, the list goes on.

When the deals really crank up in volume, have we built the relationships we need to be able to handle the activity? Or are we going to scramble at the last minute like some competitors?

4. Enhance Your Mental, Physical, and Dietary Health

Hold up a minute here… I want to be a better real estate investor. Are you telling me that I need to enhance my mental, physical, and dietary health to be a better investor?

You bet that’s what I’m saying!

I actually wanted to position this as No. 1 on this list. But I anticipated some readers might have viewed discussing health on a real estate website as irrelevant, tuned out, then missed out on all the valuable info and wealth exercises to follow.

So, I brought this up a little lower on the list, as I’m assuming if you’ve read this much, you’ve seen the value in what we have discussed thus far. You’re probably open to hearing how improving your health can increase your bank account’s balance. They are directly related, and this is often grossly overlooked.

I really can’t overstate how important good health is. Most top performers I know have great mental, physical, and dietary health. It seems to be a common theme: Top performers often do well in many areas of their life.

The better our health is, the more motivation we have to crush it financially! The more stamina we have than our competition. The better we feel, the more enjoyable we are to be around and the easier it is to get deals done.

There has likely never been a more relevant time to care about health than today. Some people are quite concerned for potential negative health outcomes right now. I’m assuming most of these people are not in the best shape to start off with. Why? Because those who are currently healthy are likely not concerned much.

Regardless of the chaos that’s going on right now, peak health is something that serves us in so many ways no matter what’s going on around us. The better shape we are in (mentally, physically, emotionally) the more grounded we can be and the more we can provide value to and help others.

Let’s face it, providing massive value to others where it’s desperately needed is how we make massive profits. We create win-wins.

As Tony Robbins says, “Success is 20% skills and strategy and 80% mindset.”

The funny thing is most people focus on the 20%, and they want to know the “how-tos.” I know firsthand from being a mobile home park investing and capital raising educator that out of 100% of people in the room, 20% or less are actually going to take these how-tos and apply them to get results. So, understanding “how” is a very small piece of the pie.

We need to master the other 80% so we can put our skills and strategies into action! Let’s explore that 80% on a deeper level.

Mental Health

First off with health is that we need to get our head right. Unless we truly see opportunity and abundance around us and are 100% certain (that’s right 100%), then it’s unlikely we will achieve massive financial success. We need to fully believe that not only is wealth possible this year, it’s possible for YOU!

If you are dwelling in fear-based thought patterns right now, then you won’t find opportunity. You will only find things that are aligned with your fear-based mindset. If you are in survival mode, you will get minimal results. Once you understand that chaotic times provide abundant opportunities, then you’re on the path to success.

It’s not wise to get caught up in the chaos right now—although it’s imperative to our financial survival that we are aware of our surroundings. Think of yourself as someone who lives in an Amazonian jungle tribe. You need to be aware of the panthers; venomous spiders, frogs, or snakes; rushing rivers; poisonous berries; and even warriors from other tribes.

If an Amazonian tribesman is not aware of his/her surroundings, they could be seriously hurt or even die. But once they have this awareness, they simply make a plan of how to best operate in these conditions. They find a harmonious balance, coexisting in this environment—they are prepared, calm, and confident that all beings can live and thrive together.

Now, let’s translate this into a real estate example: If you are out there buying like crazy at the top of the market or keeping the same buying criteria while financing terms are hardening, or if you are paying top-dollar when you could be buying at a discount, then you could end up seriously crushed (or even taken out) financially.

Having said that, once you are aware of your surroundings—this means keeping your finger on the pulse of your market, financing terms, the direction of real estate (or asset-specific) pricing, and the trajectory of the economy, rent pricing, and unemployment rates and their effects—then you can use the rest of your mental energy on constructive and productive things. You can fill the gaps and satisfy the needs of your surrounding circumstances, which in turn will drive you toward your goals.

Tips to expand and amplify positive mental health:

Daily Gratitude

Be grateful for everything in your life. Spend some time feeling this gratitude as soon as you wake and before you go to sleep. You only need to spend 3-5 minutes here. Doing this on a regular basis can radically change your overall mindset from lack and despair to abundance and prosperity.

Keep in mind, our results will end up being a physical representation of the majority of whatever our thoughts are. Hence, gratitude is essential in attaining success.

Goal-Setting

Unless you want to get washed down the river, you will need a paddle to control your direction. We need to know what our goals are. I use the “Ultimate Goal Template” to set my goals. I set goals in the following areas each year: financial, health, relationships, spirituality, and fun.

Know Your “Why”

We need a solid understanding of what the main reason we are doing any of this is, aka our “why.” Our goal and our why are NOT the same thing. We want to make X amount of money, but our reason why likely has something to do with how we will spend our time or our money once we get it. The why is our main driver in getting us through challenges. Weak why = weak results.

This is why in a pressured situation a mother can lift a car to get her children out from underneath: She has a monumental why.

What’s your why? If you are not 100% crystal clear on this, then I challenge you to explore why you are doing all this and what you will spend your time doing once you attain this financial wealth you are seeking. That will be a really big hint as to what your why is.

Visualization

So, you have your goals and you know your why. Now you need to start visualizing all of your goals as if they have ALREADY happened and you feel ecstatic to be reaping the rewards. The amount of positive emotion you add to your visualization is in direct relation to the results you will manifest.

Make sure to get really excited. If you are not getting excited, then you likely have not set the right goals for yourself anyway, or maybe you just need some practice getting excited again. I’m talking the excitement that kids exude when they find out they are going to Disneyland for the first time—plus, they get to bring five of their best friends for free!

Spend 5-10 minutes a day visualizing your goals, then watch them magically come to fruition.

Surround Yourself With That Which Serves Your Goals

You will become the accumulation of what you spend most of your time doing. If you are hanging out with complaining or low-energy people, reading fantasy books, listening to pop music, and watching movies, then you won’t likely create anything of significant success financially.

On the flip side of that coin, when you hang out with uplifting and goal-oriented people, read books, listen to educational audio recordings, and watch videos that get you closer to achieving your goals, then you’ll likely create financial success for yourself as a result.

This also means limit or eliminate things that don’t serve you. You may have heard the saying, “You will become an accumulation of the top five people you spend the most time with.” Maybe you spend most of your time listening to real estate experts and people who are living a life you want to live. If that’s the case, then you’re on the right path.

Wealth Exercise No. 5

This is an extension of exercise No. 1. Take inventory of yourself and your life, and evaluate if all things and all relationships serve you and your future. Some of you will have to consider limiting your time doing certain things and being around certain people; others will have some straight-up eliminating to do. Ask yourself: “What’s more important: reaching my goal or staying where I’m at?”

It’s pretty easy to know what to do from there.

This one step may be the biggest positive change you can make, period. One thing many of us have right now is time on our side. Use your time wisely, and choose to do things and be around people who propel you toward your goals!

Physical Health

Physical health translates into endurance and stamina. Never feel sick and outwork your competitors. The more energy we use, the more we create. If you put two competitors head to head, then over time the one who always wins is the one willing to put in the most work and therefore exert the most energy.

Soon enough, there’s going to be an opportunity to massively profit from real estate. We need to be in peak health to have the stamina and endurance to perform our best and not let any deals or opportunities slip through the cracks.

Tips for Top Physical Health:

Do 10 to 30 minutes of cardio three times a week. This could double as door-knocking if you’re walking at a fast enough pace. Alternatively, you can jog, ride a bike, walk up massive flights of stairs, dance, etc.
Try mixing in calisthenics or weights for strength training. Calisthenics are essentially exercises using our own bodyweight. Think pushups, pull-ups, air squats, lunges, sit-ups, etc. You don’t need a gym or any gear. You just need a few square feet of floor space. Then, crank up your favorite music and get active. If you are looking for a little more of a challenge, add some weight to this training. To really bump up your game, mix cardio in with your strength training—then you have a solid workout routine. If you don’t know what exercises to do, YouTube it. Aim for 20-plus minutes three times a week as a good start.
Try yoga for improved flexibility (and mindset). We can go hard all day long building strength, but the yin of that yang is to maintain and deepen flexibility. This could be a good place to start for those looking to ease their way into exercise or a great complement for those already working out hard. Two 30-minute yoga sessions a week will serve you well.
Do Wim Hof breathing and cold exposure. This one may be a little far-fetched for some of you, but science fully backs up this method’s efficacy in terms of boosting our immune systems, increasing PH levels in our body, increasing oxygen in blood flow, and overall creating an environment that’s hard for a disease to survive in (let alone thrive). For those of you eager to really bump up your game, I challenge you to give this a shot for the next 30 days. Tell me what results you got. I do these breathing exercises every morning and have an ice bath or cold plunge at least once a week. It’s great for my health and great for my mind.
Get adequate rest. We can only go 100% all-out for a period of time before needing to stop and recharge. Most of us don’t even perform at 100%—we have tons left in the tank, and we rest anyway. If that is your case, then step up your game. You don’t need much rest, just enough to recharge a little. On the flip side of that coin, those of us who are highly motivated and driven, we need to force ourselves to stop and recharge so we can re-energize and not run ourselves into the ground. If you push yourself really hard, make sure to force breaks to recharge. If you’re easy on yourself, then hold yourself more accountable to take less rest time and push yourself harder to perform.

Again, the more energy we put out there, the more we get back. This is why 300-pound people end up worsening their laziness and becoming 400 pounds. This is also why a silver medal winner gets highly motivated and takes massive action to become a gold medal winner. Which side of the scale are you on, and what are you going to do about it?

Just like cold calling, putting in offers, and following up, consistency is key. Go for consistency with exercise rather than volume. Then crank up the volume once consistency is stable.

Dietary Health

When we have strong immune systems, we are not so worried when health scares come along. We are more naturally prepared for it. It’s simply the wrong environment for illness or disease (literally “dis-ease”) to exist, let alone survive or thrive.

Dietary health can be somewhat of a mathematical equation. We want to balance calories in vs. calories out, keeping in mind that high-quality calories and low-quality calories exist.

For example, a Big Mac is high in calories yet provides low-quality energy when eating it. Whereas, a serving of salmon, a sweet potato, and a side salad may have the same calories as a Big Mac, but you will gain much energy in return. This energy output is measured in frequency. The more high-frequency foods we seek the better.

Our bodies are 70% water. Just like a fish tank, we need to keep the water in our bodies at the right PH levels. On one end of the scale, we have acidity. A high acidity PH level equates to the perfect environment for disease to thrive. A slightly alkaline PH means the perfect environment for perfect health.

The funny thing is it takes multiple parts of alkalinity to eliminate one part of acidity. There are tons of acidic foods on the market, and it’s in our best interest to lean toward high alkaline foods to create a healthy environment within ourselves. Consult this list to identify high PH foods to have in your diet.

Tips for peak health:

Don’t overconsume or overindulge
Eliminate sugar and sugar substitutes
Eat high-frequency foods
Measure your PH (you can buy PH strips at most pharmacies)
Maintain a high vegetable intake
Go organic when possible
Reduce alcohol consumption

Think about it. A Formula 1 car needs the right fuel to perform at its peak. You can’t fill a Formula 1 racecar with chocolate milk and expect it to perform. Make sure you are fueling your body for peak performance. This will have a very positive effect on many other areas of your life as a result. It will increase your mood, your skin, your body, and your overall performance.

5. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

This is also called “staying on your growth edge.”

I left this one for last on purpose—it’s more of a “save the best for last” than anything.

Think about your comfort zone as a circle. Let’s say it starts off at 12 inches in diameter. To get outside your comfort zone, you need to trek into the uncomfortable. If doing so gives you second thoughts or butterflies, then you are on the right track.

Let’s say you venture 1 inch outside your previous comfort zone. Then, your comfort zone expands to 13 inches in diameter. Imagine if you did that each day? A single inch times 365 is 365 inches. If you did that for 10 years, that’s 3,650 inches.

Boom, you are a whole new person! That’s a radical shift.

Professional athletes, Olympians, pop stars, and actors extend themselves beyond their comfort zone each day. They gradually grow until they get a No. 1 hit—then, everyone says, “they are lucky” or “an overnight success.” In reality, they busted their butts to grow and push themselves to be better each day. When measured over a certain period of time, it’s astronomical how much they have grown and what they have achieved.

I set myself a goal years ago to do something every day to push myself outside of my comfort zone, to venture into the unknown, to try something or learn something new, to be bold and brave, to step up to the plate—butterflies or not. In fact, if it doesn’t give me butterflies, then I know I’m not expanding my comfort zone.

This is where we grow, my friends. Our brain is primitive; its job is to keep us safe. Most of the people I know who “played it safe” financially are not in a good position though, as their safety held them back from taking action to grow as investors.

Now, I’m not at all saying to take on any risky ventures with no evaluation.

All the risks I take are fully calculated. You need to evaluate the risk/reward fully and then decide what’s a fit for you (and refer to your advisors as needed for consultation).

What I am saying is that I started extending my comfort zone by talking on stage in front of 10 people when I’d never spoken in public before. Then, I gave 30 people a shot—and then cranked that up to 100 people, then 500 people, and now I’m comfortable speaking in front of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people at once.

So far, I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to a 100,000-person crowd, but I’m certainly up for it!

I’ve pulled multiple deals together when at the time, I didn’t have a spare cent in the bank. It took me getting massively outside of my comfort zone to get these deals done, and what a feeling to have done them!

Imagine if we said to our parents, “No, I refuse to ever walk. I’m too scared of falling over!”

Some of us are doing this in our lives today: being too afraid of things we can easily overcome. I’m telling you with ruthless compassion that you can get outside your comfort zone, and no matter where you are at right now, there is plenty of room to bump up your game.

We can step up our cold calling game, our negotiation game. We can ask for things we want that make us feel uncomfortable. We can put in a lowball offer. We can expand our willingness to try working bigger deals and taking on new projects. We can go on that podcast we were invited to, start that meetup group, get up and share our wants and needs at our local REI. We could attract that $10M investor we’ve been seeking.

You get the point. Only you know where you are at and how big (or small) your comfort zone really is.

Wealth Exercise No. 6

Do one thing each day that pushes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to grow. Hold your self accountable, and do this every day for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, let me know about your results in the comments below.

Wrapping Up

Here’s a recap of what we covered and the exercises you should do. (If you have not completed these wealth exercises thus far, now is your chance to go back and do them. I challenge you to grow and become your better self!)

1. Education = Your New Entertainment

Wealth Exercise No. 1 – Evaluate the effective use of your time.

2. Build or Enhance Your Power Team

Wealth Exercise No. 2 – Outsourcing test #1

Wealth Exercise No. 3 – Outsourcing test #1

3. Strengthen Relationships

Wealth Exercise No. 4 – Call 5 people you care about to let them know you were thinking about them.

4. Enhance Your Mental, Physical, and Dietary Health

Wealth Exercise No. 5 – Evaluate if the things you do and people you hang out with propel you toward your goals.

5. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone

Wealth Exercise No. 6 – Push yourself outside your comfort zone each day for 30 days.

Let me know how these exercises have affected you and your financial goals positively. I know it will take a little time to track results, so be sure to come back and comment in the next few weeks and months.

I truly wish you all abundant success and growth in 2020!

Questions? Comments?

Join the discussion below.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.