Anti-Burnout: How to Make and Meet Your Goals

There are moments when everyone questions what they’re doing for a living and why.

Everyone gets burned out, but the real issue is, what do you do about it? Maybe that question is what started your interest in real estate investing -- maybe that question is the exact reason you’re here reading this. The first step towards getting your answer is the same no matter what career you’re in: evaluate what your goals are. There are a few steps to being able to effectively evaluate where you're at and where you want to go, and we're going to dive into those

Step 1: Walking Backwards

Start off by thinking about the life you want and why you want it. When you evaluate the why you often answer with the how — work backwards from your end goal and you’ll create a road map. If you can, imagine a realistic day in your dream life compare that to where you're at now. Notice what's already present today and what's missing -- Do you need to learn more? Are you working 8 hours a day? If not, what enables you to work less? Are you making enough money to cover your expenses? What is generating that income? And so on.

When you apply this formula to real estate you’ll discover if you’re more interested in flipping, rentals, or some other niche. By working backwards from where you want to be you can also take note of what you enjoy about your work, and therefore what parts of it can stay. This is a great way to start your future in real estate investing and a practice you should return to frequently. 

As you learn more you might discover that, while you wanted to be a buy and hold investor, you simply have more fun flipping. Do that then -- just make sure you're being honest about how to take that goal and make it a feasible reality, especially if 90% of your income comes from rental properties.

Step 2: Think Everywhere

You can equally apply this approach to almost every aspect of your life. If you want to run a marathon you start by lacing your shoes and running longer and longer distances, not by dashing out the door in your slippers for the full 26.3. When you combine your personal goals with your business goals, especially as an investor, you'll better understand if you want to spend time dealing with tenants or picking new cabinets, both of which influence your decision about how involved you want to remain with your work, which, of course, affects what path you mark out for yourself.

My Own Twisting Road

I've personally gone through a number of business-related goals, some based on the number of doors I wanted, some based on the hours I wanted to work, some based on how much availability I wanted to have to travel with my wife.

In each case those goals were something I designed to give me a quantifiable thing to work towards -- getting more doors, outsourcing work, or forming a new company to better handle the work in-house. I also tend to get bored doing the same thing over and over, so my goals sometimes change year to year so I can keep things fresh and avoid getting burned out on what I’m doing, even if it’s “working”. Life isn’t only about money; there’s no point in leaving one career to make yourself miserable in another.

Step 3: Map Out Your Passions

I’d suggest that everyone in this business sit down and ask themselves at least once a year (or, even better, twice) what they’re hoping to achieve. My birthday is in July so that’s a natural break I use along with Christmas to do my planning. When you sit yourself down take care to recognize two important things: where you make the most money and what you enjoy doing the most. Maybe you’re spending 90% of your time being hassled by one property. If that’s the case then, even if it lowers your profits, I’d argue that it’s worth outsourcing the work that bothers you to someone else or getting rid of the property.

If you hate managing property then it’s time to shop for a management company. If you don’t like doing repairs then you should find a contractor to work with. Or, maybe you love flipping houses but you’re spending too much time looking for properties. In that case you’re better off working with a Realtor who can help you find the right ones.

So much of this business is plug-and-play. When you’re first starting out it might be less practical to offload work if you’re trying to make real estate investing your primary income, but by being able to state in definite terms that you want X amount of income per month or a certain value in your property portfolio you give yourself something clear to achieve.

Since a lot of this process revolves around financials I recommend that you keep your own books and check them weekly. I own and manage numerous properties and I do my books weekly; it only takes a few hours, I just set aside that time. If you do use a bookkeeper, I’d still recommend checking over your books weekly, but I generally find that having someone else do your books over-complicates things. Doing it yourself keeps you continually up-to-date on where you are on you path to your goals.

Being in the habit of continually checking in on your progress plants your feet in a goal-oriented approach to your business. Once you’re established it also lets you recognize where your highest cost/benefit and time/benefits are more quickly. Many people tout this career path for its ability to generate wealth, but don’t focus on that at the cost of happiness. You can very well be successful and miserable. Flying under your own power can make having a work-life balance difficult to manage -- it's hard to not mull over business problems when you're "off the clock", since you own the clock. 

It's also important to remember that your path to success will wind, sometimes curve back on itself, and, as long as you're learning from mistakes and putting that knowledge to productive use, your setbacks are sometimes your greatest opportunities.

I’ve been investing since 2003 and I’ve done this process many times in my career. That’s part of the reason I’ve done almost everything you can in the business, from investing to managing, flipping, and wholesaling. 

Get Another Perspective

While you need to always check in with yourself, I strongly suggest you check in with someone else, too: One of best resources I’ve found is having mentors. They’re a sounding board for your ideas, they keep you accountable and they’ll push you to improve. And, more than likely, if you’re getting burned out they’ve been there and overcome it, maybe multiple times. I was lucky enough to walk into this real estate investing with a great mentor, and I think it's hard to find a good mentorship when it's based on someone's hourly rate. Find someone who does what you want to do, where you want to do it, then give them a reason to give you advice. 

Your goals are always your own, and equally how you get there will be your own way. To paraphrase a great Yogi Berra quote:

Be sure you know where you’re going, otherwise you’ll end up where you don’t want to be.