Being Committed to Being Committed and Keeping Yourself Accountable to Your Real Estate Goals

Are you committed to being committed?

I got hit upside the head today for not thinking. I told my mentor that I’m trying to stay committed when it came to a new project I’m working on. As soon as I said that, I knew what was coming. Call it a Freudian Slip or just call it regression, but as soon as I said, “I’m trying to stay committed” it was over. I immediately began to backtrack…But it was too late…

My mentor was all over it.

He said, “Oh you’re TRYING to be committed? How’s that working out for you JL?” Then he started laughing like, “Are you kidding me?” You know we don’t play that “Try” stuff.

Yup…I knew it..What was I thinking?

It’s simple… I wasn’t…

Maybe you’ve set your heart on a goal. Maybe you’ve taken the step to go after your first real estate deal. If so, that’s great. However, I have an important question for you…

How deep is your commitment?

If you are struggling with staying comitted to your goals…
If you’re someone who starts things and doesn’t finish them…
If you make excuses for why you haven’t reached your goals…

Then there is only one word that gets down to the root of all these problems:

Accountability!

You have to hold yourself accountable when it comes to going after your goals.

When I said, “I’m trying to stay committed” I was basically telling myself that I might not stay committed. I was indirectly telling myself that as soon as there is a reason to back out…I’m done! Eventually I would accept failure…

Do you think I’m being too hard on myself? Not me…

If you’ve been keeping up with my posts or even been over to my blog, then you should know by now that it took me 2 Years (730 Days) to complete my first real estate deal.

One of the reasons I mentioned was because of “Paralysis of Analysis”. That was huge! However, the other reason was because I wasn’t holding myself accountable and I was just giving real estate investing a try.

Whenever someone fails at anything…What is the first thing they say?

I Tried…

I Tried My Best…

Some will even take it as far as saying, “I tried my best and that’s all that matters”

Really? Did you really try your best? So there isn’t anything else that you could have done? (This is what I had to ask myself as well)

Here is what I’d like you to commit yourself to right now:

Get the word “try” out of your vocabulary. Start telling yourself that you WILL do what you say you’ll do. When I was in the military, I didn’t really have choices. If I had a mission to accomplish, I had to do what I had to do. There was no way I was going to stand in front of my commander and tell him…”Well, sir the mission was a failure…We tried and just couldn’t succeed…We did our best though” That was just not going to happen.

Trying is just not good enough.

I can’t imagine providing for my family, then something catastrophic happens, and I say, “Honey..Kids…I tried my best”

I think you see where I’m going with this.

You have to take TRY out of your vocabulary because you are basically admitting defeat! Maybe not right at that second, but possibly in the near future.

I’ll give it a try (Translates to, If somehow this doesn’t work…I’m done!)

Get out of your way when it comes to success and make it happen!

Two quick ways to be accountable?

Give yourself strong reasons WHY you’re doing what you’re doing.
If you don’t have a reason to do it, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Every time you feel like you’re going to give up, review your reasons why. Go over it in your head and let it sink in!
Reach out to your accountability partners.
My mentor is someone that always keeps me accountable. My kids keep me accountable too. lol (Daddy you said this…Daddy you said that…) I’ve said it many times and this won’t be the last, but connect with like minded people, build a relationship, and help each other stay accountable to whatever goals you set. Shae Bynes wrote a great post on the competitive disadvantage of not having Accountability Partners.

Like the commercial says, Just DO IT!

To Our Success,

J. Lamar Ferren

Ps. What are some ways that you keep yourself accountable? If you’re not keeping yourself accountable, what do you think is holding you back?

Photo: Zach Klein

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