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Focusing Your Energies on What Gives Life Satisfaction and Meaning
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Most people only re-examine the path that their life is taking when they suffer a traumatic experience. Some people reach a point where they realize that their days are numbered. They sense the need to focus their remaining lives on doing something that provides a deeper satisfaction and allows them to spend more time with their family. For others, they realize that they don’t want to continue to work at a mind-numbing job or for an ungrateful boss.
There is more to life than just making money. Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.” We long for something more fulfilling.
I advocate investing your time and psychic energy in fix-up houses. You will find more meaning in life, grow as a person, and make money independently of your regular job.
Taking a new path toward earning money requires us “to give up what is familiar and secure,” as Marsha Sinetar says in her book, Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow. Sinetar feels that working at the “right” job involves “doing our best at what we do best.” Sinetar suggests that we periodically take stock of our true life’s purpose by asking the following questions:
1. What do I want to have accomplished when I look back upon my life in old age?
2. What habits would I need to cultivate and what would I have to delete from my present life to live out my true purpose?
3. What activities would I do if I lived as if my purpose meant something to me?
While you pay a price for following your dream, you also pay a price for staying where you are. You lose the opportunity to develop new life-coping skills that help you deal with unexpected crises or joblessness. You may suffer from depression by staying in a debilitating job. Sinetar, in To Build the Life You Want, Create the Work You Love, says that excelling at a job that you love could be the best mental health insurance for people who feel depressed or anxious about their work. Americans spend $12.4 billion each year to treat clinical depression.
Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, in Zen and the Art of Writing, wrote that, “life is short, misery sure, and mortality certain.” Yet, he advocated that as we move along life’s way, and in our work, our lives should be filled with “zest” and “gusto.” With zest and gusto, traveling to the grave, Bradbury vowed to fight injustice, appreciate beauty and encourage children. Is there enough zest and gusto in your life to fight injustice, appreciate beauty and encourage children?
We must use the time that we must devote to work wisely. Our working hours constitute at least one-third of our lives during the work week. As Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin point out in Your Money or Your Life, money is what we chose to trade our time, or “life-energy,” for. The authors distinguish between “wants” vs. “needs,” and promote not wasting money on unnecessary consumer goods. Instead, they advocate conscientiously saving money until you reach the point where you can free yourself from the working treadmill.
Paul and Sarah Edwards, in Making it On Your Own, describe the transformation that takes place when one takes the leap of faith to start a new business, and master it, with this sports analogy.
One day they’re struggling to get to the top of their game. They clutch in the clinch. They almost make it. They’re inconsistent – brilliant at moments and disappointing at others. And then one day, with dogged determination and after much effort, they do it. They get a perfect ten. They win the title. They break a record. They take the gold medal. And somehow, almost miraculously, at that point they become a champion. They project a new aura of confidence. They begin thinking and walking and talking like a champion.
The independence of working with fix-up houses was this type of “right” job for me, and can be for you too. It can be the road to operate a business that develops one’s independence, creativity and imagination. With real estate, you can invest a small amount and gradually accumulate money as both your rents and equity increase over time.
Start by Meandering in the Direction That You Want To Go
If your circumstances are such that it is impossible for you to start investing in real estate today, you can start by just meandering in that direction. You can program your mind to pay attention to anything related to real estate. Cut articles .out of the paper, buy books at book sales, ask friends and co-workers how they purchased their house, watch for free classes or seminars. You can be constantly learning and preparing for the day for when you will purchase your first fix-up property. As Paul and Sarah Edwards point out, “virtually anything you need to know is available to you through books, tapes, workshops, seminars, public education programs, consultants and training programs.
I meandered for approximately 11 years before purchasing my first investment property. Now I wish I had started sooner, but you can’t begin until you have the desire and the knowledge. Sometimes, desire and knowledge can be acquired as simply as by observing someone else operating a successful business.
There are always reasons not to invest in real estate. Most commonly, many people say that house prices are too high, but as Andrew McLean and John Eldred point out in Investing in Real Estate, there is a worse time to buy, and that is next year, or in 5 years, or anytime in the future. The best approach, says Eldred in The 106 Common Mistakes Homebuyers Make (and How to Avoid Them), is not to wait to buy properties, instead you should buy properties and then wait.
Your Desire Creates the Power to Succeed
Never underestimate the power of sublimation. If you are frustrated enough by your present working situation, you can channel that strong feeling into your new fix-up hobby. Don’t take your anger out on your boss. That would be wasting it. Focus your strong feelings by throwing yourself into repairing your fix up houses. Don’t let frustration at work cause you to be depressed. Instead, use it to fuel the fires. Let it help you start the process of becoming more independent, help you move into a more satisfying life.
You should be grateful if you have a boss who constantly rubbs you the wrong way. Life may be trying to teach you something. If your boss wasn’t such an aggravation, you might never have the motivation to strike out on your own. One of the luckiest days of your life may be when you realize that you could not stand to work for your boss any longer, and you are forced to find a new path where you can find satisfaction that is missing from your day job.
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