Nurturing Your Greatest Asset

When you think of property investing, a lot of words come to mind: assets, liabilities, risk cash flow, ROI – and the list goes on.

As property investors, we’re all trying to put more items in the asset column and get a good return on those items. But how many times have you taken the time to nurture your most important and valuable asset?

Your mind is your greatest asset.

If you want a decent return on that asset, you’d better start investing in it, but how much maintenance should you allocate for your mind? Does it need a renovation or a complete makeover? Does it need a subdivision to cope with multiple lifestyle facets? Or do you need to just demolish and start again?

Reasons You Need to Give Your Brain a Break

Your mind makes billions of decisions every second. That’s a big workload, so it definitely warrants a bit of time out on a regular basis.

One thing I noticed after arriving back in Australia last month after a two-year family adventure in France was the pace we live life in this country. It’s common to see some people doing 80 to 100-hour work weeks, while others skip their lunch breaks, and then there’s those who spend hours commuting to and from work.

On top of that, there’s the social commitments, finding quality time with the kids and partner – and then somehow fitting in a bit of rest and recuperation to do it all again. It’s no wonder people get sick when they go on holidays, the mind and body can only take so much!

Why It’s So Hard for Most of Us to Simply Do Nothing

When did you last take any time to just stop? I’m talking about no emailing, texting, Facebook, eating, watching TV, reading – just simply doing nothing. For most of us, it probably hasn’t happened in a long time.

Your mind is your most valuable and precious resource through which you experience every single moment of your life, yet most of us simply don’t take any time out of our busy schedules to look after it.

In fact, I’m guessing we spend more time looking after our cars, the clothes we wear and our social media status than maintaining and nurturing our greatest asset – our brains.

It doesn’t take much – I’m talking about 10 minutes a day to remove yourself from the breakneck speed of life your exposed to on a daily basis. That 10 minutes might be a walk in the park, a meditation session or just putting your feet up for a few moments.

It doesn’t sound difficult, right? So why do so few of us invest in maintaining our greatest asset? Well, there are a few reasons, including:

• Unfamiliarity with the process of how to stop and take a break.
• Feelings of guilt for even contemplating such a luxury.
• Fear out of what might happen if, heaven forbid, we did stop and take care of ourselves!

Whatever our intentions and ambitions are in life, it all counts for nothing if we become unhealthy during the process. So how do you implement a plan to start maintaining your mind when you probably already feel completely overwhelmed with the current pace of life?

Here’s Help: The VAULT Method

If you have trouble slowing down, check out my VAULT method:

• Value: Value yourself, because building a better you starts with a bit of self-love. Start by understanding your true worth to those around you.
  
  
• Allocate: Time is valuable, too, but we all have 24 hours in our day, so don’t hide behind the excuse that there is not enough time to take a break. There is. Get over it. Start putting yourself first by allocating 10 minutes a day just for you. If guilt is holding you back, remember that by topping yourself up, your value will overflow to others.  
  
  
• Use: Tools are available for you to use. There’s nothing new with this concept, so leverage off others who have paved the way. My favourite app at the moment is Headspace. Give their 30-day trial a go, and then structure your quiet time with this brilliant meditation application for your smartphone.
  
  
• Lasting: Momentum helps build good habits. Anything worth doing is worth doing consistently, so set up a plan to build momentum by regularly allocating a realistic amount of time on a daily basis.
  
  
• Time: Give yourself the gift of time to reward yourself. Part of success is celebrating your milestones on the way. If you don’t reward your little wins, you’re simply telling your mind you don’t deserve the success you are striving for.

Although you may not be able to change every single thing that happens in your lifetime, you can change how you experience it. Becoming a successful property investor goes hand in hand with personal development, and that includes nurturing a healthy mind.

Put aside just 10 minutes a day to stop and be present in the moment, so you can experience a greater sense of focus and calm in your life.

Being more focused and centered in life creates a better environment to welcome opportunities. That includes being able to find, manage and profit from great property deals!

Take 10 minutes today to rejuvenate your greatest asset.

By Matt Jones

Since his first subdivision project while earning almost minimum wage delivering mail as a Postie, Matt has now transacted over $5 million dollars in real estate. He uses a bullet-proof system to uncover subdivision and renovation deals in almost any market and has perfected the art of joint venturing on his development projects as well.Matt also started what has become the largest real estate networking group in Australia, providing education and a safe networking environment for thousands of property investors every year.Matt now lives in France with his family, where he oversees joint venture property deals in Australia and teaches others how to apply his wealth-building techniques. You can learn more about his techniques, resources, checklists, and formulas at www.PropertyResourceShop.com.