Building Wealth isn't Hard. And That's Why It's So Challenging.
Perhaps the most quoted line from the "Whole 30" diet movement, first stated in the book, The Whole 30:The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom, was in response to people complaining that the diet is hard. The quote goes like this:
“It is not hard. Don’t you dare tell us this is hard. Quitting heroin is hard. Beating cancer is hard. Drinking your coffee black. Is. Not. Hard.”
While this quote was referring to a diet, it's a good reminder that there are truly hard things in life but most of what we need to face in order to build serious weath is not hard.
It may not be as simple as drinking one's coffee black, but let's be honest... it's really not that difficult to sit down on a comfortable couch with a warm latte and your fluffiest blanket and read an investing book for thirty minutes every day. It’s not hard to drive to a local brewery once a month and meet with a few dozen other real estate investors to talk about real estate over an ice-cold IPA. It's really not hard to sit in your air-conditioned office with your $2,000 laptop and $500 ergonomically-designed chair while you plug in some simple numbers into a rental property calculator to decide how much you can pay for a property.
It's really not hard. Nearly every aspect of what it takes to build wealth is, really, incredibly easy.
But that's what makes it so difficult.
Wait, huh? Can something that is easy be difficult
The truth is… anything easy to do is also easy not to do.
It's easy to go on a date with our spouse, but according to a survey by the National Marriage Project at UVA and the Wheatley Institute, 52% of married couples report “never or rarely going out on dates.",
It's easy to lift a metal bar with some metal plates on each end or to put one foot in front of the other for a few minutes each day, yet as the CDC reports, More than 60 percent of U.S. adults do not engage in the recommended amount of activity (and the recommended amount is far below what you actually should be doing.)
It's easy to close one's eyes at night and lay in a comfortable bed for 7 hours, yet according to a recent poll from Gallup, 40% of people polled get less than seven hours of sleep each night.
The same applies to real estate investing. There are only a small handful of tasks that lead one to build wealth through real estate, including:
reading books
applying for loans
saving money
analyzing properties
attending networking events
looking at properties
calling potential sellers
So why don't we do them?
And I'm not just picking on you.
There are a hundred little things I should do, that are incredibly easy, and I just don't do them. I can't always explain why I don't, other than simply to say, "what's easy to do is easy not to do."
This is why goals matter: to remind us daily what we're working toward.
This is why habits matter, because it's the easy habits that lead to the goal.
This is why tracking habits matter, because when we're aware of whether we're doing the task or not, we're more likely to do it.
This is why accountability matters, because when you know someone else will know you didn't do something, you're more likely to do it.
Success isn't hard.
Wealth isn't hard.
But it sure can be difficult.
So what are you going to do about it?