By: Rupal Patel - Director, Blue Infinity Group
"Yesssssssssss!!!!"
That is how I felt internally during the entire ten days that I was writing my last series (10 Days to Save You Time and Stress). I have always enjoyed, no LOVED, to write, and I don't make enough time to do so.
It wasn't until I started writing for my blog or planning my YouTube videos that I realized how much I missed the creativity and thought that goes into choosing just the right word or capturing my ideas in written form. I am a writer. I always have been.
But I also love math and science and engineering and accounting (don't ask!). I am a contradiction in so many ways. But aren't we all?...
One of the most important lessons I've learned in the past six years of being my own boss is that I need to honor who I am. Most of us don't do that. I still struggle to do it from time to time. We waste years of our lives trying to work on our (perceived) deficiencies or force ourselves to do things we hate or beat ourselves up for struggling with certain things. And we are told over and over again that working harder, not necessarily smarter, is the way to succeed.
Culturally and socially, we are rarely encouraged to focus on what we do well, only told to work on what we don't do well. How demoralizing and depressing is that? And what a horrible way to live.
What if instead, we accepted that we will never be good at ALL THE THINGS and just moved on? What if instead, we valued ourselves for what we ARE good at and worked on amplifying and leveraging our strengths?
It sounds crazy to have to write these words, but what if we just accepted and honored who we are and let go of everything else? Wouldn't we be happier -- and more successful -- if we made the most of what we have to offer instead of trying to make up for what we don't?
I'm in a slightly more philosophical mood this afternoon because in writing my 10 Days series, it's reminded me of why it's so important -- and why it's also so hard -- to let go of doing everything ourselves. We are encouraged to see suffering and struggle in business and life as the way to earn success, but why is suffering and struggle a more valid experience than happiness and ease?
Why not be happy AND successful? Why not be successful BECAUSE we are happy?
I know it's not always clear-cut, and we all have responsibilities and rules and pressures and financial realities to contend with. All I'm suggesting is that if we can do things a little bit easier, if we can spend more time leveraging our strengths, if we can try to design our lives to be a little truer to who we are, don't we owe it to ourselves to do so?
It can be baby steps (for me, that means writing more and not forcing myself to run... I hate running!). In your property business, you can choose to outsource some of the tedious admin that sucks the lifeblood from you. You can hire gatekeepers like call answering services to take calls from your tenants so you’re not welded to your phone. You can batch tasks like responding to email or paying invoices so you confine the pain and don’t have to stress about when things will get done. You can put key safes in all of your properties so you’re not constantly running from house to house to let tradespeople in.
There are so many big and small things that you can do that will have a measurable (and positive) impact on your sanity and keep you from getting sucked into the things that are simply not your “happy place.” You don't have to quit your job or move to an ashram or become an ascetic or start to meditate 12 hours a day.
You just have to make decisions based on what is right for you. If you don’t want to be managing lots of tenants, don’t start a rent-to-rent business. If you hate the stress of turnover and uncertainty of voids, don’t invest in HMOs or serviced accommodation just because they are a “hot” way to invest. If being in groups of people is not your thing, don’t go to networking meetings and connect with other investors through online fora and social media groups instead.
You have options and YOU get to decide. No one will give you an easy way out, so do yourself a favour and just take one. Because what is easy for you is NOT easy for others. Feeling like a failure because you’re not spectacularly amazing at everything is like a bird feeling like a failure because it can’t live underwater. It’s just silly. (And so many fish are probably looking at that bird wishing they could fly!)
Recognize and honor who you are and what you DO have to contribute. And then live in the world in a way that makes sense for you in every way possible. Delegate one thing that you hate doing at home (for me it is cooking) and in your business (for me it is social media). Stop thinking about topics that make you angry (for me this means ignoring the news). Find one way to exercise that brings you joy (for me it is doing chin-ups and pilates) instead of stuffing yourself into wedgie-inducing yoga pants just because someone else loves it.
Everything won't suddenly be perfect and you won't suddenly be pulled to new heights of success and fulfilment and self-actualization. But we can all take baby steps that compound over time and distance, and the more we do, and the more consistently we do it, the bigger the impact will be.
So what will you do more or less of to honor who you are?
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The Property Voice - Insight from Richard Brown
First things, first - thank you to Rupal for sharing a modified version of one of her email newsletters with us here at The Property Voice...why not reach out to Rupal (weblink at the start of the article) and ask to be put on her email list as the updates are really I good, I can vouch for that!
Second, if you have not spotted it already, Rupal was a guest on The Property Voice Podcast Women in Property series, which you can find HERE.
I saw Rupal's email update, along similar lines to the article above, and immediately resonated with it and thought you would too. Rupal kindly expanded on the theme just for us, which was very kind of her. If you are wondering why the word 'honor' is spelt this way, then its because Rupal is a native New Yorker, so we get the American spelling, without me trying to edit it to British English 😉
Honor who you are, just be yourself, find and follow your flow are similar points of view and ones that I fully subscribe to as well. The Apprentices on the latest TPV Apprenticeship Programme have been discovering this by examining their inherent talents, human needs, archetypes, values and passions. For me, we cannot set out our property business (and life) strategy without knowing these things, as Rupal says. So, that's where we start and then we can ensure that all of what follows is fully aligned to our true selves.
There is so much power in firstly knowing and then honoring who we are...focus on what we are good at and give the rest away! It's such a great feeling when we follow our best qualities and so swim downstream with the current behind us to aid us, rather than attempt to swim upstream against the flow instead.
In practice, this means understanding ourselves, deciding what we are good at and then giving the rest away...be that by delegating, outsourcing or partnering with someone that is good in the areas where are not so good. Or, it could be to simply ditch the bad stuff altogether! I am not suggesting that we ditch the tax return, just because we are not good at completing it...just that we should not struggle on ourselves and should instead feel free to ask someone else to do this for us instead.
When we do honor ourselves we will find our property journey and life in general so much easier and rewarding too, so give it a bash! If you want to better understand how to do that, I am happy to help and I also know that Rupal is starting an exciting programme specifically for women in property and business too, so why not ask about that? You can also look up Entreprenora from Rupal right to find out more about honoring yourself as you do!