Welcome back to the first The Property Voice podcast of the decade! The end of the year afforded an opportunity to do some reflecting and projecting I’m sure. However, how balanced are your goals and how comfortable are you with your personal development? Today, we will discuss a couple of concepts and tools to assist in answering those questions. Listen to find out more, including how to get hold of the ‘reinvented wheel of life’.
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Transcription of the show
Welcome back to the first The Property Voice podcast of the decade! The end of the year afforded an opportunity to do some reflecting and projecting I’m sure. However, how balanced are your goals and how comfortable are you with your personal development? Today, we will discuss a couple of concepts and tools to assist in answering those questions. Listen to find out more, including how to get hold of the ‘reinvented wheel of life’.
Property Chatter
Transcription of the Show
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Property Property Voice Podcast. My name is Richard Brown, and as always, it's a pleasure to have you join me again on the show today. Well, happy new year folks. You probably heard that quite a lot in the last few weeks. It's obviously about three weeks into the new year now. Not sure when you can stop, or when it's right to stop wishing people happy new year. In my book it's usually the month of January and all is good.
So, happy new year. It's because this is the first time I've spoken to you, obviously, in this new year. So, I hope you're feeling refreshed and recharged after a very nice end of year festive break, I certainly am, really needed a bit of time off and just to chill and do some reflection, and it was great. And in fact, it was part of that process which has really stimulated the idea for today's podcast episode, something of an introduction really to the get me back into things, shake off the cobwebs after a spell out.
So it's audio only, no video. I'm feeling a little bit... I've just got my gym clothes on, I'm unshaven, I've... Yeah, I'm just not in the mood for video. So I just thought I'd share an audio version with you today. So the two things I really wanted to talk about today, they're related. One is about balance, so having a balanced life if you like, very simplistically, or embracing should I say. And the other one is all about growth, personal growth. So, very much related.
If you're anything like me, you might have used the end of year as an opportunity, perhaps, to do some review, perhaps, of the last year, and some planning, looking ahead to this year as well, and maybe looking at your goals, and looking at what you intend to achieve over the next 12 months. That's certainly part of what I did.
And this year I did something slightly different because I got hold of a journal from Darren Hardy. You might know Darren Hardy who wrote The Compound Effect. Well, he's also produced a journal, which he calls Living Your Best Year Ever. And from what I can gather, it's not available all of the time. I think it's on a limited release basis, and it's updated from time to time. But it came highly recommended to me by a mastermind group that I'm a member of.
And so I thought, well, what's all this about? Let's have a look at it. And I ordered myself a copy. A bit of a tip, if you order three copies at once, you get a discount, which might cover any shipping costs. So if you're thinking about getting a copy for yourself or, yeah, maybe you could come together with other people and get one. So it's a little bit of a sidebar.
I'm not on any affiliate scheme with Darren Hardy, trust me, but it was really thought provoking. That's what I really wanted to say. I do an end of year review, I do planning, etc., but this is something else, another level really. It takes you into quite a lot of detail, quite a lot of depth, and it was very healthy to do that.
I would actually estimate that I spent probably over three days in total on this process, not in one go, but dotted out over a course of a couple of weeks actually, a couple of hours at a time just going through the exercises. And some of it was reflective, and some of it's forward looking to make sure I have my strategy and my goals in line for this year ahead.
So I went through that process. So, anyway, it's something I might want to recommend to you. But one of the exercises, just to pause on it, and this is all about the balance side of it, was he asked us to undertake an exercise where we look at the wheel of life. You might've heard of the wheel of life. It's a tool that you can use, usually to self score yourself in a number of areas of our life.
Typically, we have things like friends and family, love and romance, finance, business, those sorts of categories if you like. And if you, sorry, in Darren's version, I think there were potentially eight different categories. And let's just say it was slightly leaning towards his way of thinking, his world if you like, including, do you subscribe to Darren daily? And you get a point on the scoring system if you listen or watch Darren daily.
Well, I just thought I was a little bit skewed in a way, so, and equally I was a little bit dissatisfied with that wheel. There are other elements in the journal which are excellent but that particular... Well, I wanted to go and reinvent the wheel, didn't I? So I went looking online and I did a lot of research on the wheel of life. It's a pretty common coaching tool, self evaluation tool that you can just go look on Google, you can find lots of versions of yourself. And you can just build your own model effectively.
But I wanted to build a model there, and the models I was looking at I was somewhat dissatisfied with. And the reason I was dissatisfied, I felt there was a couple of missing elements. In order to do this justice... Sorry. Most people who use this tool, they try and simplify it. So eight areas keeps it relatively simple. Score yourself in eight areas, focus on eight areas going forward, and you can have a balanced life.
Well, if I just tell you that my reinvented wheel has 12, I think it's 12, yeah, 12 areas, it does indeed. Then you might think, oh, blind me, that's like 50% more. That's an awful lot of work. But actually if I tell you that two of those areas, one of which is a spiritual and moral compass, and this is all about a direction. And I firmly believe if you don't know your purpose, if you don't know your direction in life, then how can you lead a balanced life?
How do you know what you want? How do you know what is the right direction, the path that you should be heading on? So, yeah, I have fairly strong views about that. And so there was a section on spiritual and moral compass that I really wanted to bring into it. And the other one I felt was missing, and you could argue these don't really form parts of this wheel, the other one was about habits if you like.
And I'm just looking for the part on my particular wheel to what I actually called it, habits and routine, that's what I called it, habits and routines. So two of the 12 are those, one is spiritual and moral compass, the other one is habits and routine. And so, and then that leaves 10, so I just expanded Darren's general wheel by two new categories, and I've added in spiritual moral compass, and habits, and routine. And I'll just check off so that you're aware, and you think, oh yes, that makes sense.
So we've got health and wellbeing, who could argue that shouldn't be on your wheel of life? Money and finance, friends and family, love and adventure. Sorry, not love and adventure. Probably shouldn't have combined those two together. Love and romance is what I meant to say. And the other one, lifestyle, fun, and adventure. But it's up to you if you want to combine those. We're in a modern world. Home and environment, creativity and cultural, business and career, community and contribution. I think that's all of them.
I might've got that slightly muddled up because I've just tried to put them in a slight different sequence to what's in front of me. Anyway, needless to say, when you undertake this exercise, you do quickly realize if there's a bit of an imbalance in any particular area. And it's very easy, I think, when we're having this type of conversation, because, let's call it a conversation even though I'm talking to you, that we look at the big two as I call it, money and finance, and business and career.
That's when we start talking about goals. We don't usually start talking about goals with friends and family, and with our partners, do we? But actually, it's all part of having a well rounded life. So I think it's great to look at these different areas. And so, long story short, I constructed a reinvented wheel of life with these particular areas in so you can just... They break down into four key areas. We've got guidance and growth, we've got relationships, we've got health and wealth, and we've got lifestyle.
So, I just felt they broke down neatly into those particular areas, and the 12 breakdown into the four categories if you like. So, if you want to get a picture of this, there's going to be a picture in the show notes. And equally, if you'd like to get hold of a copy of the wheel of life and the scorecard that goes along with that, that I created, I'm going to share that with you as a resource, just drop me a line, and I'll freely share that with you.
It comes with some instructions, how to complete it. And it takes about 15 minutes just to complete that. So it's not as daunting as perhaps it might sound. Needless to say, once you start looking to your life imbalance, you start to see, perhaps are there certain areas where you could do with some improvement and some gaps that perhaps need a little bit of working on?
So, that was the first part if you like, and making sure we have balance in our life, because there has to be more to it than just work, and money, and all that sort of stuff. There's more to life than that. So, and as human beings we've got bigger needs and we want more than perhaps some of the other more instinct driven animals out there. So we strive to improve and grow, and we want meaningful connections, we want a purpose, and we want to have some fun along the way as well.
So, that's the wheel of life. And I just wanted to share that part first. So if you want a copy, drop me a line. I'll be more than happy to share that with you. But equally, just if you don't want to complete the wheel, just give some thought, is your life in balance? Because I don't think it can be sustainable if it's not quite frankly. So, there we are.
The next part of what I wanted to share was all about personal growth. And in looking at personal growth I was doing some research. And you funny enough actually, if you look at Darren Hardy, again, he quoted that just 3% of people have some form of formalized approach to their personal development. Just 3%, it's not a lot is it?
So, I'm sure most of you listening to this podcast probably are interested in personal development to some degree. That's probably why you're even listening. So, you may be in the minority, but trust me, you're not in the majority of people out there in the world, because it seems not everybody does have this approach. Well done if you are, and if you're not, well, maybe there's something in here for you as well, but.
So we're going to start by looking at personal growth and development. I've been looking at this quite extensively. Well, I consider myself a lifelong learner anyway, but I've been looking at this topic quite extensively recently. And there's a book called Mindset by Carol Dweck, and she talks about having a growth mindset versus having a fixed mindset. It's a really interesting read by the way. So, it's maybe a book you want to get hold of in any case. 
And whilst we're on the subject of book references, we're going to mention this later on, but I've just finished a book called The Spartan Way. The author, I think, is John De Sena. I might have got that wrong, but I'll put the links to the books in the show notes for you. He's talking about living a Spartan life, or living life as a Spartan would.
And if I just say that he's got eight principles, he's got more principals, but he summarizes this as things like pushing your body and mind to the limits, mastering your emotions, giving generously, being a leader, standing up for your beliefs, knowing your strengths and your flaws, proving yourself for your actions, not your words, so integrity in other words, and living every day like it's your last.
So, I've been stimulated, I guess you could say, with some of the reading. There's some other things I won't mention right, but I've been going for as well, which have put me into that place. But what I really wanted to show was the idea of our comfort zone. You probably heard of the idea of our comfort zone. We're in a comfort zone. Now, if we're in a comfort zone, we feel safe, and we feel in control, we might also feel bored and unchallenged. It's that's safe place. It's that routine, nothing's really stretching us in life.
We perhaps go out to work, and we're doing a job, we're okay with that, we're not really pushing that hard. Perhaps we come back, and we just got our home life, and it's just settled down to the normal routine. But are we really pushing ourselves? And the point being by stretching outside of our comfort zone, then we are growing. And this links also to the growth mindset that I talked about earlier, that Carol Dweck talks about.
So putting these ideas together, if we're in our comfort zone, by definition we're not growing. And so just, there's a couple of models out there. There's the comfort zone model. It's hard for me to describe. I'll share a picture in the show notes. But the comfort zone model goes from left to right from comfort zone into the fear zone, I'll come back to that, into then the learning zone, and then finally into the growth zone.
But this is really lifted. This comfort zone model is lifted by a person called Selinger who looked at growth, and studied this concept least a decade or two ago, and he had a more simplistic model. He had the comfort zone, the learning zone, and then the panic zone. So I'm going to try and tie those two concepts together a little bit.
So if we're in the comfort zone, as I mentioned, we're fairly static, we're fairly stable, we feel safe, we feel in control, but perhaps we feel a little bit bored and a little bit unchallenged, and maybe we're not pushing ourselves to our capabilities, the length of our capabilities. Now, we might be a little bit afraid, and that's the fear zone from the comfort zone model. We might be a little bit afraid, we might lack self-confidence, we might find some excuses, and we might be affected by other people's opinions.
If we say we want to do something, we want to learn something new, we want to develop a new business model, for example, fear could strike us, and it could keep us back. It could hold us back. So we need to push through fear, and if we push through fear, hopefully, we'll get to what's called the learning zone. Now, both models have the learning zone, and that's where we're willing to take some risks, and maybe be challenged.
We might feel exhilarated, we might feel excited, some of the emotions that we might feel there. We're willing to deal with problems and challenges too. We might acquire new skills and, of course, we're extending our comfort zone by going into this learning zone. And that's really an optimal place to be. I dare say many of us listening right now are perhaps in that place.
If I go into the next box on the left, which you can't see, but the comfort zone model. If we get into what's called the growth zone, that's what Maslow might call self-actualization, if you're familiar with the Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We got this pyramid and at the top is self-actualization, where really everything is just going... We're living our dreams, we've found our purpose, we can then set new goals, and we can conquer those objectives.
So we're really cooking at our best. We're not learning, we're really applying it and we're stretching onto yet another level. So that's the growth zone. But I guess then looking back to Selinger's model, he's got another zone which is called the panic zone. So we had the fear zone earlier, which can hold us back. And then we've got the panic zone, which is where perhaps we've overextended ourselves.
So this is really where we might feel exhausted, or even tense, anxious, and again, afraid, because if we push ourselves too far, perhaps, outside of our comfort zone, we might actually find ourselves in this panic zone. And of course that's not a good place to be.
Richard Brown: So we need to find this balance, don't we? We need to find the balance to get out of our comfort zone, break through the fear zone into the learning zone, and if we're fortunate enough, we might self-actualize and land in the growth zone, and hopefully not get in the panic zone where we've just overextended ourselves, and that can happen. So that's another reason why I actually talk about the wheel of life.
So the purpose of the wheel of life is to make sure that we're not overextending ourselves with learning and development, and maybe it comes at too much of a price, too much of a cost in some other elements of our lives. So I think the two things go hand in hand. Hopefully you can see that even if you couldn't see me trying to describe the pictures, but they're going to be in the show notes.
And if you've been following anything I've been sharing on social media, you've probably seeing them anyway. If you haven't, no problem. It's going to be there for you to refer back to. So, I guess that's the main thing I wanted to talk about, and really to put it in context.
So, if you've really been working on your goals and your plans for the year, one, how balanced are they? So, have you addressed all of those 12 areas I talked about, the four categories, the 12 areas on the personal balance or the wheel of life as I talked about earlier, might be worth a check-in there, don't you think?
And second of all, in terms of your learning and development, have you made sure that it's, again, striking the right balance? That it's stretching you out of your comfort zone, hopefully you're going to push through the fear, but without getting into the panic zone that you've taken on too much.
I think we've all got to have this sense of balance and sense of perspective in our life. And so, it's just finding that right place. So learning and then hopefully landing in the growth zone as we mature and we start to realize our goals, and our dreams, and our purpose in life.
So, they were the main things I really wanted to talk about today. And just to kick us off, particularly as new year's resolutions, plans, etc., might be at the top of our mind, hopefully, that's helpful. As I mentioned, drop me a line if you'd like to get hold of the reinventing wheel of life with it's a scorecard system. You can always reach me podcast at thepropertyvoice.net. I'll be happy to share that information with you.
And in fact, this particular theme is similar to the article I've just currently prepared for my YPN column, the Your Property Network column that I write every month. You are aware of that I write for YPN, I believe. If not, you can always get hold of a copy of this article, drop me a line again, and indeed all of the articles I write for YPN magazine. If just drop me a line podcast at propertyvoice.net.
And if you're interested in subscribing to the YPN articles, I'll make sure that my assistant, Karen, adds you to the list so you can see all the back catalog, and then you'll get a little nudge every now and again when there's a new article that's come out. So, very common theme, it's top of mind. What I didn't mention is I'm right in the middle of a 21 day challenge, that I and indeed a small group of people, it's about a dozen of us, have taken on, where we're just trying to bring in a new habit into our lives each day.
So, stimulated by some of this stuff, as you can probably imagine. I think we're about 10 days into the 21 day challenge, trying to do something every single day, that includes weekends, which is building to, they're not necessarily business goals, they're just building towards personal habits and routines. And of course it's in the wheel of life trying to bed things in.
Personally I'm trying to exercise every single day for 21 days, and that's going really, really well. I'm also trying to read every single day for 21 days. Sometimes I used to take weekends off for example. So, just trying to build a new habit. And the best way to build a new habit is to practice it and have the discipline, and then it becomes second nature.
So different people have got different habits, some people are journaling, some people are trying to get up at certain times and have a morning routine. A lot of people do an exercise and dietary sort of stuff. So, yeah. Anyway, I might share some of that and just some of the findings of that exercise later on, and how that's gone. But anyway, I did digress. I probably ought to draw the episode to a close.
I guess I'll just sign post you to the website, thepropertyvoice.net where you can find a brief summary of the show notes, and anything that I've referred to today, such as the book links and the resources, will be mentioned there too. So, that's over the website. But I guess all that remains to be said right now is thank you very much for joining me once again on the Property Voice Podcast. And until next time it's ciao ciao.
That's all from me this week, remember if you want to talk about anything from today’s show, or just talk property investing more generally, email me at podcast@thepropertyvoice.net, I would be happy to hear from you! The show notes can be found at our website www.thepropertyvoice.net
Thanks very much for listening again this week, so all that left to say is ciao ciao!