Have you ever been walking down the street – focused on getting somewhere in record time – only to stop dead in your tracks when you spot a penny and are tempted to stoop down to pick it up?
That’s not the only way we allow low-value objects, goals, or priorities to distract us from more important things. We interrupt conversations with family members to comment on silly commercials on television. We check our Blackberry in the middle of a workout. And we allow e-mail to interrupt higher priority activities on the job.
I call it shiny penny syndrome.
Early in our real estate investing days, shiny penny syndrome nearly cost me and my husband our investments. We’d been working on buying good quality cash flowing properties in good neighborhoods and were doing just fine, but we suddenly stopped and started moving toward different options. We saw all those shiny pennies and thought we could turn them to gold nuggets.
In “The Problem With Fire,” I described how we started chasing no-money-down deals, flips, and property assignments. It turned out badly. Meanwhile, we lost our focus on what had been working for us.
It’s a good thing to consider your options, but don’t let them distract you from what’s been working for you and helping you achieve your goals.
If you have an investing strategy that is working for you – stick to it. Master it.
Though there are plenty of ways to make money in real estate, the optimal route is to find a strategy you like and get really good at it. Stay focused and become a specialist in your investing niche and you, too, will find your wealth grow very quickly.
[Ed. Note: For more insider strategies for getting started as a real estate investor, sign up for real estate expert Julie Broad's free monthly newsletter. Get your free report for making money with real estate here.
Losing focus in your personal, social, or business goals? Achieve all you want in life with ETR's Total Success Achievement program. Learn more here.]
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