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I really admire disciplined people. Unfortunately, as much as I would like to tell you otherwise, I am not one of those people. It seems weird to admit this since I am all about setting goals and such but it’s true. I even tend to be a bit lazy if I’m not careful. As a result of this awareness about myself, I’ve learned that I need to do some ninja-mind tricks on myself to stay on task at times. Let me give you an example.
But I Really Want It!
An opportunity came up last week to look at a condo that some friends were about to list for sale. I really want to upgrade just a bit from my current housing situation but it’s basically a 2-year plan in my mind before I could make the move. Walking around this condo though I was very briefly considering the move. It was in one of my desired neighborhoods, it had a dedicated laundry room, first floor living, a one car garage and it’s about 15 years newer than my current place. The condo has a pool, fitness room, tennis courts, and a friend already lives in the development.
Here’s what I wasn’t focusing on…it would still need some updates that I would want to really do sooner rather than later, it was more expensive than what I was wanting to pay right now (and most likely would go over asking price because of our local market), and my place is not even remotely ready to throw on the market. My brain knew it wasn’t a smart move but my heart really was pushing hard. Luckily I have a good support system that listened to me list out all the pros and cons and talked me out of any rash decisions.
Ninja Mind Tricks
What’s this have to do with the ninja-mind tricks I was talking about earlier? I realized I need a little push because I basically have it in my head that I have a 2-year self-imposed deadline to get a new place. I haven’t been doing anything to get my place ready for sale though. Who knows when another opportunity might present itself, why not get my place ready for sale sooner rather than later. I’ve decided to pretend that I’m selling my place next year. I’ve got a list of items ready that I know I need to do around my place and I’m going to confer with my realtors and make sure it’s a complete list and get their recommendations on what needs to be done first.
I’m going to write down exactly what I want for my dream place. I want my next move to be my last move because I’m not getting any younger. I’ve lived in enough places now to know what is essential to me and what isn’t. I’m really fascinated with the whole concept of manifestation…maybe that will be my next post.
It seems a little silly maybe to have to trick myself into taking action. I know if I pretend that my dream home is going to come on the market at that perfect price in a year then I’ll do what I need to do so I’m in the best position to be able to snatch it up though.
Do These Tricks Work On Other Things?
I think there are a lot of scenarios you can use this pretend thinking on.
Have you noticed that the house is much more likely to get cleaned if you know you have company coming over?
We had the threat of an ice storm coming in this past Thursday so we were knew we were probably going to be leaving early. Guess what? I probably got 8 hours of work done in the 4 hours we were there.
Think back to when you were in school. If you forgot you had a paper due the next day, didn’t you stay up and get it done?
Bookclub this Friday? Guess what, I’m going to make sure that last 100 pages gets read before then.
Saving up for a dream vacation?
Find some locations you might be interested in visiting. Work up a rough budget on what a trip might cost based on current prices and then add 10%.
Paying off your mortgage or your credit cards?
Set a firm date and start working on it. Find a calculator online to see how many months it will take you to pay it off at your current rate. Try plugging in numbers if you were to pay an extra $50, $100, $200 a month to the payment. Look at your budget and see where you could cut back just a bit in other categories to make those extra payments.
Does Pretending or Ninja-mind Tricks Really Work?
Guess I’ll have to let you know in a year.
Think about it this way, even if it’s a stretch goal and you don’t completely achieve it, you will still be further ahead than you were previously.
What about you? Are you a disciplined person by nature or do you need some help like me sometimes to get shi* done??
