Episode Details

The beginning of the year is a good time to reflect on the last year and how things went, as well as consider what you want to do in the new year.

Today I'm going to share with some of the things I wish I'd known earlier in life.

I'll also chat with Ken Raiss about getting your kids into the property market. If you don't have kids, don't worry – there's good information in there for you too.

And I'll answer a listener's question about the importance of past performance and how it relates to future performance of a property or location.

9 things I wish I knew back then

1. Become the pilot of your life

Everything changed for me when I learned that my thoughts lead to my feelings, my feelings lead to my actions and my actions lead to my results. This meant my inner world (my thoughts and feelings) controlled my outer world (my actions and results).

The turning point was when I realised that I was responsible for all the things (both good and bad) that happened to me. I then became the pilot of my life and not a passenger.

And even if it's not true, I know I act differently, and my results are better because I believe I'm responsible for everything that happens to me.

2. Keep your eye on the prize!

When I was young no one taught me about the Reticular Activating System, that part of your brain that only lets you see in your surroundings what you focus your thoughts on. It pretty much always helps you to find what you are looking for.

Setting goals and regularly reviewing them is one way to keep your focus on what's important and to help you take action that will move you closer to toward where you want to go.

3. Your attitude changes your reality.

It's the old "is the glass half full or half empty" story.

When things happen in life that we don't like, we can either choose to see them as a problem or as a solution waiting to be discovered.

It took me quite a while to discover that if you change your attitude, you actually change your reality. When you have a positive attitude instead of a negative, one you start to see things and viewpoints that were invisible to you before.

4. You must give to receive.

As children, we are told that the joy is in giving rather than receiving. But as we become adults, for many life becomes about what we can get out of someone or something.

However, if you want to increase the value you receive (be it money, love, kindness, opportunities) you have to increase the value you give. Because over time what you get is in proportion to what you give. While it would be nice to get something for nothing, that seldom happens.

5. Be Pro-active rather than reactive

There seem to be 3 types of people:

• Those who make things happen
• Those who watch what happens, and…
• Those that sit and wonder "what just happened?"

Be in the first group and always be on the lookout for opportunities.

6. Make your time count!

How often have you heard someone say: "time flies"? Indeed, it does, so use it wisely!

Just as you are careful about how and where you invest your money, you should also be careful as to how you invest your time.

The Pareto Principle says that 80 percent of the value we receive comes from just 20 percent of what we do with our time. So what things do you spend your time doing that take a lot of energy yet deliver few results?

7. Mistakes mean growth!

Sometimes negative experiences, mistakes, and failures can be even better than a success because they teach you something new which another win could never teach you.

However, we are often so driven to get things