Real Estate and Meditation: the Gift of Choice

If you want to understand your past actions, look at your present condition. If you want to know your future, look at your present actions.

- teaching on karma cause and effect (Guru Rinpoche)

?

With the current turbulent situation, it is easy to throw up one’s hands giving in to the loud voices making various proclamations and pushing boisterous opinions about how we got here and where we’re headed. However, this robs us of an incredibly precious opportunity to gain invaluable insight and is the focus of this week’s article for an often-misunderstood concept: karma. Rather than its normal presentation of being an uncontrollable source to which we are enslaved, similar to “fate” or “my lot in life,” karma is an immense source of personal power. However, while it can be quite empowering, it can similarly be terrifying as we deepen our understanding of it for real estate or meditation.

?

In meditation, the teachings on karma cause and effect are innumerable and its subject is unfathomably profound. Its most subtle workings aren’t perceptible to us without a lifetime of vast introspection and a few other auspicious factors thrown in the mix. Early on, the meditator is introduced to the gross workings of karma through a series of contemplative themes. By continually reviewing and examining these themes, the meditator gains an understanding that on the outermost level, even the smallest actions based on positive moral and ethical principles bring some temporary happiness while their opposite results in suffering. As this understanding expands, the challenge in our life is revealed to be that while we desire happiness, we plant seeds and till conduct that is in opposition to this goal. Through extensive examination, the meditator eventually resolves that all experiences of happiness or suffering are the direct result of one’s actions: no excuses, no blaming or finger-pointing – simultaneously empowering and terrifying!??

?

For real estate investing, the teachings of cause and effect are woven into every podcast, book, or speaker that has ever expounded on the matter. Success in real estate investing can seem like magic or "the Midas touch," but in reality, it is simply a process of engaging in a series of small positive growth-oriented actions compounded over time. Adopt a mindset that treats real estate as a sideline hobby: growth and cash flow are unlikely to follow. Develop a mindset that engages with real estate investing as a business and financial success will likely ensue. Hobbies often don’t have an objective or vision – businesses do. Ask questions! What market and asset class are appropriate to support manifesting that vision? What education is needed to fill knowledge gaps? Who can mentor throughout the process? Initially, identifying the key components and individuals of the setup for a real estate investing business including lenders, agents, property managers, and contractors for maintenance provides a framework. Create definitive, measurable, actionable objectives with a realistic timeline in support of a clearly articulated vision. How many properties, lenders, agents, letters of intent, etc. will be reviewed, engaged, or submitted each day/week? How will the property performance be measured and improved each month/year? What is the smallest step that can be implemented each day to continue building the momentum of accomplishment? Viewed from this perspective, the success or failure of a property and real estate investing endeavor results from whether we are approaching it as a business or hobby.?It is directly dependent on our actions and little else – empowering, but also terrifying!?

In the end, developing an understanding of karma cause and effect illuminates to us the powerful gift of?choice. Each day, each moment, we?choose?what mindset to nourish, words to speak, and actions to perform. The results we experience are a direct reflection of those actions and how they were presented to the world. As difficult as it is to embrace, success or failure in real estate investing rests squarely within our reach through the choices and decisions we make. In meditation and life, our happiness or suffering depends on knowing which actions to adopt and which to discard. Ultimately, we have the empowering and terrifying gift of choice.??What will you choose??

#realestate #commercialrealestate #meditation #realestateinvesting #investment #military