Disclaimer: this post is not for light entertainment, it involves challenging brain work for those interested in the valuable outcomes.
Most people people who have opened themselves up to personal development, entrepreneurship and property investing have likely been exposed to some form of gratitude journaling practice. It was something I was introduced to four years ago when I first set out on a business start up journey. The typical gratitude practice I have been aware of involved simply writing out things we are grateful for each day.
However, very recently I was introduced to a new and counter intuitive approach which I thought would be valuable to share. First though it’s worth pointing out why someone might be interested in investing a little time on this stuff.
Arianna Huffington (of Huffington Post fame) says that,
“Gratitude works its magic by serving as an antidote to negative emotions. It’s like white blood cells for the soul, protecting us from cynicism, entitlement, anger, and resignation.”
Here are some other top benefits I found via a quick google search for why to do gratitude journaling:
- Lower stress levels.
- Feel calm at night.
- It builds up your strength, for when things don’t go so well.
- You can see what’s great, not just what’s gone wrong.
- By noting what you are grateful for, you will gain clarity on what you want to have more of in your life, and what you can cut from you life.
- It helps you let go of old limiting beliefs.
When you’re building your business up, whether in property, online, or something entirely different, we all go through the rollercoaster of highs and lows. And when it’s your own business, those highs and lows feel much bigger/lower than when they happen as an employee. It’s a truth of the journey we all go through.
Gratitude is necessary for property investors and entrepreneurs (and everyone for that matter). The human brain unfortunately bleeds emotional states across boundaries so when we experience a dip in the metaphorical rollercoaster, it can easily spread over into other areas of business and life. In other words one little project not working out in your business can have a knock on effect to productivity in other areas of the business, but as ambitious people with big goals we don’t have time for that. The subsequent pessimism must be contextually limited, and GRATITUDE IS THE ANTIDOTE.
One of my mentors, Peter Shallard, said that, “A strong gratitude muscle is like a vaccination, it helps build an immune system from the destructive emotional side effects of informed pessimism.”
Gratitude is so important because it helps you push through to success despite the ‘Valley of despair’ experience.
These kind of benefits don’t come without some work though, it takes a real conscious effort to make a daily habit out of it. Even then, with a habit of noting 3 things in the morning and 3 in the evening that you are grateful for, you have to be careful not to be on autopilot.
That’s why when I was introduced to this reverse gratitude exercise by Peter it really struck a chord.
If you’re interested, here’s the counter intuitive gratitude exercise to help stack the odds in favour of a meaningful and emotionally rewarding 2018:
- List all the things you were grateful for last year
- List all the things you wish hadn’t happened last year
- Organise the second list from worst to least
- Perform a classic “gratitude journal” exercise from those top three worst events of the year. So, for each of the worst events, go through them and write down answers to these key questions:
- What did I learn from this?
- What secondary or tertiary consequences were positive?
- What unintended side effects can I be grateful for?
- What holistic outcomes (for others) were positive?
This is proper brain work but it’s impactful when you do it. When I did this one of the events I was reflecting on related to how I underestimated the cost impact of VAT in our SA business as our booking turnover grew quickly last year. Going through this exercise, painful as the reality is, I was able to draw out so many learns and unintended positive side effects that will only help us improve the business going forwards.
For all you SA operators out there in the various stages of growing your portfolio, I encourage you to properly plan for breaching the VAT threshold of £85K. Will Flat Rate or Standard Rate scheme be most applicable for you? (Flat Rate Scheme of 10.5% for £150K or less and if more than £230K t/o must leave flat rate for standard rate). Bear in mind you can’t claim input VAT on services like cleaning and linen on the flat rate scheme. Factor in how you will absorb VAT in your pricing with B2C guests and charge for it with your B2B guests via direct invoicing.
Here is the key take away from this reverse gratitude exercise, and the real definition of gratitude.
The gratitude that really affects your brain is gratitude that performs a REFRAME that transforms your perceptions of events.
Gratitude is useful as a mindset when it’s hard work to attain (i.e. going through a tough exercise like the one above). It’s not useful when it’s easily arrived at.
When I was sitting down and writing out 3 things each morning that I was grateful for I was simply confirming things my brain already knows. BUT, when we do the more soul searching work of seeking out the things we resented or really struggled with, and do the work to sit down and write about why we are actually grateful for those things and identify the ‘silver lining’, it performs a transformation in the brain. It’s really difficult work but the outcome is super valuable.
I appreciate this post has some heavy going content and won’t be for everyone, but if you’re interested, I challenge you to work through it to uncover your own reframes and transformations.