I was watching Joel Osteen this morning and he was talking about controlling your moods.  He was encouraging us to live our lives not based on our emotions, but to live based on what we know.  He went on to say:

“When you begin to have negative or discouraging feelings, shake them off. Even when you do not feel like it, choose to rule over that negative feeling anyway. Tell yourself: I’m going to be steady, immovable, and full of joy regardless of my circumstances. The more you do so, the easier it will become. Today, decide to be a more stable person and begin enjoying life — all of it!”

Those of us in real estate investing know that things don’t always go our way.  We’ll have our offers rejected, troubles with lending, and difficulty finding deals in the first place.  This is a numbers game.  If we keep our heads about us, we know that as long as we keep up with our education, and keep doing the things we need to do, the deals will come. 

I think some of the get rich quick messages out there give us unrealistic expectations.  We come to believe, and expect, things to go perfectly.  Do step 1, 2, and 3 and you’ll be rich!  When things don’t go exactly as planned, we get discouraged and then upset with ourselves for believing it would work in the first place.  Real estate investing DOES WORK.  Slow and steady wins the race.

I receive a lot of emails from people having trouble with real estate transactions and tenants.  I encourage everyone to separate the incident from the method, the circumstance from the overall.  Keep your education up, ask a lot of questions, and this too will pass!

You can watch Joel’s full talk on controlling your moods on his website.