Why Now Is The Time To Start – Episode 483

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. We’re going to start this podcast out with a quick story and example that will wrap in a principle that I feel will be really helpful. So last weekend, I was working on a sawmill on my neighbor’s property. He’s got a portable sawmill, which means that we get to find the trees, we cut down the trees ourselves, take a skid steer, put it on the sawmill and start to cut. It is one of the most satisfying projects out there. But one of the things in this project that made me so extremely grateful were the people that planted the trees decades before us. Because had they not done that, we wouldn’t have had trees to cut down and to now

[00:53] turn into lumber that’s going to turn into a barn that’s going to turn into other projects. So Kim, if we think about this as an example, it makes me think when is the best time for us to take action and do things. Can you set the stage for us? Well, yes, it is so apropos to bring in the what I think one would call a proverb, which is the idea of the best time to plant a tree was yesterday or last year. And the second best time is today, now. And us human beings have a weird sense of time. You know, we look back over the last months and say, oh my god, time has gone so fast. And we might look forward the next couple months and say, oh my gosh, time is going so slow, you know, maybe for waiting for something exciting.

[01:46] Other people will say, looking forward, the time has gone so fast and it’s the same time, right? And so it’s really interesting when we apply the concept of time and also look at money. Because money exists in time, just like our lives exist in time. And you cannot take things out of time context, although we try. So to liken it back to your work with the sawmill, you know, those trees were planted just like somebody would buy a life insurance policy with a vision, not even a goal, right? Goals specific and measurable and achievable, real time frame, etc. When you plant trees, when you buy a life insurance policy, when you buy a piece of investment real estate, I find is a similar strategy.

[02:43] When you start a business, right? All of those things require activity and the writing of checks. So if you start a business, you’re going to write checks, write checks, write checks. If you plant a tree, you’re going to write checks, write checks, write checks. You have to buy the trees. You have to get the people to plant them, et cetera, et cetera. If you buy a life insurance policy, you’re going to pay premiums and pay the petitions and overfunding, write checks, write checks. If you get real estate, you have a mortgage and you’re going to write checks, write checks, write checks. And then you start to see the benefits. Might be three or four years out, like on the life insurance policy,

[03:16] it would be 10 or 12 years out, like on real estate. Might be 20 or 30 years out, like on trees. And so that time is going to march on. And the question is, what are you doing with it? And are you spending time being frustrated because you didn’t do something or are you taking action today? Are you taking a baby step today to get you started in the right direction? Is that baby step maybe learning? Is that baby step maybe signing the document? Is that baby step buying a seed or planting the harvest or starting the first check to write the business for the LLC, which is going to create the business, which will create passive income, you know, whatever it is, it’s going slow and starting small with what you can do today.

[04:06] Now, small is different for everybody. Going slow is different for everybody. I watch children and the speed at which they learn is amazing. And then I watch adults and the speed at which they learn is at a different pace. Nevertheless, as long as people are focusing on progress and the whole idea of progress, not perfection, they will get through the time. Like we’re putting the time in on us anyway, right? But being grateful, learning, these are skills that we can add, taking baby steps, buying the seed, planting the seed, writing the checks. These are steps that we can take to get the results, some of them short term, some of them medium term, and some of them definitely longer. So, so well said.

[04:57] I think of this, the other component in my mind is the compounding piece of time. Because once we have done it, you started your first life insurance policy at 24, and you mentioned in a previous episode that it took a couple of years until you really understood it, but because you understood it after a couple of years, you then had policies for your children when they were young and throughout adulthood, and they go throughout this process. And I think for us, we overestimate the things that we can do in a short period of time, and we underestimate some of the things that will happen in a long period of time. And you’ve laid it out quite well that now is the time to start taking action, sometimes that action can be gathering the seeds and the

[05:49] information, and other times it’s, as you mentioned, writing those checks. What is one action that you would like to call for our listeners today that’d be really helpful for them? Well, I have two instead. Of course. Come on, both. Let’s take and yes. Yes. And you have two. Yes, yes, yes. I always believe that learning is a great first step, and I believe that gratitude has to go along with. And so for yourself, figure out how you learn best. Is it reading? Is it watching? Is it listening? Is it getting your hands on things and go find resources that match with that learning. And of course, at Prosperity Thinkers, we have lots of resources for all learning modalities. And then go big, right?

[06:41] Begin in gratitude, because if you begin in fear or you begin in frustration or you begin in failure, like, oh, I didn’t do this. You’re not going to get positive results. And if we are focused on progress and we’re measuring our progress, it’s like measuring backwards, then we’ll get the results. So the gratitude measuring backwards thing that goes together, that’s just one. I know it sounded like two, but that’s just one. And then the other one is get the learning going so that then you can sign the paper, get the physical exam, buy the real estate, plant the seed, whatever that next step is. I love that. That is so good. You had me thinking, go big, begin in gratitude. Absolutely. And then chase, and I don’t know if the word chase, but

[07:32] we’ll say get momentum, go for it, find it. I love it. Yeah. So we’re going to do a couple of things inside of the description of this episode. There’s a special email address. If you’ve listened to this episode, you know about it. It is specific for podcast listeners. Hello at ProsperityThinkers.com. Do that. The next thing that we would love for you to do is for you to have a conversation with someone that you trust, someone that you like, and let them know an action that you want to take. And if that action is this wealth related, setting up a policy, doing something to create your wealth, then again, use that email address. Hello at ProsperityThinkers. Get the involved parties on. Ask the questions, take action today.

[08:18] Well said, Spencer. Thank you much. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit ProsperityThinkers.com.