Investment is a continuous journey.Recently when discussing the Home topic we emphasised that people primarily see the nature of Wealth Creation tasks as being the 'big' decision or action of purchasing property. However, we need to break this down into a succession of smaller tasks instead.By continually assessing and progressing on to the next task, however small, the investment journey keeps moving so that the big step to actually purchase an investment is much more natural in the journey process. Immediately after a purchase is made the next action is begun. The big step of making a purchase could be years in the future, but the journey to that time is consistent. Your data shows the journey.Some people are passionate about investing so it is always present in their mind, conversation and planning. These people tend to rush the decision before the best time. Others are not so interested, even though it is an essential part of financial security for their future, so they continually delay the decision. Timing is the key!The data you gather about your financial position determines the timing, regardless of how you feel. When your data says you have the capacity to invest and it does not negatively impact other areas, it is time. When many of our clients come to us they have been in a position to, and maybe have been talking about, investing for years but have not taken the steps to the big decision. Others, however, even though their data says it is not time, have rushed the journey and put undue pressure on other areas of life. As Peter Cook points out in his book The New Rules of Management,1 we generally act out of instinct and response. Businesses have brought in systems to contain the workers instincts and responses to make the business more productive. The Design a Decade Complete Life Management Program has been designed to give people systems to contain their instinct and response to life. This allows for life and business to be built on 'implementing projects that matter.'Projects have start, persevere and complete stages - most of us are not great at one or two of these stages. As well as this, if a project we need to do is not a 'labour of love' we generally put it off until the pain of where we are is great enough to force us into action, for example health and fitness or cash flow management. If a project is a passion for us, we tend to run with it too early, before we have sufficient resources or information. QUESTION:How do we get to projects on time?PRINCIPLE:Clients of the Design a Decade program gather their data and complete their financial position by recording it within a set of specific spreadsheets. If you are not on our program just gather and record your data wherever you keep your information safe.Firstly, the data you record will assist you to know if a project is timely. For example, if one of a couple is passionate about obtaining their next property investment, but the other needs to do some study to further their career, the property may be better left until later or vice versa. Secondly, Peter Cook suggests the following support to help you choose timely projects that you can start, persevere with and then complete:You need people to help you DO the task. As you see in the model below you need assistants to help with what you can do and experts to do what you cannot.You also need people to TALK you through the task: mentors and coaches to talk you through how to perform the steps of the project and ensure you keep the balance around the rest of life alongside the project. You then need trusted friends to encourage you to keep going when you want to give up, especially those of you who are good at starting but may lack perseverance. CONSIDER:What is your next step in your Wealth Creation journey? Is it the right timing?Do you have the right support as set out in the image above? 1Peter Cook, The New Rules of Management (Wiley, 2013). SHARE THIS POST: About the author: Chris Freeman is the Founder and Lead Coach of the 'Design a Decade' Complete Life Management program, which he has developed, with his wife Heather and team, over the past fifteen years. As many have come to realise, the thought of considering life as being pre and post 65 years of age is long gone. 65 is the wrong number - our eyes should be on 100.
