Have you ever seen or participated in sky diving? I guess it's an activity that's either for you or not for you. I'll tell you what - it's not for me!

Even though it's not for me I've still taken the time to watch it on a couple of occasions. These guys jump out of a plane fearlessly. They spread out their limbs & they seem to just float in the air. If there are a number of them diving together, they can even do formations. The part I like is when a diver needs to get through the air in a hurry & puts his arms & his legs in as close to his body as possible. When he does that, he cuts through the sky like a missile.

The explanation for this increase in speed is a decrease in surface area. With skydiving, the diver is exposed to an abundance of air. As the diver extends his limbs he increases the amount surface exposure his body has to the air. This will allow him to seemingly float through in the sky.  When he pulls his limbs in tight, it gives him less exposure to the air, which was forcing him to stay up before. Now, with less air friction, he can dart through the air with tremendous speed.

Much like the skydiver has an abundance of air surrounding him that could potentially slow him up; we also have an abundance of distractions in our lives that could do the same. Just like the skydiver allows the force of air to slow him to the point of floating, we also allow the force of distractions to slow us to the point of not really getting desired results out of our lives.

Our world is full of distractions and, as time goes on, more & more distractions are added. There are distractions that go along with our daily work lives such as: commute traffic, the tragedy that we listen to on the morning news as we commute & those people with whom we come into contact who are angry, rude, obnoxious & mean spirited for absolutely no good reason. You know. The folks who like to wave at you while driving in traffic - one finger at a time.

When we get to work it continues. There are status meetings that seem to do nothing else but slow down productivity. There's the clutter on your desk left over from the previous day(s) that you have to dig through & organize in order to get started with today's activities. There's the emotionally unstable coworker who has designated you as their emotional dumpsite. There's also the boss, supervisor, colleague, client or partner who keeps interrupting you in order to receive progress reports. Then there is, of course, dealing with the disagreeable.

Then we get out of work - "Great! More traffic." We head to the gym - "I hope nobody's on that machine I like to use." We run errands - "Please don't let there be a long line at the store." We pick up the kids - "I better not have to hear another poor behavior report!" We head home - "My show's on tonight & I hope I have no interruptions." When we're at home we deal with the same disorganization, disruption & disorder we've been dealing with all day long. The clutter is in the home. The bills are coming due (or past due). The projects that need to be done around the house are piling up without the time and/or resources to address them.

I may or may not have hit close to home with some of these examples, but the point is that we all deal with things in our lives that we could most likely do without. I a lot of cases these items take away from life's fulfillment. A life full of distractions is like having an entrée with nothing but the garnishment that you don't eat anyway.

The first step to eliminating distractions from your life is to recognize that all of the distractions are there because of you. No one else. Remember, just like the skydiver allows the air to keep him afloat, we allow distractions to keep us from doing the things we really should be doing. You may be thinking that you have no control over a lot of the distractions previously mentioned. You may be right, but you do have control over how you respond to certain things. The news may be depressing, but you don't have to listen to it. The people in traffic during your daily commute may be rude & obnoxious, but you don't have to react negatively to it, pay attention to it or let it affect you in a way that causes you to dwell on it or be distracted by it. You may say I can't stand the traffic & there's nothing I can do about that. I'll tell you that I'm focused on getting to work on time - not the traffic. I'll also tell you that if the traffic bothers you that much, find a position that will allow you to work from home. You always have the choice to respond not react.

This brings us to the next step, which is to determine how to respond. We determine how to respond to life by clearly identifying what we value. Life is comprised of a four point value circle: (1) Spiritual - my alignment with God, (2) Health - my alignment with myself, (3) Relationships - my alignment with others & (4) Finances - my alignment with money & society. This is where we do some much needed soul searching. We ask ourselves questions designed to clarify our current position in life & our desired destination. "Do I have a personal relationship with my creator?" "How am I taking care of my physical, mental & emotional health?" "Do I have deep, meaningful relationships?" "Am I making wise financial decisions that are in alignment with my values?"

Dedicate some time to finding out what you value. Make sure you clearly understand this. Make sure it becomes embedded in your way of thinking. Not doing this leaves the flood gates open for distractions to pour in. The result of not doing this is making decisions that are not really your own. They are, but they're not. Your choices become unclear & skewed by the person who has a laser focused desire on getting what they want.

The results of doing this are grounded thinking & exceptional decisiveness. You will be able to get out of life what you want. Stagnation in your life will be utterly destroyed. Good luck!

I was listening to the news & heard about a 10 year old boy who was asked to do a report on his favorite holiday.  His favorite holiday, of course, is Christmas.

Upon presenting his report to his class, he began to describe the true center of the Christmas holiday & he mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.  The first time he mentioned Jesus' name in his presentation his teacher said nothing about it, but in the third paragraph of his report he said the name of Jesus again & this time his teacher brought his presentation to an intermission.

She said that he could continue his presentation, but he must leave out Jesus' name and any other religious implications that his report may have.  Keep in mind that the requested assignment was to report on his favorite holiday ("Holy Day").

What do you think about this?

Months ago I was in a group discussion with one of my mentors. We discussed a broad range of things, but one of the keys my mentor pointed out was that marketing is too good in America. Krams, a South Indian native who's traveled the world, enlightened the group with this axiom.

Every now and again, if you're searching, you get these great nuggets of information. On the surface, what he said didn't seem to be anything major, but it's huge!  Marketing really is good in America! Not just good, but great!  If you think about it, how many things in your house do you actually need?  I'm talking about survival, so don't say your television or your nice sports car.  Although we may feel much of what we have are necessities, most of them aren't.

What you wear, what you eat, what you drink, where you go, where you live are comprised of several varieties of whatever. Do you ever stop to think about why you buy things from certain places? Do you ever stop to think about why you buy certain things at all?  Why did you go into The Home Depot the other day? What determined the need for the item you so desperately had to purchase? Why was The Home Depot the place to which you just had to go? Did you need to buy that Twinkie or cupcake the other day? It must have absolutely been the only source of nutrition your body needed! We buy goods & services all the time, but what makes what we buy & where we go to buy them so special?

Here are two basic reasons:

1. We know what they do.
2. We know who they are.

If you didn't know who they were, you would be oblivious to what benefit, if any; they would have to offer. If you didn't know what they did, you would still be in the same boat. Somehow, the people you buy your goods and services from have communicated who they are, what the have (or do), how much you need what they have (or do) and how they can provide this for you better than anyone else can. Most of the time they do this in such a way that you don't even realize it's being done!

This is done with newspapers, television, radio, direct mail, billboards, banners, bandit signs and so on. The more subtle & most effective ways of doing this are (1) the location of a particular service provider (with his big sign(s) on his store) - "Oh yeah... I could stop right in & pick this up on the way", and (2) a friend, relative or neighbor planting a word seed in your mind about a place from which to buy. In this country we walk around guided by the external forces of marketing.

If this is true, then how are you taking advantage of this for your business? How are you guiding the public to do business with you? Do enough people know who you are & what you do? Especially in this country it's not about how well you do what you do. It's about how well you communicate how well you do what you do. That's marketing.

As the business owner, it's your duty to drive in new business. This comes before anything else. What good is providing awesome service if you have no one for which to provide it? You're the best at what you do, but you're broke! Driving in new business is where your time is best invested. In the beginning, the multi-tasking is tough, but if you want to take your business to the next level you need to harness the power of marketing. The next level is where the business stops owning you & you actually own the business. Get there by marketing. Good luck!

I had a football coach in college who used to always say, "It's hard to win! It's easy to lose!" He also use to say, "It's easy when you win. It's hard when you lose." In nearly 30 years of coaching college football, Coach Hameline has never had a losing season. If you analyze his two statements the lesson you'll uncover is that you work hard so that things will be easy and if you don't work hard things will be tough. Sound paradoxical?

Even though it may seem like a paradox, the work you do now will always be easier to deal with than the effects of not doing the work now (not accomplishing goals, less time with family, unnecessary financial struggle, worry & stress). If you look further into Coach Hameline's statements the other lesson you'll learn is that what you do today, shows up tomorrow. Let me repeat that. What you do today shows up tomorrow. Your current position in life, today, is no more than a result of all the decisions you've made prior to this point. In most cases it's a result of decisions made months or even years ago. There is a lag between activity & result.

You might be thinking, "I can't change the past!" Well, you don't have to. Though there may not be anything you can do to change what has gotten you to this point, but you can make the decision to change everything from this point on. This time you can go through each minute of each hour of each day with the awareness that you are in direct control of future outcomes.

Sounds easy... right? If the thought of changing everything in your life sounds overly challenging, then allow me to relax your skepticism. We're not going to change everything. We're going to develop the discipline to change just one small thing - one activity. Once we've effectively done this, then we can move on to changing one more, and so on.

In order to do this, we must first clarify our understanding of human nature. People are creatures of habit. We often find ourselves self-subjected to a routine. In fact if you look at any of our lives analytically, you'd find a combination of routines. Your chosen combination of routines make up your life. Your life's pattern is no more than routine becoming habitual &, finally, ritual. Once we see the routine, we can then isolate it & begin to work either on reforming it or eliminating it all together.

It is vital to clearly determine where you want to be in life, because until you do this it is nearly impossible to discern which routines are beneficial and which ones are not. Beneficial routines get you where you want to be and non-beneficial routines don't. It's like taking public transit with no clue of where it is you want to go. You see that the bus is going somewhere, but since you have not taken the mental appointment to decide where you want to go, you end up in idol travel - or even worse, you end up where you don't want to be.

Setting the goal is probably the most difficult part of the process because it requires thinking beyond current and/or past circumstances. To quote John Maxwell "winning is truly and inside job". It's not fun to sit down with a pad & a pen, when you're used to everything in your life seemingly going wrong, and plan out enormous victories for yourself. It forces you to look in the mirror. Yeah, you have some good points, but those jacked up parts of your life are reflected with unmerciful proportion. If you want great things - not good, but great - then this is something you'll continually have to do. You'll have to continually face your inequities with the confidence in your God-given ability to move past them. So don't fear it, welcome it.

Ok, we now know where it is we want to be and it is time to begin forming the right habits. These habits are the vehicle, which is going to get us to our destination. Remember that we are going to focus on developing one habit/routine at a time. The mind is most powerful and gets the best results when it is focused. So determine what it is that would make the greatest impact in your quest for achievement. What routine/habit, if changed, added or eliminated, would make the most difference?  This could be: getting an earlier start to your day, changing a part of your diet, drinking more water, taking more personal/alone time, reading more, meeting more people, developing your communication skills, praying or meditating more frequently, or simply eliminating something that has been detrimental to your progress. The list could go on.

This is something nobody can identify for you. We all lead separate lives and develop different sets of routines. My changes most likely won't be exactly the same as yours, so you must determine this for yourself. There is no measuring of the importance in doing this. So take your time & get it done. Make a list of these changes in order of their importance. Importance is equal to the amount of impact it will have on getting you to your destination.

Once you have identified the change that will have the most impact, start working on it immediately for 21 days. Routine becomes habitual after 21 days. Move to the next change on the list and lock it into place in the same manner. Keep going down the list locking each new habit into place.

This is the hard work that will translate into victories. Neglecting to do this will lead to defeat. Stick with the plan & let no one deter you. They don't know what you know. Think about all the time & effort you've put into developing your course of action. This mindset will keep you disciplined. In three months you will have made a noticeable difference in your life and you'll be far along the path. In six months some people will either start recognizing you for the new accomplishments or justify why they haven't progressed in the same way. So put your game face on & make it happen!

Here's a rule of thumb for making an offer on any commercial real estate transaction: If it's not making you money at the asking price, offer less. 

A lot of investors find good properties that should make them good money, but end up losing (money, that is) on the deal because they pay too much for the property.  When buying commercial real estate there shouldn't be any guess work or emotions in the equation.  The numbers dictate how much you should pay for a particular property. Remember you got into this business to make money not to lose it.

Keeping this in mind, you should have a crystallized idea in your mind of how much cash flow you want to have per how much money you personally put into the deal.  This will give you your target cash on cash return.  Once you have the number in mind, you can stick to it.

You should have a 3 point target when setting your goal for cash on cash return: Bullseye, center mass, acceptable. The bullseye is the supreme point at which you would like to be on one specific investment.  This is a goal that should be on the border line of realistic & unrealistic.  This number could be anywhere from 25% to 50%.

The center masstarget is one that should be average of what you would like a collection of investment properties to return you.  Center mass is a realistic target that over time will consistently add to your overall goals for wealth & lifestyle.

The acceptable target draws a line for you.  If your cash on cash return drops below this mark, you know it's time to walk away.  Having these three bullets will give you an indication of the sense of urgency at which you need to move on a specific deal. 

Here's an example:

Let's say you've been searching for income producing properties and your working the numbers on this deal. Your target rates of return are 30%(bullseye), 17%(center mass), & 10%(acceptable).  Here are the specs on the property: A multifamily, 18 units is selling for $1M; Net Operating Income (income after all expenses except for the mortgage) is $100,000; Your putting down 25% your annual mortgage payments (based on 8.000% & 30 amortization) will be $66,039; With closing you've got about $265,000 or more of your own money into this deal if you go with the asking price.

Here are the numbers:

$33,961 is your net per year = $100,000 - $66,039 / CCR = 13%

Your cash on cash return as is is about 13% which is above the acceptable line & okay to buy at that price. But you have the option of shooting for your center mass number which is on 4% away.  Keeping the money you have into it the same you could low ball the offer a little & see if it will fly with your seller. By offering $900,000 you could put nearly $11,000 more into your pocket (when combined with interest rate adjustments) increasing your CCR to about 17%. Anywhere in between would still be acceptable.

Keep in mind that the amount of cash you have to put down in comparison to the purchase price affects the terms you'll get on a commercial mortgage.  You can still use the same formula whether your putting 25% down or 3% down, but the number of opportunities to hit your target numbers will decline significantly.  So you may have to look for less expensive properties and/or adjust your target numbers so that they are realistic.

The bottom line is cash flow.  It's not speculation on appreciation, but letting the numbers tell you what to do.  Good luck.