Once you get started, it’s not hard to keep going.
I remember being told growing up that it takes less gas for a car to idle for a few minutes than to shut it off and restart it. Something about wear on the starter too. I heard the same thing about lights. About computers. If the goal was saving energy, you were often better off leaving things running than flipping them on and off.
Might not have been true. I’m not an electrician or a mechanic, and it was a long time ago. So even if it was true then maybe it isn’t now.
Beside the point anyway.
I read something recently noting that the hardest part of most tasks isn’t the task itself. It’s going from not moving to moving. Once you’re in motion, momentum does most of the work. The whole fight is getting off the couch.
Once you see that, you can use it against yourself, in a good way. Can’t get motivated for the gym? Make a deal. You’ll get dressed, drive there, walk in. If you still don’t feel like it once you’re inside, you can turn around and go home.
Do this enough times and you’ll find you almost never leave.
Just getting started was the whole battle.
I use this at the office too. There are some projects I have that I don’t look at every day, but are large and have lots of moving parts. When it’s time to pick them back up, they’re overwhelming enough that putting them off a little longer feels reasonable. Which would just make it worse.
If I commit to ten minutes, just one small task like sending an email or reviewing what’s left to do, I almost never stop at ten minutes.
If anything I end up with the opposite problem. I get moving and don’t stop. An hour turns into four, and something else I meant to get to that day doesn’t happen. I’ve started setting alarms just to make myself quit.
The same thing happens with bigger decisions too.
If you own non-residential real estate, it’s probably a real chunk of your financial picture. Worth knowing what it’s worth, and what’s happening around it that affects that. Not because you’re looking to sell. Usually the smart move is waiting, unless you’ve got somewhere better to put the money or a reason that forces your hand.
But it’s better to have the information and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Most people never get the information. Getting started feels like a bigger thing than it is.
And there’s the barber problem. Ask a barber if you need a haircut and you already know the answer.
Call about your land looking for information and you end up on the phone with a salesperson telling you all the things you need to do that happen to be very good for them. So people put it off.
It doesn’t have to go that way.
That’s the whole idea behind the MBR Land Reality Check. You request it, and that’s it. No one shows up trying to list your property. You get recent sales with real numbers, what’s moving in the market, and any development nearby worth knowing about.
It takes about two minutes to request, and it shows up in your inbox a few days later.
No pressure, because there isn’t a pitch waiting on the other end.
You don’t have to be ready to sell.
You just have to be willing to know where things stand.
PS – If you’re not ready for a Land Reality Check but enjoyed this post, you can sign up below and get future articles delivered to your inbox.
