Last night I had a meeting up at my church and the youth were going ice skating that same night. I was invited to come along, and I went since I love to ice skate and have my own ice hockey skates. At first I wasn’t sure that I wanted to go and had all sorts of reasons why not like I would be tired from work and would rather just relax at home doing nothing.

I reminded myself though of all the times that I didn’t really feel like getting out and doing something yet went anyway. And I’ve always been glad afterwards that I went and actually did something rather than staying home and doing nothing. So I decided that I would go, and naturally I had a good time and was able to socialize with everyone else who was there.

I was thinking about this because it’s a lot like our financial and investing lives. A lot of times we don’t really feel like putting in the effort that is required to find or choose good investments. Putting our financial house in order would just take too much time that we’d rather spend sitting in front of the television. However, once you do take the time to, let’s say, list out all of your debts and formulate a plan to eliminate them, you’re always glad that you did. This is because it usually feels good to accomplish something.

I’ve also heard a lot of people complain about how complicated it is to invest or that they can never find a good investment. I also know that most of these people have never taken the time to read a book about investing or have never spent any time in search of a good investment. And some things in life require some doing.

For example, I’ve had a rental property for about a year and a half now, and I’ve been asked numerous times how I went about the whole thing. I’ve also listened to many people tell me how they would like to do the same thing but they haven’t found anything or haven’t gotten around to it. So let me dispel the myth for you… an investment property didn’t just fall into my lap, and it won’t fall into yours either.

I could tell you of the many hours spent looking at properties with different agents and without agents. I could mention the time spent with a mortgage broker discussing how I could make it happen and what I would need to do. There was also the time I spent with an accountant learning all about the tax implications and benefits. It was a great learning experience, but it took a lot of time. And this doesn’t even include all the books I read about real estate investing and the seminar I went to.

So what does all of this have to do with my initial thoughts about going ice skating? The point is to get out do things and make things happen. There will always be time to sit and watch TV, but if there’s something that you want to do or accomplish, you just need to get out there and do it. I know you’ll be glad you did, and you definitely won’t regret it.

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