Reflect, Set, Achieve: Unveiling Goal-Setting Power

Paul Dircks 00:00
That’s what this conference does. It was kind of a reminder to me, too, that I need to be more purposeful about allowing time to think, ruminate, brainstorm, and get creative on the most important things in life. Setting goals and setting the chart for the year ahead is just one of those. , for me, one of the biggest takeaways I’d say was a quote from another quote that we heard, “Worry is negative goal setting”. I had never heard this quote before, but it resonates with me 10,000 times over.

Greg Lyons 00:34
Welcome to the Passive Income Brothers podcast.

Tim Lyons 00:37
Here, we take the fear out of real estate investing using real-life stories of every day successful investors.

Greg Lyons 00:43
Let’s go.

Tim Lyons 00:44
Welcome to another episode of the Passive Income Brothers podcast. My name is Tim Lysons, and today, I’m joined by two absolute rockstars, one of whom is my brother, Greg. How’re you doing today, buddy?

Greg Lyons 00:54
Tim, I am on fire today. I just got back from Dallas after the Real Estate Guys Goals Retreat. We had a great time there. I learned so much and learned so much about myself and how I can have a better 2024, it just was fantastic.

Tim Lyons 01:12
I couldn’t agree more. And that’s why I made it mandatory for Cityside Capital members and for Dad to attend. So Paul, welcome. We were also joined by our other partner, Cityside Capital, Paul Dirks, how are you doing today, Paul?

Paul Dircks 01:24
I’m doing well. And similarly, I am feeling great. It’s a new year; it’s a new opportunity for us to set goals and not just throw them out there. They are big, ambiguous, and hard-to-reach goals. But measurable, specific, actionable goals. That’s what this conference brought to life for me; it is in my control that I can have a great year. And there’s reason for all of us to make progress on the things we really want in 2024.

Tim Lyons 01:52
So, I’m going to confess something on this podcast to you guys that I don’t know if I ever confessed on the podcast before. And that is I was listening to a podcast with Brandon Turner from BiggerPockets driving on the highway on the university on wheels. And he said something about goals and personal growth and development and spending hundreds of 1000s of dollars in the past on coaches and masterminds and conferences. And I nearly drove off the road. Because I wasn’t ready to hear it. I wasn’t ready to hear personal growth and development. I wasn’t ready to hear coaching. I wasn’t ready to hear masterminds that sounded woo-woo to me. And I’m going to tell the listeners that my brother Greg when I told him about a gold conference in 2023, wanted nothing to do with it. So I went by myself to Lake Las Vegas. It was with the real estate radio guys. It’s called the Create Your Future Goals Retreat. And it’s a really long weekend. I mean, we’re talking about 12-hour days, Saturday and Sunday, and a Friday night welcome kind of thing. But it’s really about personal growth and development. It’s a it’s a time to get away. It’s something away from your kids, your family, your job, your surroundings, your comfort zone, and to step into the uncomfortableness of a conference where you’re going to be vulnerable and have thoughts and hear music and inspiring quotes, right? And it’s a place where you can gather your thoughts and be around other successful like-minded folks. And I’m just gonna throw a few stats out for you. Did that only 3% of Americans actually set and write down goals each and every year? And I think that’s fitting because as we are coming into the what is the third or fourth week of January here? I bet you people have kind of faded from their New Year’s resolutions, right? Everybody has the best of intentions. We finished up a great year, or whatever we had a bad year you want to make 2020 a better year. Everybody inside of us. We’re all in that human condition. We want certainty. We want clarity, we want confidence. We want success. We want love, we want connection. We want all those things, right? But this weekend was so powerful. So I made it mandatory for Greg to come to this, and in 2024, I made it mandatory for our dad, Big Rich. Then, we were blessed and grateful that Paul Dirks came to the Cityside Capital on September 23. And as a condition of employment poems, it was going to be mandatory for you to so I think it was a powerful way to start on the same page. But Greg, What do you get?

Greg Lyons 04:21
Well, in my defense, which I like to come to my defense often, I think it was a scheduling issue in 2023, not so much my ignorance or not wanting to. It could have been 50/50, but we’re gonna go with the scheduling issue.

Tim Lyons 04:39
I’m glad you have that off your chest.

Greg Lyons 04:41
Thank you.

Tim Lyons 04:41
So listen, so for the listeners out there, Greg and I came up through the podcast world, we came up through audible, we came up through reading books, and we really came up during the beginning of COVID. And we did a lot of Zoom calls, and we got into masterminds and through all of that, we came across the Real Estate Radio Guys, and I was fortunate enough to join a mastermind early on and COVID. And Robert Helms from the real estate radio guys was actually the mastermind. And I was like, holy cow, I listen to this guy on his podcast. But he’s got such a way about him. He’s got wisdom, experience, knowledge, he’s a great speaker, and he’s engaging. So, when he let everybody know that he had a gold conference, I was intrigued, right? I was like, but man, like, spend a couple of $1,000 Get a hotel, we’re gonna fly across the country like Ash, maybe I’ll just go back to my own comfort zone. And I’m gonna tell you, it’s 2023. And now, at 24, I am so happy that I did so. So, guys, I wanted to start this podcast off with a quote. And I want you guys to comment on the quote, and then I want to go around and take some of your best takeaways from the weekend. So the quote is it’s not about knowledge, it’s about action. For if it was only about knowledge, every librarian would be a multi-millionaire. So Paul, let me throw up to you first, what does that mean to you?

Paul Dircks 06:12
It means that knowledge is only half of the battle, it’s about getting out there and also doing things imperfectly. One of the things in our society is that we were given so many things to compare ourselves to other people, too. And I think that as the outcome, the result of that is we’re paralyzed, right? We don’t always take action. And that quote really brings up the fact that we have to act upon the knowledge that we gain. And so, to me, that’s the biggest insight that comes from it. But it’s great to get a reminder of it, especially here early in the year, right, when you’re setting the course for how your year is going to go and setting goals and thinking about what you want to achieve. But you have to make a yellow pledge to act on the knowledge that you have and that you gain.

Tim Lyons 07:00
I love that. How about you, Greg?

Greg Lyons 07:02
What’s interesting is that I applied to five different librarian jobs. As soon as I heard that, I didn’t get any of them., not as bookish as I wanted to be. But one of my goals is to become more bookish. But, I think we talked about this all the time taking action, right, and it’s education times action equals results. If you just have the education piece of it, you’re gonna be educated, you’re gonna know where the book is, you’re gonna feel all about real estate. But it’s when you take action and buy a property or invest passively that you really get the education, which equals results.

Tim Lyons 07:40
Love that. So, guys, I know that I took about 100 pages of notes in my notebook, and I took even more notes in the binder that they gave us for actual note-taking. But we could probably talk for three hours about our experience at this goals conference; it was that powerful. But Paul, why don’t you start us off? Let’s let’s really go through a couple of our main takeaways. So Paul, take it away. What was one of your top takeaways from this goals retreat?

Paul Dircks 08:06
Before he gives that, let me just say I’ve always been a big fan of the idea, the book Deep Work by Cal Newport talks about how diving into work and giving your undivided attention creates almost like a superpower in today’s highly distracted world. That’s what this conference does. It was kind of a reminder to me, too, that I need to be more purposeful about allowing time to think, ruminate, brainstorm, and get creative on the most important things in life, setting goals, and setting the chart for the year ahead. It’s just one of those. For me, one of the biggest takeaways, I’d say, was a quote. Another quote that we heard, and that we heard worry, is negative goal setting. I had never heard this quote before, but it resonates with me 10,000 times over. At my core, I’m a pretty big worrier. , I’m me, and I’m also a financial planner and professional by trade. So, having some healthy skepticism is a good thing. But it means to me worry is a negative goal. Worry is negative goal setting. What it means to me is that I inadvertently have been setting negative goals at different times. And that’s absolutely not something I want to do. And certainly not something I want to teach to my kids, for example. So, thinking about that over the course of the weekend. , I know some of the tactics, maybe it’s less phone scrolling, or maybe it’s certainly not watching the news. It’s reading scripture and other inspirational works and trying to surround myself with positive influences. But I know that I have to be purposeful about it, put up boundaries, and actively work to block worry out of my life. So, worry is negative goal setting was one huge takeaway. And Greg, I know this is something you and I talked about at the conference as well. I just had to me that it resonates in all aspects of life, not just in investments but in every way that we run our daily lives.

Greg Lyons 10:06
No, it certainly does. And it can be a real-time sock when you think about it, you’re worried about things that haven’t happened yet or may never happen, and those are the things that kind of take away from the action you can be taking when I first started the goals retreat here, you learned about goal setting, and goals must be specific and measurable, have a deadline or time limit, and must be written, right, they must be written down. And that’s what they say, is 80% of goal setting. And when you think about that, I think most of us write goals each and every year. And there are some advanced techniques, but that’s kind of the meat and potatoes of it. But when I look back on 2023, in which I admittedly accomplished nothing, just kidding, but not really, the thing that kind of stood out to me was a couple of questions. What did you do in the last year? Were you happy with the results? And, with those things that I did, am I going to start doing something different? Stop doing them? Or continue doing those things? Right. So, what did I do last year? Where was I making enough phone calls? Should I start making more phone calls in 2024? Should I stop making phone calls? Or should I continue making phone calls like so be able to look back on my 2023 While I was kind of thinking about 24, it was very powerful. Are you going to stop, start, or continue? And I think, when you’re making goals to kind of take a look back, it was really powerful for me, Tim.

Tim Lyons 11:46
I missed the part where you’re going to kind of comment on Paul’s worry is negative goal-setting. But maybe we’ll we’ll circle back to that. No, it’s those are two great takeaways, worry as negative goal setting. I mean, raise your hand if you’re a warrior, write me. , if you’re driving in your car right now, you What do you worry about you worried about your kids, you worry about success. You worried about investments who are in about, retirement, you’re worried about health, you worried about all these different things, and we’re being pulled in so many directions? So, is it healthy to worry a little bit? I think so. A little healthy, but to be a habit, the limiting beliefs plus worry. I mean, that sets us up for a negative year. Right, you can see how that can snowball very quickly. So, Paul, I loved that part of the retreat. Greg, start, stop, and do. Was that Russell Gray, I think maybe that brings that up.

Greg Lyons 12:37
I think he said that. Yeah.

Tim Lyons 12:39
I’m a big fan, I’m a fanboy of the real estate radio, guys, and Russell Gray has a certain way about it when he delivers stuff. But, when we’re also getting stuck, and I think a word they used this weekend was resistance, right? And I think people can feel the resistance when we have these big, hairy, audacious goals, or even the little goals of the day, and something pops up, we’re scrolling through social media, we’re checking emails incessantly, the kids are home from school, whatever it might be. And we can get derailed very quickly. And we have that friction, and then we get like, upset with ourselves that we didn’t do the checklist, and it can snowball out of control. And I think what I took away from that was clarity and focus, right? What is it that you want? How do you get there? What are the steps? Write them down, get clear, get focused, and get to work. So those are some great takeaways. Paul, why don’t you take us to the next great takeaway that you had from this weekend?

Paul Dircks 13:35
Well, maybe let me piggyback on top of what you just said: All resistance because this was huge. And at the conference, one of the many thought leaders that were talked about was Steven Pressfield. He has a number of different books out there, one of them called Turning Pro. In that book, he explains how most of us have two lives, the life we live and the unlived life within us, to this incredible concept. But between the two lives is resistance. Resistance can manifest itself in a number of different ways. It can be regular distractions, just TV scrolling through social media, news, and even watching every sports game, right, you’re resisting doing some of the things that you need to do. But resistance resistance can also show up in a few other ways fear, self-doubt, over and out over analyzing things, denial. And then there are two additional ways that kind of just completely hit me like a Mack truck. One was vague direction. Resistance loves vagueness, without having clarity on where you’re heading and just kind of thinking in general terms that you’re heading in the right direction is in and of itself a form of resistance. And the other one is opportunity. I love this idea that you have to say no to good to make room for great. There are so many ways in Which resistance manifests itself in our daily lives. I think about it now, and I’m thinking about it in a more holistic way. And you really have to play offense to stop letting resistance stop your progress. And, even in the area of investing in real estate in particular, are there things are there ways in which resistance is stopping your progress from going forward? So, to me, that was a huge takeaway, the way to think about resistance in many forms. And Greg, I imagine you’ve encountered resistance when you got started in the real estate journey. And it’s just one of those things that I feel like, if we all just acknowledge it for what it is, we can be all the more clear on what we have to do to overcome that. And to move past that?

Greg Lyons 15:47
Well, I would actually argue that I was the resistance when it came time for Tim and I starting Cityside Capital, and a lot of the things a lot of my limiting beliefs, I just wasn’t ready for. And all of those limiting beliefs were, I think, visualizing your goals. , that was another huge takeaway of mine. And I say to my kids all the time, no negative self-talk, right? Whether it’s, oh, I’m not good at math, or I can’t make a jump shot, or whatever it is that you’re saying negatively, your mind hears that negative self-talk. And I always kind of knew about it, and then going to the goals retreat, and they talked about visualizing your goals, having a vision board, and I think Tim Brandon Turner talks a lot about his vision board. And he also wrote an article about himself, like 10 years down the road, which I thought was very cool. So you hear those things and say, oh, yeah, they those guys do it. But then to listen to it again, while I’m sitting there focused on what the goals are treat, have a vision board or have three by five index cards with your goals on them. And your subconscious mind picks this stuff up. And this was part of my resistance, I was not ready for subconscious mind stuff. But, when you do spend some time with your goals, visualizing them, whether it’s what kind of car you want to drive, well, or how many apartment buildings you want to own. Well, how many passive investments are there? There are four keys to your vision board. One is how vivid and detailed your vision board is. , how much do you really want it? , what are the rims on the tire of the car that you absolutely can’t live without? And that is the duration? , like, how long, until you get this goal, the intensity, it’s all anchored to your why the intensity is how much do you feel that your activities are you got to get you to this goal? And then the last one is frequency, how often do you really think about your goals? If you write your goals down and pull them out? February 1, June 1, and then December 31, we’re like, oh, man, I didn’t do a damn thing. versus looking at your goals every day, the frequency that you reminding yourself and really have your subconscious say, Yes, I am a real estate investor, or I am a passive real estate investor. I am the healthiest person in my family. And I’m bringing the others along with me. Those are the things that really hit me have that vision board, or have those index cards with you, that says you are going to accomplish your goals this year.

Tim Lyons 18:29
I can’t believe we have that on tape. I don’t even know who you are. Who are you? And what did you do with Greg Lyons

Greg Lyons 18:36
Its going to come back to haunt me. But, I could I could again, I could be the resistance that Paul was talking about. Or I could say, Hey, I think this kind of works. , other people are having success doing this. So maybe I’m the resistance. I’m the roadblock. And how do I become better?

Tim Lyons 18:54
Bro, I am so proud of you. Bruh. Like serious.

Greg Lyons 18:57
I’m gonna do that.

Tim Lyons 18:58
I mean, that was that was Paul, did you hear that? I mean, it was amazing. I mean

Paul Dircks 19:04
Unbelievable.

Tim Lyons 19:06
Yeah, this is a guy who is born with more limiting beliefs than I have. So anyway, I’m so happy to hear that, Greg. I mean, I knew you got a lot out of this weekend. But listen, one of the other quotes I heard this weekend that was really powerful for me was some people have 20 years experience and some people have one year’s experience 20 times. Think about that. Which camp Do you fall into? Do you fall into the 20 year experience success? Right moving forward? Does it make the boat go faster? was another one this weekend? Right? What’s going to make your boat go faster? Right? Or do you have one year experience? , very sheltered, whatever, very, locked in 20 times right? And that’s why this weekend was so awesome because you get to be in a place away from home away from your surroundings in a beautiful hotel, beautiful setting with people that we care about right, and surrounded by the way there are some really big names that were at this conference, people with big podcasts, big YouTube channels, big real estate investors, TV, folks. I mean, there was a lot of really cool and fascinating and really successful people in the room. And it was maybe 185 people, I think they said, right, not a lot, and you get to talk to them and have drinks with them and get a bite to eat with them if you want. So, anyway, um, those are all really great stuff. And resistance for me is huge, right? Because I bought, like you said, the life we live and the unlived life inside of us, right? And that creates resistance for me, like, I have all these visions and goals, and I want to do so much. And I have so much to say and do and be do and have right? And where do I start? And then suddenly, I get overwhelmed? And I’m like, man, what do I start first. And, I started making these crazy lists, and whatever. So getting that clarity, and that focus was huge. So guys, last thought because we’re coming up on time, let’s each maybe give us one big takeaway from work or one last thought you want to leave with the listeners about the real estate guys goals retreat or the weekend or mindset, anything you want to kind of go with and I’ll take us all.

Paul Dircks 21:14
Maybe let me start here. For our listeners, obviously, you’re hearing from us how impactful this conference was, and how many takeaways we each have. But let me at least offer a thought to each of you, which is, as you think about this year, what are some of your limiting beliefs, right? We live in the greatest country on planet Earth, still greatly felt flawed, but it’s still the best, right? We live in an era of abundance. We live in a time when the access to opportunities to enrich ourselves from an education and from a networking standpoint, are easier and better than ever. So what things are holding you back? And are they really that big of a deal? That for me was a crystallizing moment during some of the reflection and exercises that we did this conference, the some of my limiting beliefs, truly in the whole scheme of things are not that big of a deal. So can you map out that first step or two, and try to whittle down what some of those limiting beliefs are? Can you carve out a little bit of time every day and every week, to give yourself that gift of time that you deserve? , success comes in little steps in the tiniest decision can make the big difference, a very big difference over time. So that’s something I would invite our listeners to think about is, what are some of your limiting beliefs? And how can you move past them here and 2024?

Tim Lyons 22:41
Woof. Love that. Oh, baby.

Greg Lyons 22:44
All right, great.

Tim Lyons 22:45
He’s ready. He’s ready.

Greg Lyons 22:47
He’s ready, got his eight hours in and I love it. , I think, I think we’re talking a lot in the abstract here about, kind of goals. And we’ve talked about a vision board. And that could be something physical. But something that really hit home with me was it was around time management. And it was a small portion of the of the actual retreat, but it really centered around goals. And the actionable step was to integrate your to do list into your calendar. And I thought to myself, of all the things that we have to do during the day, whether it is grocery shopping, but whether it’s making calls, connecting with investors, talking with operators, put it in your calendar, and set aside the 15, the 30, or the one hour to get it done. But those are the important the important things that you have to get done important matters get taken care of, at a specific time of your day. It can’t just be willy nilly. So integrating your to do list in your calendar is very important. And it’s really important because the word priority is singular. So if you put that priority into your calendar, you’re going to get it done at 1015 or 11 o’clock or 130 in the afternoon, because that’s the priority of what’s going on right now. That was great. And, and for me the wrap up is it was from Robert Helms, who has a wonderful way of emceeing, kind of guiding a room and and guiding a conference. His his quote was remember to live this life like it’s your last, and that was really one hit home for me because you don’t have to do any of your priorities, and you just kind of float through life, and in five years, you’re going to be the same person but putting your priority into your calendar and living this life like it’s your last really really did it for me. Tim, what about you?

Tim Lyons 24:48
Oh man I love this episode is might be ranking up as my all time favorite episode because you and Paul are ready and big rich as well. So I’m gonna leave you with this one. It was gratitude, right? It’s something I don’t do enough of. Because I can personally get wrapped up in my own little life right? Back and forth to the firehouse, maybe I don’t get any sleep or we have a tough call or something goes bad. And, I kind of wear that for a while or buy some crazy stuff, I kind of wear it inside my mind for a while. And it can really kind of turn off my gratitude switch. So when I do get home to the kids, yeah, I’m happy to see them and hugs and kisses and all that. But when he took us through that kind of exercise, to me, I was like, Man, I really want to be more grateful for what it is that I have. My life, my family, my friends, my business, you guys, just being able to get away for that weekend to do something like that. I mean, that is incredibly powerful. So so thank you guys for for joining me at the goals retreat. I really appreciated you guys making the effort. I know, it’s not easy. We all have kids at home obligations. And I would tell the listeners, really consider, whether it’s real estate, radio guys goals retreat in 2025, which is going to be in Dallas in, I think the first or second week and sometime in January, you can check it out their website, but, check it out, give it a shot. Even if you have massive limiting beliefs, believe me, Greg and I and my dad can make it to and Paul can make it to the Real Estate Guys Gold Retreat, I’m pretty sure anybody can

Greg Lyons 26:29
I think the other thing is if any of this stuff resonates with you, connect with us by email and set up a time to call. And it may not be the goals retreat, it may be a different conference that we may have went to that you could get that value out of, we don’t know where you are in your journey. But with a quick conversation, we can maybe guide you to something that’s really worked for us.

Tim Lyons 26:50
100%. So here’s what I want to leave the listeners with. As you come into 2024. If you haven’t done your goals yet, if you haven’t sat and thought about them or given yourself some space for grace to even write down some of your own thoughts, You need a game, and you need some guidance to maybe get started, and he wants a prompt. And so here’s a prompt for you. In 2024, who are you? What do you stand for? What do you want? What do you really want? What holds you back from getting it? And what price are you willing to pay? Because it’s not about the knowledge, it’s about the action. So with that, that’s gonna do it for this week’s edition of The Passive Income Brothers podcast, and we look forward to serving you again next week. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Passive Income Brothers podcast. We would be grateful for your support of our podcast by giving our show a five-star rating and reviewing and subscribing to our show on your favorite podcast platform. Don’t forget to take inspired action after listening to this show so that you can start building out your passive income streams. Finally, head on over to citysidecap.com to connect with us and find out more information about how to get started passively investing in real estate.