you’re listening to the Hybrid Real

Estate Professional Podcast where we

talk real estate business and designing

a life that works for you i’m Aaron Amin

and this show is my open journal as I

juggle raising three kids under three

building a $10 million real estate

portfolio and helping others do the same

without burning out today’s episode’s a

little different i’m going to dive back

into an exercise I did a couple years

ago now where I actually worked through

and built my own list of personal

principles that guide my life and my

business as I move forward so I’m going

to break down exactly what the exercise

was the purpose behind it and I’m going

to share all 11 of my personal

principles so let’s get into it so first

the question underlying all of this was

why do we do the things we do if that

sounds vague and open-ended don’t worry

because I’m going to peel it back and

explain why I decided to ask it so it

should have a simple answer but as with

anything in life we cannot keep things

simple especially me but I wanted an

answer so the questions that I asked for

myself I spent an entire month working

through Ray Dallio’s principles guided

journal the guide to create your own

principles and get the work and life

that you want so this exercise helped me

in many ways but first what does he

consider to be a principle so his

definition principles are ways of

dealing with reality to get what you

want out of life there are two main

reasons you would create your own

principles first is to carefully define

principles based on your own experience

it allows you to believe in them deeply

and number two it aligns your principles

so what you say and what you do are

virtually identical the benefit of

writing these down and actually fleshing

them out onto paper you will think more

deeply about them you will think in a

more principled way in general and you

will look at yourself through a more

objective lens this allows you to see

the cause and effect in the relationship

in your behaviors and see important

patterns that you’ve never seen before

the goals that I had going into this

were pretty clear it was to convert

experiences into reflections about how

reality works and make principles for

dealing with them so that every time I

was faced with a situation I had a

framework and a base of knowledge to

draw upon i wanted to write these down

so that they could stick in my head so I

could act upon them on a regular basis

instead of having to constantly make

things up as I go if that sounds rigid I

promise you it’s not because nobody

could possibly memorize and have a

framework for everything they do but

this exercise really keyed me in and got

me tuned in to how I actually think

about the world and it forced me to be

more honest with myself about whether I

actually live up to those expectations

so without any further ado here are my

personal principles number one taking

the long view is absolutely critical to

let compounding work its magic so

prioritizing long-term success over

instant gratification is the best

example by allowing time for compounding

your small efforts and your investments

can grow exponentially this leads to

extraordinary results instead of average

results james Clear is the person who

articulated this the best when he talked

about how a 1% improvement every day

adds up to

37.78% over one year so 1% feels

insignificant at the moment but when

compounded over a long period of time

adds up pretty darn quickly but beware

cuz compounding can also move in the

other direction take it from somebody

who has quite a few and especially used

to have quite a few even worse habits

compounding works against you if you’re

not careful and particularly with things

like vices or diets you know I am not

perfect by any stretch of the

imagination but I when I became more

aware of how this these bad behaviors

were working against me it became a lot

easier to deal with them principle

number two willpower can work to get you

through the most situations in the short

term but you’ll never be able to achieve

long-term success without a strong why

so willpower is a is a tough one for me

because I think I’ve been open in many

different interviews about my grapples

with addiction and how I spent a lot of

time and put a lot of work into my

recovery you know I uh I went into a

rehab program i had to re-evaluate my

life at at the deepest level and during

that time is when I finally realized

that willpower was not a strategy in

recovery they call it white knuckling

anyone can probably string together 30

days of sobriety but when you don’t

actually peel back the onion and figure

out what the long-term game plan is for

what you’re trying to do it’s not going

to hold forever and whether you are

thinking to yourself well I’m not in

recovery so this doesn’t apply to me i

would I would challenge you to ask

yourself if there’s something that

you’ve tried to push your way through

when you knew you weren’t committed or

you didn’t have a long-term plan so

that’s what that principle reminds me of

and and you’ll hear that kind of

recovery theme in some of the rest of

these principles but there’s also an

exercise called the five W’s that I

think really helps here and it’s

basically when you ask yourself

initially you ask yourself why you’re

doing something the first answer that

comes to your mind is not the deepest

layer so this actually came from Toyota

was was the company that used this and

they used it to diagnose problems and so

they would ask once they answer the

first why they would ask a second time

well why did that happen and then

they’ll go five times and get all the

way down to the core of it typically

that helped them diagnose issues and

come up with solutions principle number

three focus on today dwelling on the

past or fixating on the future distracts

you from the moment that matters most

right now so once again this is a

recovery lesson for me because when I

was at my worst and at my worst mental

health physical health and you know

things were trending in the wrong

direction with that negative compounding

I was anywhere but the moment it was

really hard for me to be in the moment

because I was always worried about

something I had done previously anxious

about how that might affect me and then

projecting into the future and just

playing out frankly not very good

scenarios in my head and so I was always

worried i was always worked up and it

really distracted me and took me away

from what was happening right in front

of me and now as a parent especially I

really struggle with that because I

think it’s important to be present for

your kids and it’s hard if you’re not

grounding yourself in a current moment

and you’re always thinking about what’s

around the corner that’s something I

still grapple with today but that’s why

it’s important to have these principles

principle number four let go of

resentments they will live rentree in

your head for as long as you let them

find a way to forgive others and forgive

yourself or else inner peace will elude

you so resentments really do live

rentree in your head and if you don’t

believe me I also challenge you to think

about when was the last time that you

start kept thinking about something that

you felt like someone else did to you

and they don’t even know that you feel

that way and you’re just still thinking

about it i have learned for myself that

there is not a long-term place in my

head for those type of thoughts and when

I let those thoughts percolate they

really drive me nuts uh resentment is a

big driver of bad behavior in my life

and I would be willing to wager that

most people have the same effect there’s

just no benefit that I can think of

especially in my lived experience where

holding on to a negative ill will serve

me in any real meaningful way and I

would like to continue to work on this

and embody it so that my kids can learn

from it too principle number five be

brave ask questions curiosity and growth

are directly correlated engage with

others by forming and asking great

questions so questions are tools for

understanding connection and

collaborative progress i think that

being able to formulate great questions

it also is a form of listening it’s it’s

how you process and how you take in

information and really retain it and

when you think about podcasts some of my

favorite podcasts are the people that

ask the best questions so Tim Ferrris is

one of the most famous podcasters in the

world he wrote the 4-Hour Work Week book

and he hosts the Tim Ferrris podcast i

don’t remember the listener stats off

the top of my head but I believe it is

the most listened to podcast in the

world if I’m not mistaken tim just asks

questions the whole dang time he makes

some commentary here and there but his

episodes are 2 three hours long and he

just cuts to the core of every topic and

he is not afraid to delve into different

topics he’s not a niche podcast by any

stretch but he is a very clarified

thinker and a great question asker there

are a few other podcasts that I listen

to i I won’t mention them in the

interest of time but I just think the

best podcasts I listen to are folks who

ask great questions and that holds true

in other areas of your life as well

being not afraid to speak up and ask a

question is something that has served me

very well in my life today’s episode is

brought to you by the Remote Real Estate

Academy the community I launched last

year where I personally coach investors

and empower them to buy rental

properties anywhere in the United States

my business partner Nathan and I have a

collective 15 years experience with over

20 cash flowing out ofstate rental

properties we provide a step-by-step

playbook on how you can build your own

portfolio and start accessing the

life-changing benefits of real estate

investing starting today go to

remoterrealestateacademy.com for more

info or better yet shoot me an email at

aaronaramine.com with subject line ra

and I’ll throw in a special bonus for

podcast listeners who join the academy

now let’s get to the show principle six

ego is the most destructive drug out

there humility is the antidote be on the

lookout anytime you see your ego having

an outsized impact on your behavior so

this is another one that is very tied to

recovery ego and thinking too highly of

yourself is very destructive that is

when you believe that you are fully in

control that is when you believe that

the world will bend to your will and

that you can influence outcomes that

don’t belong to you and this is not me

saying that you need to seed control of

everything in your life but it is me

acknowledging from my perspective that I

know that when my ego was at its largest

most uh inflated is when I got in the

most trouble and I think being aware of

that has really changed my life it’s

something that I still work on to this

day because I I am trying you know to to

do things that feel they feel like you

know I don’t know powerful or or they

feel like I’m pursuing something

extraordinary in my own eyes like I I

appreciate what I’m doing and I

recognize that it’s not fully normal but

what I don’t want to do is think that

that somehow makes me any different or

better than other people in some sort of

you know self-importance way i just

don’t think that that’s what that means

i think it means that I challenge myself

in a way that is fulfilling to me and to

my family and I appreciate and recognize

the accomplishments are you know built

largely as a result of the other people

around me not myself so yeah that one

sits big with me principle seven

altruism is the way actively seek

opportunities to give back without

seeking benefit in return so one of my

favorite movies is Pay It Forward with

Haley Joel Osman from the early 2000s

fun fact he’s actually my age so he was

very young when he did this movie but

the whole idea was based on a a project

he did at school where he was supposed

to do one nice thing for three different

people that he didn’t know and with zero

expectation in return the only ask was

for those people to go and pay it

forward and do a nice thing to three

additional people that they didn’t know

and this spiderweb of generosity went on

to become a national movement in this

movie and it was a beautiful thing what

I didn’t realize is that a lot of that

ties back to another recovery principle

which is that giving with no expectation

of anything in return is actually a

medicine in its own way and it is

something that I truly believe now

having gone through what I went through

is uh it can cure all those problems

that might crop up with your ego it can

cure things like resentment it can cure

that all- knowing feeling that you are

the one who has the answer because

you’re giving it away and you’re giving

it forward and you’re just trying to be

a good person in a world where

unfortunately we’re dragged down by a

lot of negative things and negative

interactions with people number eight

number eight focus on doing the things

that make you feel alive you’ll know

those activities without a shadow of a

doubt when you do them but pursuing a

life of vitality engaging in activities

that awaken your spirit all this stuff

you will know what those feelings are

you know for me one of them is playing

drums i really love playing drums it

makes me feel alive makes me feel more

alive than most other things that I do

that’s something that I’ve enjoyed doing

since I was a kid it’s a great creative

outlet and I never regret sitting down

to play the drums similarly in this

phase of my life I never regret I never

have regretted going on a date with my

wife and prioritizing time for a

relationship getting a full night’s

sleep ironic that I say that now because

I don’t usually get those but you know

that is something not to take for

granted taking my daughter to the park

taking the twins out for a for a walk

like these are things that truly make me

feel at peace with myself and things

that I never regret which is another

kind of theme hidden there but doing

more of those things will make you a

happier person go figure principle

number nine if you’re asking yourself

whether you’re prioritizing your family

enough you probably aren’t guilty i am

guilty of this all the time you know

it’s a it’s a really tough thing to

balance ambition with family and while I

have done my best I recognize that

there’s always a way to be better now

the real catch 22 here though is that if

you only prioritize family quality time

then it’s going to be pretty hard to

move some of the other rocks in your

life forward so there is a balancing act

there there’s no one-izefits-all

solution and family tend to understand

in certain instances when you choose to

do things so for a lot of the time I do

my work late at night i do my work early

in the morning or I do it when I can

find time but I I do dinner with my

family every night i do um you know get

up in the morning and we do our morning

routines and then we usually do at least

one if not two family activities on the

weekend and I wouldn’t trade that for

the world right i yes there are times

when I travel there’s times when there’s

some events but we always find time for

family and I will continue to try and

make that a bigger and bigger priority

in my life uh especially in the years

when my kids are in the house I just

know that that’s something important to

me that I will never ever regret

principle 10 stop trying to control

outcomes you can only control your

actions so this is a pretty important

one right the control is the operative

word there I think that goes back to the

ego and when you try and control things

is when you are forcing and when you

force things don’t flow force is a

constraining motion not an enabling

motion and I believe that doing what you

can and controlling what you not

attempting to control things that you

can control is one of the most freeing

thoughts I ever came to realize um and

that evolves you know largely from the

serenity prayer you know accept the

things I cannot change and have the

courage to change the things I can and

the wisdom to know the difference i mean

that’s that’s what it really boils down

to then the and final principle

constantly assess if the way you spend

your time is aligned with your values

you’ll know if it’s not so similarly to

the one where you question if if you’re

questioning whether you spend enough

time with your family then you already

know the answer this is the same thing

right when you do something you

generally know if it’s something that

you would be proud of or maybe be

ashamed of and that’s not to say that

you can’t do things that you know

nobody’s perfect and nobody should

attempt to be perfect because it’s

frankly not possible but understanding

you know the way you spend your time in

particular and if that’s mapping to the

principles that you have in your life

and the values you have in your life

hard to go wrong there so this is

another one where there’s no perfect

answer i think that you know the way we

spend time the way we manage

time I feel uniquely qualified to talk

about this just given how many different

things I’m doing and people always ask

me about it there’s no way to perfect it

and I I just

I encourage people to give themselves

some grace as they try and sort through

how to get everything done in their life

that they want to and recognize what you

are what you have been able to do and

just try and ask yourself on any given

day is what I’m choosing to spend my

time on today something that is in

service of my goals or is working

against them so that are those are my 11

principles you know this was a very very

long boiling down a monthlong exercise

into one little monologue here so if you

enjoyed this at all I would love to hear

some feedback i’d love to know from you

if you consider personal principles to

be something important if you want to

learn how I did this exercise or or swap

any feedback reach out to me on

Instagram at Aaron Amin REI Coach and

let me know what you think and as always

if you got any value out of this episode

please consider leaving a fivestar

rating and review and sharing it with a

friend i will talk to you next time

thank you for making it to the end of

today’s episode as you may know podcasts

are very difficult to grow organically

if you’re getting value from today’s

episode I’d deeply appreciate if you can

take 30 seconds to leave my show a

fivestar rating and review this will go

a long way to help me reach more

listeners just like you thank you so

much in advance