Well…it’s the last quarter of 2026, and on the self-storage front, it does not appear like I will hit my targets for this year.

I said a few choice words, but for this episode, I’ll just say “dang.”

Now if I was looking for reasons why outside of myself, I could point to the tight credit market, a seller group that was hard to work with, an economy that has at best mixed signals, high construction cost and interest rates, and so forth.

You get it.

But at least for me, there is no power there. Yes, it’s valid. But I’ve been through ups and downs before and adjusted.

If it is the economy, or the President, or the Congress, or interest rates, or whatever, then I am a victim.

Victims have no power in life.

My training is to be 100% responsible for whatever happens to me.

This may or may not be true, but I am not seeking the truth here. I am seeking power. And the only way I have power is to be responsible. When I am 100% responsible, then I can change something.

How I Adjust

My training is to look for what Limiting Belief, or Limiting Thought is running in the background of my life.

If I can actually identify and take responsibility for my Limiting Beliefs, then I can change them.

As a human, our beliefs create the world we see. They are always running in the background, and for the most part, we are not present to them. However, our beliefs create the lens we see and experience the world in. They are the limit for what is possible for us, and they totally drive the bus of our life.

Our beliefs create the context in which the world shows up for us.

So for me to have any power, I am on the hunt for what thoughts or beliefs are not serving me. Again, not like the truth, but what do I really think and believe about myself and my self-storage business that could be the source of my not hitting my targets.

I have come up with two so far that appear to be there for me, but I was not conscious of thinking them or giving power to them.

My First Limiting Belief

“Self-Storage is a lot harder than it used to be.”

I was unaware that I was out there collecting experiences and data to validate this thought running in the background…but I was.

Now it is valid and may even be true, but so what.

Who says it shouldn’t be harder than it used to be? Almost everything is.

Why should this stop me in life?

What gives me power is that I didn’t realize this was the context through which I was seeing my self-storage activities. Being unaware, I was literally collecting evidence and expecting things to be hard.

This doesn’t serve me.

A belief is just a thought, and a thought can be changed.

I can replace it with something like “I have all the power, energy, and resources I need to hit my storage goals in 2027.”

That is certainly more empowering than believing the self-storage business is harder than it used to be. See, I reduced the font already, taking power away from it.

My Second Limiting Belief

As embarrassing as this is to say, I realized I was believing, or thinking, “Maybe I’m too old to be playing the self-storage game anymore.”

That thought certainly boosts your energy, right?

True, most people my age are not playing this game too hard, but so what. Who says when someone reaches 65 or 70, they need to stop being productive or creating at a professional level?

I tried retirement and failed at it.

I realized I need a future to live into that is one of creating, and business, and particularly self-storage is the thing I like creating the most.

Sure, I don’t have to play at it as full on as I did in the past, but no matter what my age is, “I have all the power, energy, and resources I need to hit my storage goals in 2027.”

Your Limiting Beliefs

So if you are not achieving or living up to what you know is your potential, I ask you, what are your Limiting Beliefs? What could you create or discover as a thought or belief system that is the lens through which you see your self-storage business?

There is real power when we can see them and replace them. Our world is a reflection of our thoughts, so one way to have power in life is to create empowering thoughts and beliefs through which our world can come at us.

Again, not like this is the “truth,” but like a way to have power over our life and business.

I share this in hopes it may be of help to some.

But mark my words, I will be a force to contend with in 2027 because “I have all the power, energy, and resources I need to hit my storage goals in 2027.”

At the ISS convention I heard a presenter end his presentation with a Japanese proverb: “Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.”

My coaching is to take the action of being responsible for any limiting thought or belief affecting your self-storage business and see what is possible then.