The Art of Creating a Self Storage Business – How to Bridge the Gap

The hardest part of creating a self storage business, creating abundance or wealth, is to “not judge what is happening by appearances.”

It takes a special skill set, an art, to create a self storage business (or any endeavor) with a mindset of abundance. The most challenging aspect of this skill, this art, is to learn to rely on things other than appearances to inform you of what is really happening.

Success is created.

All creation begins in the mind.

Your goal to be in the self storage business started when you understood how great a business it is. You saw the benefits of this type of real estate investment over all the others and you thought, “I can do this. Why not me?” Or something like that.

Then you said, “I’m all in!”

Sound familiar (or close)?

Then what immediately shows up in the world is the Gap.

Always.

The gap between where you are now and where your mind and intentions are pointing.

This is not something that is specific to you. It happens to anyone who is using the power of the mind to create something.

The Gap is always there.

And what shows up inside that Gap is what gets all of our attention because it’s screaming the loudest.

It’s often the Quadrant I activity if you are using Stephen Covey’s model.

It’s the crisis that demands your energy and attention.  Now.

It’s the stuff that requires the majority of your resources.  Now.

It’s the block, the stuff you have to deal with that stands between you and closing your first or next self storage project.

And there is a real art, a real skill, needed and required to not focus on what’s going on in that “Gap”, the area of your current experience that is sucking all your time, energy and resources, as the “way it really is.”

Now I can hear the realists I know saying, “What do you mean ‘what really is?’ I’m dealing with it so it’s really there.” (They’re also thinking I’m crazy as well).

Well, I am crazy and I love it.

The art of creating anything of real value, of giving your life for something greater than yourself (and if you’re creating a self storage business you are giving a substantial portion of your life to it) is to keep your attention on the vision you hold of the business while dealing with the stuff in the gap.

Most of us put all of our attention on all the stuff we have to deal with in the Gap, then allow that to show us what our reality is.

If you can keep your attention on the vision of your dream, then deal powerfully with what needs to be dealt with in the now, all the while not allowing the “Gap” stuff to alter your focus on the vision you hold for yourself, well, that is true power.

Who was it that said, “don’t judge the world by appearances?”

Look, I am not saying that all the stuff I’m dealing with to close this self storage project I’ve been working on for the past 4 months isn’t really there and I’m not having to jump through a lot of hoops. I am (as I write this we are 15 days away from a closing that’s already been pushed back twice before). I am and it’s really there.

What I’m also saying, and what’s more important, is that it WILL close, it’s a great addition to our portfolio, and “I am an owner of a profitable, expanding self storage company.”

Now two items about the above statement:

1. I didn’t say “I am an owner of a profitable, expanding self storage company” as a description of what I am seeing (judging by appearances that it not how it would be described). I’m using language to represent in words what I have created as the vision for our company. I am using language as a creative tool rather than a descriptive tool.
   1. In other words, I am dealing with what I have to deal with while staying focused on the vision.
2. I also created for myself the experience that “I find my self-expression and my energy in the gap.”
   1. I created that because it gives me the power to deal with with the stuff I have to deal with and also keep my vision as my guiding light, my “true north” as Covey would say.

This is just the way I have created my to approach to deal with the art of not judging by appearances. I didn’t create the concept completely by myself; I’ve had a lot of influences over the years.

My hope is to be an influence for you so you can create what works powerfully for yourself.

Your action steps:

1. Get clear on your dream and your vision. (Be specific about “what” and “when”).
2. Describe (but don’t label it as good or bad, i.e. “judge”) the current Gap between where you are now and your vision (this doesn’t give power to the stuff in the gap).
3. Create some practices for yourself that allows you to work through the stuff you have to while keeping your attention on your goal, your vision.
   1. Steal from me, or partially from me if you want, or totally create your own. It’s your vision and game. Have fun and create big.

Then you will be developing the skill to “ Not judge the world by appearances.”