In this Motivational Monday video, Zach presents a framework of four core obstacles that block personal and professional success, each beginning with the letter D: Discouragement, Doubt, Delusion, and Delay. He explains how each obstacle manifests—discouragement from well‑meaning but misaligned advice, doubt as an internal, unfounded questioning, delusion as a distorted perception caused by being too close to a problem, and delay as the cumulative effect of the other three. For each D, Zach offers a countermeasure: encouragement to replace discouragement, belief (reinforced by a personal "highlight reel") to combat doubt, clarity (step‑by‑step thinking) to overcome delusion, and decisive action to eliminate delay. He emphasizes that these obstacles are recurring and must be actively managed. Throughout, Zach ties the concepts to his Smart Real Estate Coach community, referencing in‑person boot camps, the "Wicked Smart" brand, and a mastersclass at smartrealestatecoach.com/mastersclass. The video concludes with a call to subscribe to the channel and to apply the presented tools immediately.
Chapters
There are only 4 actual obstacles to success. Now, I know that that might sound absolutely insane because there are challenges that we face internally, the challenges we face externally, and there's so many things that we all feel that are completely out of our control. Welcome to another Motivational Monday. If you have not subscribed to our YouTube channel, go ahead and click the subscribe button because we are bringing it here every single Monday. Now, shout out to I was listening to a podcast one day when I was at the gym and it all clicked. He told me, he said, there are 4 Ds or 4 main obstacles to success, and they can all be identified in these 4 words that start with Ds. Now, I'm not just going to give you the obstacles today. I'm actually going to give you the opposite as well. To ensure that you can actually reach success, I actually bring up these four Ds every single event in which we have. We have what we call the in the trenches boot camps, where we bring up roughly fifteen to twenty people to our office in Newport, Rhode Island, and dive into the actual business. And the main thing that actually stops any of our success are. These four Ds. So let's go ahead and walk through them. That way today you can actually go out there and identify when you're butting your head up against an obstacle that is really pushing you back from reaching your true potential, reaching what you define as success. Now these are going to actually seem quite obvious, but if we don't actually identify them, and if we don't see. Them as they truly are, then they become much bigger than what they actually are. So I'm going to start you off with the first D. The first D is discouragement. Now you're saying there, Zach, of course, you know, discouragement is an obstacle to success because if I am discouraged, then my energy is low, my perspective is low, my ability to actually go out there and accomplish something Is much less than if I was encouraged, which is the opposite of that deep. Now discouragement is going to come in a whole bunch of different forms, but it actually comes from the people in which we love, the people that we believe love us. And I'm gonna make a bold statement here, and I'm gonna tell you that just because people love you do not mean That they're actually going to understand what your success looks like. Because the crazy part about discouragement actually comes in forms that we were not expecting. It comes in the form of a parent giving you a piece of advice or a friend asking you a rhetorical question or a mentor or somebody that you believe in. Giving you a piece of advice that just does not fit what you're looking for and what you see yourself as success. It could sound something like this, right? Something like, you have an amazing job. Why would you want to go start a business? See, that's a form of discouragement. They are giving you a compliment, yet wondering why you do not want to just stick to the current life in which you live. Or something along the lines of, look, you have an amazing skill set. Why not just keep working on what you currently have built? Why risk it all? Why go find retirement? Why go try to accomplish something that they just can't see? And that's discouragement. So we always like to say we want to be surrounded by like-minded people. Like-minded people will encourage us. They'll See the things that we don't see yet, but they have to be in places that we haven't been yet. An encouragement has to come in the form of a vision, showing you understanding where you want to be when it comes to success. So if we are going to accomplish success, we have to get rid of discouragement or at least identify it. About what it actually is and not let it internalize us and find ways to be encouraged. Second D, doubt. Now, doubt sometimes can come right after discouragement. Somebody plants a seed in your brain and all of a sudden you have doubt. But doubt is an internal feeling. It can't come from outside. Doubt comes internally. Have you ever been through a time in your life where you start to question whether or not you can actually reach the goals of what you want? That's doubt. That's doubt creeping in. And majority of the time, doubt actually has zero substance attached to it. It's just we've never been to where we want to go. So of course we have a limited perspective. And now we begin to doubt whether or not we can do it. Happens all the time. Happens to me almost daily. If you are not pushing yourself to grow every single day, then you, you might not feel doubt. But if you're listening to this video right now and you're sitting there saying, I get it, I'm going for it, and of course you're gonna find doubt. So how do you battle doubt? Well, it's a beautiful word. It begins with B. It's belief. Every single one of our community members that we speak with, we try to instill a sense of belief because we have been where they want to go. But we've also been through lots of ups and downs and challenges and saw The end result, and the truth that you have as well. I like to call it a highlight reel. Now, a highlight reel is something that you have made up inside your mind, or you have actually physically taking pictures and have now put it into your phone, maybe, or you have had pictures of your success and you've printed it out and put it on a dream board. So the highlight reel is really all of the accomplishments in which you've had, because I bet you that every single one of those accomplishments, you have gone through a struggle or a challenge. Now, this highlight reel is something that we can bring up on the forefront of our mind when we start to get doubt, because these Ds don't go away. All of these Ds are going to consistently be a part of your life. It's just how can we utilize the tools to combat these Ds? So a highlight reel could be a way in order to instill belief. All right, which brings us to the third D, delusion. Now, I know we use this word, uh, and typically it's not in a business sense, right? Delusion, it means almost sometimes like you're crazy or you're just not seeing things right. Now, quite frankly, I have experienced this many times, and it comes in the form of being too close to the business or being too close to the challenge. And I have convinced myself that it is only one way. It's only one perspective. But quite frankly, as soon as I go ahead and take a step back and view the problem from a different angle, I'm able to combat that delusion. Have you ever spent, uh, many hours at night worrying and thinking about a problem and building up all of that anxiety of something that doesn't even exist yet? Is that delusion? I would think so. So how do you combat delusion? With clarity. Clarity is something that each and every one of us can and should always be seeking. Clarity produces a step-by-step process of what needs to be done. Because the truth is, as we are climbing this mountain, as we are looking for success, we have to take it one step at a time because each step is what creates the next. Round of clear measures or clear steps, because I can't tell you how to go out there and go from making $100,000 in your W-2 job to making $1 million in real estate. You are going to be the one that follows your own individual path. Now, I can tell you exactly what things to measure, what steps to take, but I don't know what deal is going to be your first deal that gives you that breakthrough. I don't know how to combat some of the challenges in which you're gonna face with your family as you continue to grow and try to reach your goals. You are the one that needs to seek the clarity about exactly what you want and how you're gonna get there. That's how we combat delusion, is by seeing things How they actually are, not how we perceive them. Now, the last D, and quite frankly, is the most important D because this D can actually affect each and every one of the things in which we talked about today. And quite frankly, the answer to this D is going to be the number one answer to all of them. Now, the 4th D is known as delay. What creates delay? Discouragement, doubt, delusion, which then creates delay. Now, timing is everything, and a majority of us may only get an opportunity that could change our lives every so often. And I would absolutely hate for you to miss out on an opportunity because you have delay. So how do we combat delay? Well, it's one of our favorite words. It's one of the words in which we use consistently inside our community with people we buy real estate all across the country with. So is our Wicked Smart community. And we wear these t-shirts all the time. And it says, life rewards action. Action combats delay. Action combats delusion. Action combats doubt. And action combats discouragement because fear grows with time. And action gives us energy. It's emotion. It moves us closer to our success and it moves us closer to our goal. Which then creates a different sense of energy, which creates more clarity, brings in belief, and surround yourself with encouragement. Because we know that successful people start before they know everything. We know that successful people wake up every single day and they take action based upon what is directly in front of them. And that's exactly the type of community of people we have built here. here at Smart Real Estate Coach. And if you would like to join our community and start buying real estate deals through creative financing, go ahead and start at the beginning. Go through smartrealestatecoach.com/mastersclass and see exact strategies in which we are using so that we can continue to show you the action plan needed to go out there and reach your goals. Now, if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel just yet, just go ahead and click that subscribe button. As every single Monday, we're going to be pouring into you along with Thursdays and Sundays as well. So that way you can continue to see that pathway for your success. Now that you have recognized these 4 Ds, use the tools in which we talked about here today and go out there today and make it happen.
