By Cliff Baird
RISMEDIA, March 6, 2008-An echo can only give you back what you say. The way your life is today is merely an echo of what you have said, what you have done and what you have expected. If you are facing a personal crisis in this current real estate turmoil, it is not solely the result of circumstances like mortgage fraud or the depleting number of buyers.
That is not meant to imply that those situations are less than critical. The problems in today’s market, however, do present an opportunity for some distressed agents to deflect the real cause of their personal crisis onto external conditions.
Be careful not to dwell on what’s wrong at present, but rather begin a determined focus on the opportunity that still exists and get back to the basics of real estate. Get back to what it was in the early days of your career-when you were so intimidated by being new to the business-that brought you success.
Let’s realize that buyers are still going to buy and sellers are still going to sell. Yes, there may be fewer for the moment. But if you are serious about your future, you will do the math and simply conclude that you need to do more of the activities that generate sales. Indeed, you probably need to initiate more “personal” contact and stop being seduced by the power of the Internet and e-mails. If there has ever been a time to truly be “in-touch,” it is now. This is the time for consistently working your contact base with emotional professionalism.
Intellectually, we all know that this season will end and real estate will flourish and thrive once again. Just when that will occur, we are somewhat uncertain about. So until then, stop giving in to the urges of dismay. Stop waiting for some future occurrence to recreate your success.
Here is the advice I give to many people when they are longing for a future event to secure their peace of mind:
Stop Waiting for Your Happiness
Stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose 10 pounds, until you gain 10 pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until the home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until the first or 15th, until your song comes on, until…until…
Decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy about life.
We all have a dark side and a bright side. Do you know which one always comes out on top? It is the one that we feed! The one that we nourish survives. This is just another example of the echo principle: we are always moving in the direction of our thoughts.
During this period of reorganizing, rebuilding and redirecting your real estate career, you need to create peace of mind about where you are headed. You need to focus on the truth about the future and how to get there. Fear is not your native soil. The only way we can attempt to predict the future is to see it in the light of history. For those of us who have endured the past storms of real estate, we can say with certainty that it will pass quickly. There are those among us who succeeded when interest rates were higher than 20%. We survived and thrived-and so can you. It’s your choice!
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything they have.
Check Yourself for Positive Thinking
–Surround yourself with those who think positive. You may not think others have that much power over your train of thought, but they do.
–Actively try to see the upside to all things. Eventually, it will become second nature, but until such time you have to force yourself. Every time something negative happens, actively force yourself to find something positive in the situation.
–Make the best of what you’ve got. If you’re depressed over not making enough money, first look and see if you’re making the best of what you have already.
–Speak positively to others; it’ll rub off on you. This is an example of “fake it until you make it.” Little by little, you’ll notice yourself thinking on the positive side naturally, more and more often.
–Realize it’s never too late. If you’re breathing, it’s not too late to make anything right. Where there is life, there is hope.
Source: leahey.org
Cliff Baird, MBA, PhD, has spent over 25 years coaching agents and managers to focus on business systems that lead to abundant success. He is the developer of The RealSTAR Online Recruiting System, which helps managers handle the recruiting process.
For more information, please contact Baird at cliff@cliffbaird.com or visit www.realstarrecruits.com.
