Running My Richmond VA Real Estate Business Like a Seven Year Old

Nope, you aren't seeing things. I have decided to stop being 37 and start running my Richmond VA real estate business like a seven year old. Say WHAT?!

I have had some revelations as of late and one of them has come from watching and listening to my 7 year old twins, Luke and Caitlyn. Children can teach you a lot of things if you just are willing to pay attention. 

As adults we are often told, "you CAN'T do that," or, "you have to be REALISTIC and get your head out of the clouds." We blindly accept this as being truth since our peers and elders are imparting this "sound" advice. Yet, the other day I had the audacity to question these statements and ask, "WHY?" 

You see, we were sitting at the dinner table and my husband told the kids his friend was stopping over. This made Caitlyn very happy as she liked to play games with this friend. She declared she was going to beat him at the game and I asked her, "what if you don't win?" Without skipping a beat, she confidently said, "I'll just try again." I was very proud of her for this positive way of thinking and gave myself a little notch on the parenting belt. 

Then, the other night I was planning my goals for 2014. The numbers had come out from 2013 and I had sold 32 homes and just shy of $8.7 million dollars in sales volume. I decided this year my goal would be to sell 52 homes. (I never worry about sales volume as I firmly believe if you do right by your clients the money will just come.) Cue the self doubt. The enormity of this goal started to weigh on me and as I was talking to friends and family about it, they seemed to unintentionally endorse the notion that my goals were too high. I heard things like, "you CAN'T expect the outperform your last year," and, "you need to LOWER your expectations." My first thought was to agree with them and then my inner voice told me to not buy into it - you can do anything you set your mind to. After-all that is what I tell my kids. Do I not practice what I preach?

We tell our kids when they are little they can be anything they want to be and then when they grow up we crush their dreams by telling them they can't. Why do we do that? Because we failed at our goals and didn't have the courage to get back up and TRY AGAIN?

When I think of some of the most successful people who have come or gone, I realized most of them have failed greatly yet they had the tenacity to get up and the knowledge that failure is just a bump in the road to their dreams. Did you know:

Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team: "I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed."

J.K. Rowling had lived on State benefits until her wildly popular Harry Potter novels took the world by storm. "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not lived at all, in which case you have failed by default."

Walt Disney was told he had no imagination. "All dreams come true if we have the courage to pursue them."

Oprah Winfrey was fired from her first job and told she wasn't fit to be on screen. "Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness."

Steve Jobs was let go of the very company he created, Apple. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma-which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice."

So, starting today I am going to be running my Richmond VA real estate business life a 7 year old, with the invincible mentality they embrace and the people pleasing outlook they have on life.

Searching for a Richmond VA real estate agent who will never, ever give up on their dreams AND yours? Give me, Shannon Milligan at the RVA Home Team with Long & Foster Realtors, a call today! 

Originally published at: http://www.rvahometeam.com/richmondvanews/running-my-richmond-va-real-estate-business-seven-year-old/