Lessons I learned from losing weight applied to real estate

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM LOSING WEIGHT APPLIED TO REAL ESTATE

I am writing this blog post as a follow up to my last blog How to have happy clients from start to finish where I shared some simple principles to maintaining happy clients.   I was so thrilled and excited by all of the comments I have decided to write again on a topic of simple principles but this time pertaining to your career and success as an agent.

I am sure you have you seen those before and after shots of people holding up there old pants in front of them showing off their incredible weight loss. Well,  I recently dropped 30 pounds and while I am not ready just yet for my before and after shot I have learned some things that in reflection made me realize they are principles that can apply directly to my real estate career.  First, I had to determine why I was gaining and it turns out it was a matter of input vs output.  I was taking in more calories then I was burning off in a days time and when you do this over time you gain unwanted pounds. I needed to modify this chain of input vs output. How?? First you must identify what foods are good for you and what foods are not good for you. Second, how many calories do these foods contain and what should you consume in a day (total calorie intake)in order to start to loose weight. Third, develop better habits such as exercise and discipline.  These are some key elements that are simple but require some further thought.

•  First, I had a doctor help me identify according to my height and weight what my calorie intake should be daily.  You see I had to seek the advice of an expert to help me identify what I should be doing.

  Real Estate is not any different. Do you have real estate professionals that can help you identify what sort of activities you should be doing to further your career?  How about a coach or a mastermind group.  Other agents sharing ideas that work.  What works and what does not work?  Actually,  this is one of the elements that makes Active Rain so fantastic learning what others are doing just by reading.  I have learned so much from reading blog posts.

•   Second,  I needed to be educated about food.  What foods are good, what foods are bad,  which foods are loaded with calories and what foods are not??  Again, this may appear simple but it was something I had to learn.  I truly did not realize that by eating crackers or a lot of carbohydrates (like I was doing) I was adding a huge amount of extra calories a day to my diet. I identified what my bad habits were.  After learning this I have become more aware of what I am eating by reading labels, checking the calorie content and the fat content of foods. I started to learn what I should eat and what I should not eat. 

   Even if you are the most disciplined Rock Star Realtor around I bet you could learn something new and you may have a bad habit or two.  By identifying what your bad habits are and cutting them out I am confident you will streamline your success.  Sit down with a pen and paper and write down habits you have that are not benefiting your career and make an action plan on how you are going to break the bad habits.   OUT with the Bad and In with the good.  Put down those french fries my friend and grab a carrot!

•  I had to sit down and set goals to determine what weight I would like to be in a week, two weeks, three weeks a month and so on.  I had clear targets that I was trying to hit. Regardless of the different theories out there got on the scale every day.  I was monitoring my success rate daily and if I was up I would work that much harder to get it down again.  Most times when the scale was showing up I was able to identify something I did to cause it. 

Do you have your real estate goals set?  Do you know where you want to be in a week, two weeks a month or a year?  How many listings do you want, how many closed transactions do you want,  what is your income target? This list goes on and on for me and I am sure if you sit down you can clearly identify some of your goals.  With out goals you are like a ship lost at sea with no clear direction.  You do not know where land is or how to find it you are just being tossed and turned by the waves wandering aimlessly.  Do not hesitate sit down and identify your goals TODAY!  Start by identifying your short term goals what do you want to accomplish in a week, two weeks, three weeks and so on.  Then identify your long term goals what results are you looking for in six months a year and so on. 

•  Exercise is key and while it is a struggle for me to find time I know I have to exercise.  I am not perfect but I try and each time I go it gets better and better.  It is a daily routine that I need to develop and work on each and every day to get healthy. It is what helps me to get the burn on and fire up the metabolism engine.

Real Estate requires a routine like exercise.  Get up, get out there, go into the office, network, talk to other agents, go to open houses, learn your markets, go go go.  No more sitting around! do not be a lazy agent!  you have to exercise your real estate muscle to make it grow.  You can do it go, go, go!!! GET OUT THERE AND GO!

A few final tips are believe in yourself, stay positive and take it one day at a time.  You should know that as I write this this is also a reminder to myself.  Trust me that this is my inner voice speaking to myself first and I do not take any position of being on a high horse.  Believe in yourself you must.  My market has over three hundred fifty Realtors mostly surrounded by water in a coastal area with islands in South Carolina.  There is a lot of competition out there so I must believe in myself and my abilities as a Real Estate Professional. 

 2009 has proven to be a difficult year for many with the housing crisis.  According to Wikipedia the definition of crisis is

A crisis (plural: crises) (from the Greek κρίσις) may occur on a personal or societal level. It may be an unstable and dangerous social situation, in political, social, economic, military affairs, or a large-scale environmental event, especially one involving an impending abrupt change. More loosely, it is a term meaning 'a testing time' or 'emergency event'.

 A TESTING TIME: Did you notice that element in the definition.  Stay positive, please just remember this is a testing time and the strong will survive all the more reason to get rid of bad habits, apply goal setting and work harder. Don't let them get you down!

Take it one day at a time check in with your goals, monitor your success rate, stay focused, get your coach or real estate mastermind group together, share ideas and watch your success. I will be right there with you doing the same.  GOOD LUCK TO ALL BE A SUCCESS!!!