STRESS GOT YOU DOWN???...The STRESS FACTOR In Real Estate Getting To You Too?
As real estate professionals, we are up against almost insurmountable challenges everyday. We deal with people where they live! We have a responsibility that not many other professions have to fulfill: The Home is the place where emotional, financial and survival mechanisms are rooted. Not one other thing that an individual owns or manages is anything like the Home. Families laugh there, cry there, play there and raise children there--memories are in the walls and the floors in layers.
These STRESS FACTORS are embedded in our profession and need to be recognized by each of us in order to become a polished and ethical professional.
I find the stress from real estate is one of the most overwhelming of all the other stresses in my life--most other situations I handle with no effort, it seems. But the stress from real estate is rather subtle in it's impact on my system.
- My back is a place where stress ends up. I just found a great chiropractor--helped me get rid of a constant pain in my neck and back.
- Headaches come and go with the amount of stress I am having from my work...never had headaches before real estate!
- Anger management is necessary in real estate--either learn how to manage it yourself or get help to manage it! I have fortunately found ways to get over my anger very quickly....and move on.
- I find myself feeling resentful of the way some other agents behave...or the way a seller just talked to me. Resentment does nothing to improve your
attitude--in fact it can kill you!
I wanted to share with you all the idea that one of the things that we are not trained in, is how to handle the stresses from our work. Our initial training and our Continuing-ed classes never mention the STRESS FACTOR. As a result, we are in a profession that loses so many new agents in the first year of their RE career that it is a common thing to see agents leave their desk and not even say they are leaving!!!
THINGS I DO TO LESSEN THE STRESS FACTOR:
- Deep breathing after an encounter and before a reaction
- Relaxation techniques, i.e. meditation, self hypnosis
- A mantra that is in front of me at my desk or on my refrigerator: "I am a worthy, honest person; I deserve to be treated properly; I am a happy, successful, and thoughtful person"....well, you get the point! Make up your own positive reinforcement.....
Established agents have usually dealt with the stress that is built into our profession but many just push it down, try to ignore it. They may not even realize the deep influence this kind of stress can have on them and they go forward, working with other buyers and sellers without realizing they are bringing that anger, resentment and pain along with them into a new business relationship. Many become ill, never realizing that years of subjecting their minds and bodies to this STRESS FACTOR is taking it's toll.
All professions have their stresses; all business comes with a substantial share of stress--None deal with the kind of stress that comes with a seller who is about to lose his/her home; no other profession has the multiplicity of emotions and conflicting feelings of a person who is letting go of such a personal possession as their home!
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