Successful
agents have an ability to focus and carry through that is often
missing in others. Unsuccessful agents find they have lots to do
and lots of good ideas, but they often haven’t examined what
would make the most difference.
Know
What’s Important
Most good agents have done some projections for their goals for
2005 in terms of the numbers they want to hit. Not as many can tell
you why they have chosen these numbers or how it fits into the bigger
picture of their life plans.
Here
is a way to define it:
1. Make a list of the 10 things you are most passionate about.
Examples are: spending time with family, taking a 2 week vacation
to Hawaii, being the top listing agent in your office, funding your
retirement account by $15,000.
2. Once you
have a list of 10, go through and prioritize which you care about
most. Compare each item to the others and ask which is more important
if you could have just one. That will give you your highest priority.
Then go through and do the same thing to get your 2nd highest, etc.
3.
Now write down the top 5 on a sheet of paper. This is your guiding
list of what is most important to you. Once you know what is most
important, you can make better choices about what you spend your
time on.
Getting
into Action
Choosing
activities that move you closer to an accomplishment that serves
your top five, will give you more satisfaction than other actions.
I find, with my coaching clients, when they have clarity on what
they really care about, they will naturally focus their days on
those activities that bring them closer to the attainment of these
items.
Face
it, in real estate you can stay very busy, but that busyness is
not always the highest and best use of your time. A differentiator
between the successful and not successful is identification and
action towards what will make the most difference. These agents
are relentless in taking the actions that build their business.
Those actions, like consistent prospecting, may be ones the average
agent procrastinates about.
Know
what is important and focus on the end result, instead of the process,
and it becomes easier to get into action with the less fun activities
that make a big difference. Consider, you brush your teeth every
day, probably not because it is an enjoyable activity but because
the end result, having healthy teeth, is important.
Joeann’s
Rule of 3
You
probably have more things to do and ideas you’d like to undertake
than you have time to implement. While you can not do it all, if
you take actions towards the most important daily, you’ll
be moving forward those things that you care most about.
Each
day identify the three actions that would give you the highest payoff.
This is not, necessarily, the 3 most urgent items on your to do.
Rather, in terms of your goals for your life and for the year, what
3 items will get you closer to what you really want?
Write
these 3 down each day on 5 little sticky notes and paste them where
you are going to see the:
• on your bathroom mirror,
• on the computer screen,
• on your car visor.
As
you go through the day, getting done the urgent things and other
easy things on your to do list, keep returning to the 3 most important
items. What step can you take right now? Each time you finish something,
review your top 3 and return to taking some actions to accomplish
those before taking on something else.
Any
habit takes repetition, but, in time, will become more automatic.
The first week you try this, you may have a hard time remembering
to return to your most important activities, but stay with it (that’s
what the sticky notes are for !) and it will become easier. You
are training your brain to recognize what is most important! The
difference between being ordinary and extraordinary this year can
be your choice to become very focused.
Joeann
Fossland, e-PRO, GRI, PMN, Master Certified Coach, is a national
speaker and she coaches agents, one on one, to create wildly successful
businesses while living a life they love. She is the Chief Evolution
Officer (CEO) of Advantage Solutions Group and creator of The Real
Estate Game™ and the FSBOGame. For more information, visit
her website at www.joeann.com or contact her directly Joeann@joeann.com.
|
