Happy Sunday Everyone-
The market isn’t getting easier, or better, but there are still people getting it done. I didn’t have a particular event that happened this week worth writing about, but I did have some random thoughts come through my head during a sleep deprived night and a couple of runs.
- Me sitting on the couch eating a salami sandwich on a sourdough roll with provolone cheese, lettuce, and mayonnaise, drinking a beer, eating chips, watching golf, and saying to myself “i’m going to wake up at 5:00am tomorrow and go to the gym because i want to get in shape” is the equivalent of a loan officer sitting at their desk, looking at facebook, instagram, and emails, organizing their database saying “i’m going to get cranking tomorrow w/ calls because I want to be successful”. Nothing really happens tomorrow.
- I was listening to a podcast yesterday and heard Ed Mylett say “if you’re going to win, you have to change your relationship with pain, you have to do hard things and build the habits of doing hard things”. You could say “duh, heard that 100X” but for so many of us in this industry, its going to require a different version of ourselves if we’re not currently where we want to be! The sooner we realize the simplicity of this, the faster/sooner we will see a change in the outcome. Consider changing your relationship with pain.
- I talked to a very good loan officer on Friday. He’s down. He’s tough, he’s okay with tough conversations. We talked about 60 days from now, him looking in the mirror and saying one of 3 things to himself:
- I regret that I didn’t do more to make this work.
- I put the work in and I’m proud of myself even if it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to.
- I put the work in, I’m seeing the results, and the momentum is building, and I’m excited about the future.
Something we’ve probably all heard from Jim Rohn is, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons”. All of us need to take a look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves if we’re doing even 50% of what we can to succeed. I for one have been guilty of thinking I graduated from doing the things I was told do when I was selling phones door to door after graduating college- i.e. how many doors, how many talk tos, how many appointments did i set, how many phones did i sell? 28 years later, I have a much better chance of success if I measure what I’m doing, nothing has changed.
- Some commonalities between athletes and us. Questions to consider:
- Do you consider yourself a professional loan officer or Realtor? I truly hope you do.
- Can an athlete show up on game day with no other efforts throughout the week and perform? I view our game day as a purchase contract, a new lead, a new business partner opportunity. If you don’t practice your trade, you can’t be a professional when its game time.
- The more reps you get, the greater the chance of success when you get called in. Whether it be cold calls, Realtor meetings, client consultations, a presentation, details on a loan…practice gets you a heck of a lot closer to mastering your trade than not. Practice also creates confidence. I’m hopeful this doesn’t come off as a lecture vs. some self reflection. I need it as much as anyone reading this to help stay on track, and to be honest with myself.
I’ll leave you with this: one of my favorite books is “Everyday Hero Manifesto”, Author is Robin Sharma. I read a few pages a day after reading it a couple times cover to cover. Here is what I read this morning, “I pray this message, which I’m writing to you on a flight across the Atlantic, finds you in pristine focus around your craft, in single minded pursuit of your summits of excellence and in steadfast readiness to make your mark on the world, while you sculpt a life of happiness, sophistication, serenity, and usefulness that you feel proud of at the end”.
If I could write like that perhaps I’d have sold 20 mill copies too!! I’d ask anyone reading that statement (including me) to ask ourselves “why not”.