Our brains are hardwired for “NOW.” Instant gratification. No waiting. No patience. Just post your latest listing on Instagram and be done with it. You’ve done your part by posting the property on social media and, “whew,” you’re off the hook. Now it’s up to the property to sell itself, right? Um….no.
If this feels at all familiar to you, please read on. Instant gratification, because it’s hardwired into our brains, seeps into all aspects of our lives…work, relationships, money, health. Nick Patel, renowned thought leader, has said “We want to hack business growth for viral expansion.” Relationship specialists tell us to actually read the profile on a Match.com candidate instead of judging a person’s worth by their photograph. Financial advisors suggest we make sure the shoes actually fit before we buy and wear them out of the store.
Instant gratification is pleasure, not happiness. To get to happiness, try to sustain your motives for happiness and/or success by waiting…deliberatively.
- Become more aware of your motives. Stop and take a breath before habitually going to your phone, your FaceBook page, your Instagram account. What you’re really looking for may not be on social media platforms. Keep score of every time you resist the urge of tried and true social media distractions.
- In this building process of waiting, feeling uncomfortable is temporary. When you’re wanting an immediate distraction/pleasure, try counting to 10. While counting, try to figure out why wanting/completing “it” NOW is so urgent. If you can’t, perhaps the urgency of NOW stems from not having anything to focus on.
- Be patient with your progress. Habits are harder to break than they are to make. Allow yourself to be frustrated and/or disappointed if and when you slide, but get right back on track and focus on progress, not perfection.
- Choose the action that brings results. Instead of just passively doing something ‘easy’ such as posting a listing on Instagram, feel great about doing something that will actually enhance your long term success such as following up that post with phone calls to prospects about that listing.
