There are only so many hours in a day, right? Focusing your work time on “doing your job” or being productive is one way to improve both the quantity and the quality of that work time. That means no distractions such as checking social media every ten minutes or shopping online or talking with friends instead of actually making five cold calls every day.
Focusing some of your spare time, your after work time, on learning new skills and/or improving skills you already have is another way to increase the quantity and quality of your professional expertise. Think of a comedian…they’re “working” all the time before and after being on stage so they can learn new dialects or accents that will improve their jokes and increase the laughs they get from their jokes.
It’s the same for you as a real estate agent. The more tech skills you can learn and improve upon in your after work time, the more impressive and eclectic your listing presentations will be.
This learning time, this improving your specific skills in your spare or after work time will incrementally increase your knowledge base. Eventually, that ever increasing knowledge base will grow, snowball and expand your expertise exponentially in ways you’ve likely not anticipated.
Here are some tips that can kickstart your exponential growth rate and your overall expertise. All it takes is one hour a night…no more, no less…a one hour commitment to personal development…every night.
- Read real books on every subject. Choose books that give you new perspectives, new information, new ways of thinking regardless of the subject matter, regardless of fiction or non-fiction.
- Boost skills that are holding you back. If the thought of public speaking sends chills up and down your spine, watch videos of great public speakers, take a speech class, practice a speech in front of a mirror.
- Build your connections. Chances are your prospects and referrals come from who you know, right? So get out there and connect with more people who share your interests, your profession, your hobbies. Some of the people who become real connections may become mentors, may become career opportunities for you, may become real friends.
- Work on personal projects. It doesn’t matter what that project is. It doesn’t matter if you’re not getting paid. What does matter is your enthusiasm for that project, your patience with trial and error and your persistence in seeing that project to its.
- Look for ways to become more efficient. It doesn’t matter if you want to become more efficient with your golf swing, your IT skills, your writing skills. What does matter is your wanting to become more efficient. Make a list of things that could become more efficient with your golf swing, for example. Then prioritize those things from most important to least, such as changing your grip. Lastly, develop a plan to actually implement the improvements/changes you think are most important to improving your golf swing. Who knows where your new and improved golf swing will take you…most likely beyond the sand trap.
