If you’ve been a real estate agent for a while now, you may have heard your buddies in your firm say things like. “I just can’t do this anymore.” Or “I’ve been doing this for too many years.” Or how about, “If I meet one more person who is ‘just looking’ at my open house this Sunday, I may lock up the property and go play golf until a real buyer comes along.”
Or, you may have said or thought one or two of these things yourself. It’s natural. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Everyone who has done the same thing for what may or may not be a long time experiences a bit of lethargy…a bit of complacency.
The most important thing to do when lethargy and/or complacency rears its head is to recognize it. Do not ignore it. Lethargy and/or complacency do not go away by themselves. Acknowledge it. And then go about creating a strategy for yourself to step back up to the top of your game…a strategy to put yourself on your toes.
Here are some tips to help you be and stay on your toes.
- If you do not already have an exercise program that engages you, find one and start it…tomorrow if not today. If you already have found that program, kick it up a bit in terms of pace and difficulty. An exercise program that gets your blood flowing clears out your head and stimulates your endorphins. You’ll feel better and eventually look better for doing it on a regular, consistent basis.
- Learn something new about the real estate industry. The industry is exploding with new technology, new best practices, new markets, new demographics coming into the market, new financing and transaction options, new skill sets. Learning new things and facing new challenges stimulate the brain. It’s difficult to remain complacent when challenging yourself to learn and face new things.
- Toss yourself into the fire at work. Instead of resting on past laurels, stand up what needs to be done. Once you succeed at accomplishing something difficult or unknown, you’ll have less anxiety or nervousness or lethargy when a new client or challenges shows up.
- Check in with your broker regularly. Be proactive about checking in. Find out what your broker thinks about what you’re doing. She’ll tell you. She’ll answer your questions. She’ll welcome your engagement and will, in turn, become more invested in your own professional development.
- Keep networking…keep meeting new people in the industry and in the community. Form new relationships. There are always new people to meet and discover, even if it’s hard for you to make the first move. If you’re going to a conference, reach out to the panelist or speaker on social media before the event in hopes of generating a discussion with them.
- *****And, most importantly, do what you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it.
