6 Personal Perspective – A Road Map to Continued Success

It is crucial to take a step back and assess where you are in your personal, emotional, and professional life. We thrive by exploring our motivations and strengths, which in turn give us the drive to succeed. It is important to reframe your mind and shift into a mindset to facilitate growth.

There are 6 perspectives outlined by professionals in real estate necessary to be a successful agent, including self-reflection, gaining knowledge, removing negative thoughts, and being accountable for your actions. Real estate is competitive, so these steps will ensure you to achieve your goals.

Throughout this article, you will read the six personal perspectives seen in many successful real estate agents that have paved their way to success. Leveraging these steps and applying them to your life and real estate business will get you on the path to achieving your own goals. You will be able to adapt through uncertainty and bring your real estate business to the next level.

Start With Your Goals

But before you dive headfirst into the road map to continued success, you need to know what you want to achieve in your personal life and professional career. Think big with long term goals. 

This will give you the momentum you need to propel yourself forward when you hit your short term goals. It is easy to relax and give yourself a breather after you hit those short term goals, and giving yourself a mental break to avoid burning out is crucial. However, taking a day off can turn into long breaks. You do not want to slow down or stagnate after hitting these smaller goals.

The great thing about being a real estate agent is that successful agents are willing to share what helped them succeed. Consider Gary Keller’s The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, undoubtedly a real estate agent’s handbook with more than 1.3 million copies sold, or Pat Hiban’s book 6 Steps to 7 Figures: A Real Estate Professional’s Guide to Building Wealth and Creating Your Own Destiny.

At the very least, the best real estate agents have left clues of how they got to the very top. With this in mind, here are the following six perspectives for you to leverage as you take your first step on the road map to continued success:

• Committing to self-mastery
• Committing to the 80/20 principle
• Moving from “E” to “P”
• Being learning-based
• Removing limiting beliefs
• Being accountable

Working through these 6 different perspectives or steps will help you self-reflect on where you are and how to get to where you want to be. Apply these perspectives to your life and business, as it will put you on the path towards achieving your goals.

Constantly challenge yourself and your business to grow. Sometimes you might assume that your real estate business will grow as you put in long hours and hard work. Unfortunately, sometimes life happens, and things simply do not work out. But by challenging your business to grow, you will be able to implement new systems and processes that will help give it more structure to expand.

Step 1: Committing to Self-Mastery

Self-mastery is the possession of the knowledge, skills, and habits that will help you master or become the best version of yourself. Committing to self-mastery takes self-reflection as it requires you to know your strengths and weaknesses. It involves deep introspection and using your traits to learn the skills and habits that you lack.

For example, say your goal is to master networking or to become better at prospecting. The next viable step in this scenario is to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Let’s say that you are an excellent public speaker and very personable with people. However, your weakness may be that you are uncomfortable talking about your real estate business.

Now that you know your weakness is hindering you from success, you can figure out ways to improve as a real estate agent. It could be by practicing scripts or simply attending more networking events and deciding to commit to putting yourself and your brand out there. By taking the first step to identify room for improvement and deciding to work on yourself is the first step towards self-mastery.

It is a marathon, not a sprint. Self-mastery takes more than simply reading this article, a self-help book, or taking a class to learn more about the subject. It is about the application, repetitive practice, and being mindful of your commitment to improving your life and business.

Step 2: Committing to the 80/20 Principle

The 80/20 rule is also known as the Pareto Principle. It is an observation that 80% of all your outcomes result from 20% of all causes. In the case of your real estate business, the goal of the 80/20 rule is to identify the most productive activities and make them a priority.

Make a success list that will lead you towards a direction, rather than a checklist of things to do that will distract you and pull you apart in many different directions. Have an eye for the essentials, and trim it even shorter by identifying the one thing that will have the most impact on your real estate business.

Take your highest priorities and commit to them. You might think that multitasking makes you more efficient, but a  Stanford University study in 2009 found it to be the exact opposite. 

Multitasking individuals were less organized mentally, struggled from switching from one task to another task, and had difficulty discerning relevant information from irrelevant details. Multitasking is simply not the best method to get as many tasks done in your workday.

Keeping the 80/20 rule in mind, block off time in your day to actively do one activity that will have the most impact on your business. In real estate, the activity that has the most impact is most likely lead generation and prospecting.

Protect your time block because life ultimately happens. It is your duty to yourself to protect what matters most to you and avoid any distractions that may pop up in your day.

You can always hire an assistant or admin to handle the administrative tasks that take up the other 80% of your activities. If you do not have the revenue to hire an assistant, consider a virtual assistant that may be more cost-effective for your business.

Otherwise, don’t let yourself be distracted from generating more business. Hiring before you actually need the additional support wastes your money and can slow the growth of your business.

Consider setting weekly goals that lead to larger monthly goals that ultimately flow into a larger annual goal. Allow flexibility as things may change over the year. It would be best to set a realistic goal that can be accomplished within twelve months. Try not to revise the goals you have in mind so that you can reflect on the goals you have missed at the end of the year.

Step 3: Moving from “E” to “P”

In this perspective, the “E” is the word “entrepreneurial” while the “P” stands for the word “purposeful.” One day, you will hit the ceiling on what you can achieve with just yourself as an entrepreneur, but purposefully breaking through this ceiling can help you achieve higher levels of success.

If you continuously only do things that are easy and come naturally to you, you will never step out of your comfort zone. If you stay in your bubble, you will not achieve the highest potential in your career. If being an entrepreneurial spirit comes naturally to a real estate agent, purposely committing to models or systems that feel unnatural for you will allow you to break through your current ceiling of achievement.

You will start looking to see what you need to move past the ceiling that has you stuck and feeling stagnant. Purposefully committing to keeping yourself accountable brings you to the next level.

The great thing is once you break through the ceiling, it now becomes your new base floor. As you grow in your career, you will encounter new ceilings where you will achieve higher growth.

There are 5 steps to changing to a purposeful mindset. They are the following:

1. Focus. Focus on the 20% to be more productive, and work with a purpose.
2. Find strategic ways. Ask if there are better and more efficient ways to do something.
3. Identify models to follow. Find role models or attend training sessions.
4. Install systems and procedures: Create checklists and test procedures to ensure they work properly.
5. Be accountable: Measure your activity, have a partner that will keep you accountable.

Step 4: Being Learning-Based

Training and educating yourself is a big component of moving forward to succeed at a high level. Become a learning-based person that decides to keep learning. Understand that there is always more to learn and commit to acquiring knowledge and skills.

If you do not continuously seek new knowledge to improve your skills, there is a chance that you will stagnate in your business. Work to improve yourself and expand your knowledge base.

People that are learning-based have four levels of competency. According to Keller Williams, these are the following levels:

1. Unconscious Incompetence: You have no idea of what you do not know. 
2. Conscious Incompetence: After you get some knowledge, you know what you do not know. For instance, some things might be challenging, and you know that it will take time to learn it.
3. Conscious Competence: You need to focus on a particular activity, but you are much better at it than before.
4. Unconscious Competence: With enough time and practice, your proficiency turns into competence. You can do an action with confidence without focusing too much on it.

Participate in all the education you can find on the internet or participate in all the training offered through your real estate company. Your knowledge is the foundation for your success in the real estate market, so it is crucial to stay up to date. Real estate agents committed to learning and providing their clients with valuable market information are the agents that are succeeding in this economy.

Step 5: Removing Limiting Beliefs

Denying that you will be able to achieve your fullest potential is the biggest barrier to success. Do not be the kind of person that holds yourself back. Do not sabotage yourself. Remove any limiting beliefs, and believe that you can do it. Be more confident in your abilities, and redirect negativity into positive thoughts that will help you succeed.

For instance, you might be thinking that a three hour time block every day devoted to lead generation is too much. You might think that there is not enough time in the day for this activity, which will only make you stress yourself out.

However, Gary Keller, the founder of Keller Williams, once mentioned that leads are an important aspect in your real estate business and that “leads are the fuel to your economic engine.” 

So rather than disregarding the three-hour time block for lead generation activities, consider redirecting that energy to make it happen. Lead generation is a crucial part of your real estate business, and missing it will only hurt you. You should be feeding your customer relationship database with leads every day to facilitate touchpoints and nurture your relationships.

Examine Your Limiting Beliefs

Ask yourself what emotions are causing these limiting beliefs. Negative emotions such as anxiety or excessive worrying are connected to the opinions we have according to our environment or based on our experiences in life. Examine these negative limiting beliefs that are controlling your behavior and replace them with positive and empowering beliefs.

Work on turning fear into action instead of letting it hold you back. Change your inner monologue and catch it before it turns negative since it will turn your mood into a free-falling downward spiral of despair.

Respect yourself, and you will slowly believe in yourself and your skills as a real estate agent. Surround yourself in an uplifting environment and with people that affect you positively instead of bringing you down.

Being around negative-minded unmotivated people will drain your own energy and potential. In a conversation at Columbia University with Bill Gates, billionaire Warren Buffett noted, “You want to associate with people who are the kind of people you’d like to be. You’ll move in that direction.” 

Beyond associating with like-minded successful people, take a step further, and associate with the kind of successful people you want to be by reading books and biographies. Fill your mind with knowledge of success that people have achieved in the past.

Explore differentiating perspectives from successful people that came from all over the world and include diverse critical thinking to expand your horizons.

Believe in Yourself

You are the driving force of your success. Believing yourself is about finding your inner strength to continue forward despite all the ups and downs in life. Each challenge, failure, and rejection brings new skills and experience gained as a real estate agent.

Sometimes believing in yourself is easier said than done. Remember the success you had hitting short term goals in the past, or remember moments in your life when you overcame obstacles or barriers. These memories will encourage you on your journey towards success in new goals.

Consider adopting new routines that change your mindset. It could be helpful to take some time in the morning to practice meditation or light yoga, as it can reduce anxiety and help you jumpstart your day. Incorporating mindfulness can set the tone for the workday ahead.

Step 6: Being Accountable

Being accountable is an attitude and approach that must encompass your entire life. It is a tool for owning up to your actions and making a concrete decision to be diligent about your commitment to growing as an individual.

It is important to be completely honest with yourself and constantly review your own performance. If your performance is suffering or slacking, commit to making a change rather than blaming others.

It is also a good idea to ask the people around you for unbiased feedback. The feedback from your coworkers, mentors, or friends will give you meaningful insights, and you can ask if they have any advice that will help you grow and succeed.

You should also survey your clients to learn about where you can improve on or what you are doing right. How you see yourself can be very different from those around you.

Conclusion

High achieving real estate agents have committed to applying these perspectives to their life. They have experienced success in many different forms, whether monetary gain or in knowledge and skills. It is up to you to take your first step on the road map to continued success by applying these personal perspectives to your own life and career.

You can accomplish anything when you have a vision and goals that you are striving towards. It does not happen overnight, but rather in many little steps. These success-inspiring principles will set you on the path to accomplishing your dreams.