There are two key words that lead to success in life: attitude and expectation. These words control the successful outcome of your business, marriage, and many other areas of life. Although you may have incredible talent and skill in life, you will fail if you do not master these two words. Even if you have only limited talent and skill, you will win if you live by these two words.

If you have a positive forward-looking attitude you will accomplish great things. (When we hire people at Real Estate Champions that is the first and most important characteristic we look for in a team member. An employee with a great attitude will learn the skills needed to excel.) How is your attitude? Does it need an improvement? Are you positive and upbeat? If you have the attitude that every challenge or obstacle leads to new opportunity, success is all but guaranteed. Thomas Edison was said to have worked on creating the electric light bulb because darkness interfered with his ability to conduct further experiments. He wanted to be able to work long into the night. Edison could have moaned about the darkness. That would not have done any good. He used his attitude and solved a problem of darkness. There are thousands of examples in life how some people took lemons and with a great attitude made lemonade.

Start building your attitude today. Convince yourself that you are the best agent anyone could hire. You have to be convinced yourself before anyone else will be convinced. The attitude you bring on the objections will help you handle them and get the contract signed. The attitude that you take when you have a problem transaction will make the difference between a closing and a deal falling out.

One technique to improve your attitude is using affirmations. Affirmations drive positive mental pictures into your subconscious mind. Create affirmations like:

• I am a great sales person.
• I am skilled at handling objections and getting the contract signed.
• People do business with me because I am positive, knowledgeable, and professional.
• I earn __________ (you fill the blank).
• I am a great spouse.

Use these affirmatives or create your own to improve your mental attitude daily.

The second power word is expectation. If you don’t expect to win you will not win. Henry Ford said, “If you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.” If you go on a listing and expect to take it at your price and commission, you will. If you go expecting a fight on commission and your price, you will receive that also. Make sure to set the positive expectation of success before the appointment with a prospect or client. You also need to set a positive expectation before every call you make. Expectation is the gateway to confidence. The first step to having unshakable confidence is that you believe you are the agent for the job. If your expectation is strong enough people will come around to your way of thinking. You just need to be stronger in will and mental focus than your clients, prospects and other agents are. A perfect example is Henry Ford.

Many years ago Ford went to his engineers and told them to build him a V-8 engine. They said it could not be done. Ford plainly told them to go do it and report back in 90 days. When the 90 days were done they reported back to Ford. They had spent the whole 90 days figuring out why a V8 engine was impossible. In the meeting with Ford they spent their time trying to convince him it could not be done; a V8 engine was impossible and could never be created. Ford’s attitude and expectation of a V8 engine was stronger than the engineer’s attitude and expectation that it could not be done. We all know who won in the end. Your expectation will create your reality. You have to expect before you can receive. You need to expect the people and situations that will enable you to create the future you desire. Expectation does not mean you don’t have to work. You will work harder than before to develop the outcome you desire. The expectation takes away the fear of failure. Don’t be paralyzed by the fear or failure. Failure is a natural part of success. You cannot have success without failure. It’s truly a masterful design. You cannot have good without evil. The exhilaration of success would be lost without the frustration of failure. Most people forget the failures over time and only remember the victories. Take Babe Ruth as an example; he hit the most home runs of his time. He also had the most strikeouts. No one remembers that…only the home runs…. the successes.

Set your attitude to positive. Look for the opportunities in every situation. Expect to win…every time.

Vince Lombardi had a famous saying:

Winning is not a sometime thing; its an all time thing. You don’t have to win once in awhile, you don’t do things right once in awhile, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.

Lombardi had the right attitude and the right expectations. He believed they would win…every time.

Published: March 8, 2001

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Dirk Zeller is an Agent, an Investor, and the President & CEO of Real Estate Champions. His company trains more than 350,000 Agents worldwide each year through live events, online training, self-study programs, and newsletters. He's the widely published author of Your First Year in Real Estate, Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies®, The Champion Real Estate Agent, Telephone Sales for Dummies®, and over 300 articles in print. You can get more information by visiting RealEstateChampions.com.