Adapt & Thrive In Spite of a Medical Challenge

Written by Posted On Wednesday, 12 January 2022 00:00

With all this talk about Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations, and lingering side effects, it’s easy to forget that a wide range of other illnesses and diseases affect working professionals each year:

  • Nearly 1 in 2 adults have high blood pressure, but the CDC reports that only 1 in 4 has it under control.
  • NCCDPHP reports 1 in 4 adults has arthritis and 1 in 10 limits activities because of arthritis.

Did you develop a medical condition during the pandemic which significantly impacts your real estate business or practice? Are you now distracted by the additional requirements of keeping medical symptoms in check?

When you have a medical problem or any other disabling condition, the challenge becomes, “How can I develop and maintain a practical and lucrative degree of normalcy in my professional life?.”

Custom-design Your Future and Commit Yourself to Excel:

#1. Put Yourself First

In order to be at your best for others, you must first be at your physical and mental best for yourself. That means good practical habits for wellness maintenance for your condition, regularly working out, healthy eating, adequate sleeping, active mindfulness, and building on strengths. Create a contact base of those working the leading edge of research into your disease or condition. Keep asking questions and providing examples of daily challenges, so solutions, not limitations, are your focus and theirs.

Keep your finances and real estate (NAR: 82% of real estate professionals own their primary residence and 37% own a secondary property) in order. Establish a team of advisors and managers to protect and reinforce your independence and resilience—and your family’s—in any crisis. Take a close look at what worked well for you during the pandemic and what was a distraction. Did you ”cut back” because of your medical condition, but now you need to replace that income? Aim to have your personal requirements consistently taken care of, so you’ll be worry-free and able to concentrate completely on the needs of prospects and clients.

#2. Commit to Excellence

If you develop a medical condition which continuously or periodically limits your productivity or ability to perform your fiduciary duties, commit to adopting practices, procedures, and relationships that consistently override deficiencies and build on strengths.

• Prosper in 2022. A temporary or permanent medical setback may require different or even revolutionary communication and procedural approaches to emphasize your strengths and overshadow limitations.

• Attitude, Not Disability, Limits Success. Your condition may place different demands on how you achieve success—however you define it—but find that different path and take it. At most, “the impossible” may just take a little longer. 

Different online, automation, artificial intelligence, or other technology may facilitate achievement of client goals and put you on top. Plan ahead and pay attention are two important mind-sets that help you evaluate opportunity from the perspective of your strengths. Your need to be prepared, to anticipate, and to concentrate on what is happening around you, may reveal opportunities that able-bodied professionals miss.

• High Standards Are Essential. You will probably need to acquire an above-average level of professional competence to learn where your value lies, but this will only heighten your worth to prospects and clients.

• Independence Does Not Mean Working Alone. Look beyond the solutions which occur to you. Search out the experience of others to solve challenges presented by your medical condition. Health and business professionals and specialists can augment your personal experience regarding the challenges this change has introduced and may add later. 

Your efforts should focus on how changes caused by your medical condition might impact what prospects and clients need from you, what they respond to, and exactly how these needs can be met. 

Turn to professionals skilled at resolving your specific challenges in real estate and relevant communication and business management areas. Challenge these professionals to help you create procedures, systems, and applications that will accelerate prospect and client achievement. You may develop a long-term working relationship with some professionals and hire others to resolve specific short-term issues. 

Don’t merely follow what other real estate professionals do without carefully analyzing whether their approach or method is the best way to reach the target markets you want to serve. Often those considered “stars” are followed even though their systems and procedures are not equally transferrable or beneficial to others.

#3. Tailor Your Targeting

As you learn as much as possible about how to attain the highest possible quality of life living with your limitations, consider using this knowledge to contribute, directly or indirectly, to public education for others. Attend regional and national symposia or conferences. Prove your worth here and it will be evident in all you do. This way you double the benefits to you:

#1. You built expertise useful in your life while you help others

#2. You’re in better shape because of these efforts and you expand your networking and prospecting reach.

Your contribution may include providing information on housing issues and design adaptations relevant to the disability. This constructive approach will raise your profile with communities living with the same condition. Tips on overcoming challenges faced during viewing properties or mastering online searching, may draw prospects to you.

Link the way you solve life challenges to how you serve clients and you can become the obvious choice for prospects and clients. Demonstrate how anticipating challenges and looking for real estate solutions to solve them is practical. This can include buying investment real estate to make College affordable or purchasing property with an in-law suite to house a live-in caregiver.

When so many people are struggling, real estate may offer solutions, but whining is not an option.

Make 2022 the start of your adapt-&-thrive future!

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PJ Wade —       Decisions & Communities

Futurist and Achievement Strategist PJ WADE is “The Catalyst”—intent on Challenging The Best to Become Even Better. A dynamic problem solver and author of 8 books and more than 2800 published articles, PJ concentrates on the knowledge, insight, communication prowess, and special decision-making skills essential for professionals and their clients who are determined to thrive in the 21st-Century vortex of change.

PJ Wade's latest business bookWhat's Your Point? Cut The Crap, Hit The Mark & Stick!—further proves PJ's forward-thinking expertise and her on-point ability to explain technical, even non-verbal, communication details in practical, actionable terms. Print publication: Fall 2022.

PJ: “What's Your Point?the pivotal 21st-Century business question—must be answered before you open your mouth, hit a key, tap anything or swipe. Too often 'Your Point' is not clear to you and communication remains an expensive illusion.”

As The Catalyst, PJ concentrates on enhancing communication ROI for experienced advisors, executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, and other savvy professionals, who may not have received as much formal training in communication as they have in their own field.

Onward & Upward—The directions that really matter! Reach PJ at [email protected] and visit her What's Your Point? Blog. Keep up-to-date with PJ's popular column  Decisions & Communities

https://www.thecatalyst.com

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