I meet many agents who do not take care of themselves as well as they take care of their cars! They are tired, approaching burnout and not much fun to be around.
The bigger your goals, the more energy and focus are prerequisites to accomplishment. When building a tall building, the bigger it is, the deeper and larger the foundation must be to support it. The same is true for people. So, a strong personal foundation is the support system to achieve success.
Here are five ways to strengthen your personal foundation:
- Focus on your strengths. Do the things you have a passion and brilliance for and delegate or dump the rest. Hire assistants for duties that take up to much valuable time.
- Set boundaries. Once you communicate and set boundaries with others, they will usually respect them. You may need to remind them, but most people want it to be a win/win.
- Plan your time off and vacations first. You have a business and you have a life that the business funds. Make sure you are enjoying the benefits of your hard work. Otherwise, you'll rob yourself of pleasure and probably do a poorer job for clients when you are feeling overworked or burned out.
- Get rid of tolerations. The energy draining vampires are subtle but powerful in distracting you and keeping you from being effective. Make a long list of those tolerations and start to attack a few each week.
You'll be amazed at the difference this makes.
- Enjoy Yourself. One of my favorite quotes is by my husband, Bub, who says, "If you aren't enjoying yourself, you are doing it wrong." I misquoted him once by saying "If you aren't having fun, you are doing it wrong" and he corrected me by explaining it was about enjoying SELF. In other words, liking the person you are and the things you are doing are two different things -- and both necessary. Being true to your values and expressing your unique flavor.
