Approaching Life With a Winning Attitude Not a Fear Of Loss
Last night was an insomnia night. I have these quite frequently. I'll come to bed dog tired and lay there for 30 minutes or more getting more and more awake with each passing minute. So usually after about 30 minutes or more of this, I'll get up and jump on the PC. I'll research Real Estate related subjects, or learn a bit of software a bit more in depth, etc. One of my favorite past times is logging onto Active Rain. It's a site for RE professionals to gather and discuss Real Estate, etc. I have a blog there too. (Yes, I have 3 blogs, what of it?) Sometimes late at night, I come up with some interesting stuff. This was a blog entry that I posted around midnight on active rain . . . I re-read it this morning and thought it may deserve a spot here too. So for your reading pleasure . . . or pain . . . here it is:I had a really interesting conversation with my coach this morning. (I am being coached by Buffini and Company) You see, before I was a Real Estate Agent, I was in IT. And I got laid off. That was a horrible experience for me. One that I don't want to repeat. Yes, I was basically just a victim of the dot com era. But it's hard to not take something like that personally. In that very instant when my boss came into my office and said "John, I need you to shut down your PC" my life changed forever.
Up until that point I was getting a steady paycheck and had been since I was 16. I knew that if I spent this week's money, next week there would be more. Not now. I took my severance package and paid a ton of bills off and went into business for myself. I view life a little more jaded now. Now I know it can all be gone in an instant.
The conversation I had with my coach this morning brought that all home. She was speaking of herself when she said that someone told her that week that she was operating from a fear of loss. Not operating with a mindest to win. It was like a mack truck hit me at full bore. THAT'S what I've been doing! I've been going through this business for the past 4 years feeling "Lucky". It's not my talent that has propelled me to such heights, it's been luck. And my luck is bound to change at some point. I've been operating from the perspective of a fear of loss.
When I've recognized this and made concious efforts to change, it has shown HUGE gains. For example, 3 weeks ago I had nothing going on. No deals in escrow, two listings that were not selling, buyers not commiting, etc. I was caught up in "the market" and operating from "Here it comes, your luck has changed". I went to a Turning Point Retreat (Buffini and co. event) and reset my goals. Instead of making $217,000 as I had planned this year, I reset my goal to make $50K for the rest of the year (would be about $125,000 for the year).
Since I've been back from the retreat, I've written up one of my own listings ($20K), been referred a SOLID buyer ($6K), my other listing sold and we're now pending ($6K), the buyer that's buying my listing that I wrote up will be selling his home after moving in to the new one ($6K), one of my buyers is off the fence ($5K) and the seller of the home I wrote is buying a condo ($6K). Not being one to count their chickens before they hatch, only $26K of this is actually in Escrow and the rest are just REALLY solid possibilities. But add those amounts up. Yep, $49K. $1K shy of what I set as a goal for the REST OF THE YEAR! Weird how that works huh? I'm now re-thinking my goal that I set and will probably shoot for $75K for the rest of the year. And you know what else is cool about this mental shift? Now I BELIEVE I can hit it!
All becuase I was approaching things from a WINNING perspective rather than letting the gloom and doom out there pervade my life and suck me in. So fellow rainers. Approach life with a winning attitude, not from a fear of loss. You'll be surprised what a difference it makes!