As a REALTOR®, having a definition of what professional success means to you is crucial. To get there, it’s important to create a vision, establish your values and set goals.
The best place to start is with your mindset.
I like to define the difference between a worker mindset versus an owner mindset.
When your mindset is that of a worker, just like employees at a store or corporation, you trade hours for dollars. You may not be working for someone else, but your income is primarily dependent on you doing the work. You put your head down and grind.
When you have an owner’s mindset you use leverage to find success. You can leverage tools, technology, and people to help you reach your goals. The owner doesn’t necessarily have to do all the work. The benefits of having an owner mindset rather than a worker mindset is often more freedom and success.
Owner mindset
Let me give you some insights into my journey of going from a worker to an owner. When I started in the business, more than 30 years ago, my focus was to get paid for doing the work of a real estate professional. I didn’t know anything different. I didn’t know how to create a business at the time.
I didn’t yet have a vision for something bigger. I just wanted to do the work and make money. And I did.
A few years went by, and the “work” caught up with me. I woke up one day and realized that the “work” was my life. I was consumed by doing all the work alone and I lost my work-life balance—not to mention the personal time needed to recharge.
This was the beginning of my search for the tools and training to reframe my mindset. I started to train myself to think like an owner and create a business while I was still “working” in real estate.
This is where creating a vision, establishing your values, and setting goals comes into play.
Creating a vision for your business
You take control of your business and accept responsibility for the decisions you make. When you commit to a vision for a successful business you make a statement to yourself that you have the conviction and ability to act on your beliefs.
Establishing values are what drives you
You’ll always be more successful when you’re working towards your own definition of success versus what anyone else defines as success.
The key to discovering and properly extracting your values is to ask questions and answer them honestly, without analysis or validation by the conscious mind. You need to do this quickly without thinking, just write down the first thing that pops into your head.
Goal setting is the first step to attaining one’s dreams
Setting goals can streamline your efforts and keep you focused. It’s outlining a path to get there, how you’ll overcome obstacles and prepare for the unknown. Without goals, the best you can hope to do is stay exactly where you are today.
Actively pursue your goals daily and you’ll see a long-term effect that’s greater than you could ever imagine.
Success
Having a vision and plan of action can ultimately assist you in becoming successful. Values allow you to see the bigger picture and provide a firm awareness of what we hold important to us. After that, you need to get down to the details and anchor your goals to those values. It’s only in the details that you can track and measure whether your goals are on the right path.
In nutshell, focus on building your career and investing in your capabilities. Be a REALTOR® who knows how to take advantage of new tools, techniques, and opportunities in the market.
