How Do You Enjoy A Blistering Hot Market And Keep Your Sanity?

 We are enjoying one of the hottest Real Estate markets in decades, the pent up demand, low interest rates, and still affordable pricing is creating a perfect storm of activity. It makes for a very exciting time indeed. However, it also comes with a price.

 It is clear that many agents are truly feeling the stress that comes with physical fatigue, and the emotional drain of the ongoing roller coaster of feelings that you must help your clients ride through. Then it compounds with a sense of guilt for feeling stressed, grouchy, and maybe even a bit resentful of all that is pulling on you each day, especially coming from the toughest market we had seen in our lifetimes and knowing we should be happy and grateful. When I am speaking with agents from any and all firms I am hearing tell tale signs of the above, also from the tone of several agents posts on Facebook you can hear it as well.

Does this sound at all familiar to you?

It is all very understandable after all, even Super Agents are also human, they have lives outside of Real Estate, families, and other obligations that also pull at them competing for their time, and their emotions. During a Real Estate transaction we often see people at their best and worst, excited, fearful, happy, sad, giddy, angry, optimistic, depressed and that might all be before breakfast. They may love you one minute and are screaming at you the next as they are pulled to and fro with their emotions raw as they embark on selling and or buying, moving, and dealing with the stress that puts on their lives.

 This requires you to be their consultant, coach, friend, trusted advisor, counselor, mom and/or dad, cheerleader, and sometimes shrink. You will be the one who maybe several times a day is their emotional battery charger. Compound that with a blistering hot market multiplying the amount of people going through all these emotions daily for you to recharge. It is going to take a toll on you if you don't take care and make the time to recharge your own emotional batteries.

Okay, so everything I have said so far you already know, what should you do about it? How do you improve it? Or at least improve how it touches your life, and the life of your family?

 It reminds me of the story of Lumbermen. It seems that the logging crew hired this young, strong, big athletic young man to be a logger. He looked like a Greek god had stepped off Mount Olympus to cut trees, and had the confidence and swagger to match. His first day, he asked his foreman who was the best lumberjack on the crew and was pointed out an middle aged man half the size of this new kid. He knew he would be number one at day's end after seeing the competition. However, at the end of the first day he cut down 18 trees, the older logger cut down 20. He figured that he was just learning, and by tomorrow he would blow by the older guy. All day long he worked as hard as he could and was dragging back to the bunk where he found out that the old guy did 20 trees and he had dropped to 15. He was furious, and decided that tomorrow he would give it all he had and pass this old dude. The next day he worked like he had never worked, he worked through lunch and all his breaks, he gave it everything he had and could barely walk back to the bunk where he learned that he had cut 12 trees and his nemesis had cut 20. He just couldn't believe it and screamed at the old logger, "How do you do it? I am giving everything I have, I am working as hard as I can, taking no breaks, working through lunch, and every time I look over at you you're sitting under a tree resting, how can this be true? Then the older logger asked him, "Did you ever notice what I was doing while sitting under the trees? I was sharpening my saw."

 What are you doing to sharpen your saw? What are your doing to recharge your emotional batteries so that you can keep giving to your clients without coming up empty yourself? Too many of us live our lives like a smart phone with all the apps running draining our energy dry.

 You must recharge those emotional batteries. Listen to positive CD's, DVD's, and videos. Get the TED app for your phone, iPad, or get TED.com for your computer to listen to positive input while you are doing paperwork, that is the type of multitasking that will pay the most dividends. I know you are likely saying you don't have time, I would suggest you don't have time not to. Read positive books, put them in your bathroom if you must. If you read 15 minutes a day you will finish an average book in a month. Look for authors like Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, Dennis Waitley, Zig Ziglar, Charlie Tremendous Jones, and many more. These are old names but their work stands the test of time.

 Understand that you cannot load a wagon from an empty wagon, and you cannot keep giving emotional support to those clients who need support from you, as well as your family and loved ones, if you allow your own emotional tank to run dry. Most agents will not heed any of this advice, most agents will say "that motivation stuff doesn't work, I am self-motivated." Most agents don't last long in the business. Most only seek motivation when their businesses are slow, if then. Most agents push aside all their marketing and follow up on their database when things are busy and then are surprised when the market tightens and they have no pipeline.

That is why Zig Ziglar gave us all this advice.

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily."

Zig Ziglar

 

Don't be most agents, it only takes that little extra to go from ordinary to extraordinary!

Try it you might find you will really like it.