Whether you are a brand new real estate agent or a budding real estate investor, nearly everyone in your position will face an overwhelming fear of failure just starting out. You might be worried about how you are going to make enough money to live, how difficult will it be to become a landlord, how will you generate enough leads for your business, what happens if you get a bad tenant, and so on.
The reality is that worrying about these issues has very little impact on improving your chances of success in business. In fact, I would argue that prolonged exposure to fear, worry, and anxiety and could hurt your business and could lead to you burning out and quitting just before you were about to land that big deal.
Tru
st me on this one; I’ve been there. It took me years of dwelling, conversing with others in my shoes, and even seeing a couple of therapists before I realized that the only way to crawl out of the repetitive and grueling cycle of worry is to change my mindset. That’s right — I had to re-wire my brain from a fixed mindset to a mindset of progress. More on this in a bit.
There’s a great book by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck that discusses in detail how “Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports.” It’s called, “Mindset: The New Pyschology of Success“.
In the book, Dr. Dweck discusses in detail on how it is a mindset that embraces change and experiences life through “growth” that learns to live a happier, fuller, and more successful life.
If we all hang our self-esteem and self-worth on the binary “yes or no, win or lose” outcomes of our efforts, we’re destined to fall short of our own expectations. This negative response can lead to quitting, depression, low self-esteem, and an overall failure to recognize our own ability to accomplish amazing things in life.
What are some of the things you say in your head when you encounter a challenge?
Is what you’re telling yourself creating barriers for your own personal growth? If so, maybe it is time to take a change.
You know, when I first got started in real estate, I found it really difficult. Coming from a software engineering background, I had very little sales skills and my soft skills had become dull after being so focused on becoming a great engineer (think dimly lit cubicles flush with energy drinks and the bright glow of code strewn across dual-lcd screens).
“…the view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life”
However, I knew from my years of observing other successful people around me that the real winners are those who are consistent, persistent, and continually improve over time. We’ve all the seen the flash-in-pan agent who does great right off the bat. But what about a year or two down the line when the market changes or their sales pipeline has completely dried up? Most of the time, we never hear from these agents again.
See More “Growth Mindset” Books
Using my own experiences and learnings, I’ve compiled a list of a few mindset altercations that you can start right now that are sure to improve your outlook on your current situation and translate your new mindset into more business.
3 Ways to Alter Your Mindset for Success
Be Positive
Easier said than done, right? Being positive is so healthy and good for you. By embracing a mindset of positivity, you will attract other positive individuals and radiate success.
Research has shown that positive thoughts can have a real and measurable impact on your health, just as negative thoughts can weaken the immune system. By being positive, you’re more likely to try something new, which is vitally important when you are in the learning phase of any new business venture.
If you’re looking for ideas on how to start embracing positivity, I suggest trying meditation, writing, and spending time doing more of the things you enjoy outside of work.
Embrace AN Attitude of Progress
A successful mindset is one that values continuous improvement over one-hit wins and losses. I challenge you to find areas of progress in all aspects of life. As an agent, you must see every conversation, ever door knocked, every letter you mail, every marketing campaign you launch as a series of on-going trials meant to help you optimize and improve over time.
Do not simply give up or walk away when you go out and spend all of your energy into one thing and it doesn’t work out.
Quick story: when I first started as a real estate agent, my broker told me how I should go door-knocking Hollywood Hills because “no one is doing it and you’ll get listings for sure.” (I’m paraphrasing but this was the gist of it)
So, I went out and spent a solid two months door-knocking the Hollywood Hills. And you know what? I landed no new buyers or listings. In spite of talking to every person I could and following-up and doing everything all of the books and training tell you to do, I got zero new business from the experience.
But you know what I learned from the process? A TON! I learned how to segment out my farm. I learned how to track all of my door-knocking activities. I learned that it is extremely difficult to door-knock homes on very steep streets for more than an hour at a time. I learned that in the Hollywood Hills, people employ very large dogs and ominous-looking security gates to keep people like me from every speaking with a human being! I added new contacts to my database and I became better at talking the language of real estate with those I did connect with.
A fixed-mindset could easily have interpreted that experience as time and money wasted. However, a growth mindset recognizes what worked and what didn’t. A growth mindset-oriented person would leverage their new found knowledge in other farms where some of the difficulties I faced would be less of an issue.
Reject Negativity
Is there anyone in your life that sounds like this?
“Ugh, I can’t do that. I would never do that. That’s too hard. That’s too difficult. I don’t understand. I give up. Why did they choose that agent over me? I don’t understand how that person get’s all of the listings. That developer seems to have it all.”
Maybe someone you work with, someone in your office, or yourself?
As difficult as I have found this one to be for my own self, rejecting negativity is one mindset-alterting tool you can use right now and see results almost immediately. As soon as you start seeing the world through the eyes of progress and what “could be” as opposed to what isn’t and what “won’t be”, a world of hope, optimisim, and reassurance will start to emerge from the darkness your own mind created.
It’s OK to acknowledge difficulty and the struggle you face; I encourage it! But don’t let it’s insidious and infectious nature spoil your whole being. Reject the negative voices in your hand and remove negative influences from your life.
I hope that you find this post helpful in your search for being the best mindset for helping you achieve success in your business. If you have any other thoughts, tools, or resources that have helped you, please leave a comment — I would really enjoy reading what has worked best for you.
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