Much of the education for real estate professionals out there is of the “how to” nature. But the most fundamental, important thing we need to learn and understand is not any particular system for doing business, or wise saying or inspirational person. What’s most important is understanding how we think.
How we think really determines our success. If the way we think is bad, no amount of “how to” real estate courses will really help us. Once we understand how we think, we’ll see we have corresponding results. Once we understand how we think, we can work at changing how we think, and then our results will change too. In this article I’ll discuss the thought processes of people who don’t become top producers and why they don’t achieve their potential.
Self Limiting Thinking
“My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened “ – Michel de Montaigne
I’ll bet you’ve known people who, when you mention an opportunity to them, focus on everything that could go wrong with it. They may even try dissuading you from trying at all. Do you have family or friends like this? These people are one step from expecting things to go wrong.
When people say things like, “I can’t do it”, or “the market is slow”, they’re only making a self fulfilling prophecy of their own failure because they usually haven’t tried enough (if at all). Unless you have a crystal clear understanding on your personal capabilities and limitations, why would you ever say you can’t do something without even trying? I believe success and life in general is all in the trying. Trying, trying, and trying again, until something is achieved. With each victory (however big or small), your self confidence grows incrementally. Trying is also the willingness to try new things. Stepping out of your comfort zone and into the strange and unknown.
Perhaps it’s easier for us to understand how to succeed in the world of sports because the path to success there is more apparent – dedicated practice and strict discipline. We’ve heard about Wayne Gretzky’s and Tiger Woods’ dedication to their sport from a very early age and how that dedication brought them the pinnacle of success. But for financial success, the path to success seems less apparent.
But in sports, psychological barriers must be overcome as well in our careers. In the 1970’s it was considered impossible for a weightlifter to clean and jerk lift more than 500 pounds. Many had tried to surpass this mark, none had succeeded. A Russian weightlifter named Vasily Alexeyev was one of these who just couldn’t break this barrier.
In my next article I’ll describe how Alexeyev broke through this psychological barrier and achieved immortality in the field of weighlifting, and how this lesson applies to real estate professionals. Learn how to break down your own psychological barriers by taking my course Excelling In The Real Estate Profession. This course has been approved by the Registrar, REBBA 2002 to qualify for 9 credits.
