The Bottom Line on Stuff to Stop doing as Professional Real Estate Sellers!

7 Negative Practices You Need to Let Go

Real estate professionals can sabotage themselves with unproductive thoughts and behaviors. Here’s a checklist of things you should top doing now.

For many of us, a New Year brings a renewed focus on our aspirations and the goals we hope to accomplish. I really believe in leveraging this newfound motivation to produce new results, but what I have found is that much of our success doesn’t always come from the new things we do. Rather, it can come from the old things we stop doing.

Here are the seven things I believe everyone reading this article needs to stop doing if you already haven't in 2015.

1. Stop listening to and empowering narratives that don’t support you or the goals that you have for yourself. Many negative thoughts run through our heads on a regular basis, and we choose to believe them — no matter how harmful they may be. They could be thoughts such as “I’ll never produce as much business as her because…” and so on. Do yourself a favor: Identify these poisonous thoughts and make a decision to starve them. Nobody talks to you more than yourself, so you better have your own back when times get tough.
2. Stop hanging around life-sucking vampires. I’ve said it over and over again: The No. 1 trait of the top 100 sales people in the world is their ability to manage or control their own state of mind. Once you’ve worked on your own narrative, identify those people around you that do nothing more than suck the life out of everyone and everything they come in contact with. You know who they are. In fact, you probably just thought of them and tried to convince yourself that they are OK. They are not.
3. Stop trying to change your business overnight. I know a company that coaches thousands of practitioners all over North America, and I can’t tell you how many times I have had this conversation with a student. Not only can’t you change your business overnight, you shouldn’t try to. Anything you can build overnight can be torn down overnight as well. Your goal should be to learn, master, and systematize new strategies that set you up for long-term predictable business, not spike in the next 30 days and then beg for more business the next month.
4. Stop getting disappointed that you aren’t seeing the results you wanted from your new diet and gym routine. Chances are it took a lot longer than one week to put you in a position to need that diet or gym routine, so why would you expect the results from the patterns you’ve followed in the last ten years to change in just one week? Outcomes are about consistently followed patterns. Instead of focusing on dieting so that you will look better in an upcoming wedding, you might want to try living a healthier lifestyle so you can actually be better for those you love for the rest of your life.
5. Stop accepting mediocrity and complacency as the norm. The truth is that our world runs on average people. It takes average people to operate our grocery stores, take our toll money, and do just about everything else—but you don’t get ahead with this mindset. It’s not enough to make a living in real estate; it should be your goal to dominate. The message of competition wasn’t created for the entrepreneur—it was created for the consumer. Decide which one you are and go after it. 
6. Stop saying your leads are no good. If someone took the time to input their information or ask a question about a house online, they aren’t “no good.” They may not be the typical lead for a referral-based business, where a client tells you that their brother wants to sell and, within a week, you list their house. But that doesn’t mean that the leads are no good. You may have to cultivate them for six to 12 months, but they are going to be a commission check for someone. The only question is whether it will be you or the other guy.
7. Stop believing your success is dependent on the people around you. There is no doubt that the people around you are important (see No. 2 above), but people are replaceable. Your will and desire to succeed are not. I read a book called, Get Out of Your Way!, which the basic premise is that there are more than 7 billion people on this planet and only one of them can keep you from getting what you want: you. If you aren’t where you want to be, it’s not your broker’s fault, it’s not your kid’s fault, and it’s not the economy’s fault. Look in the mirror and come up with a new strategy, educate yourself on new tactics, or hire a coach to help you, but please, please don’t blame the people around you. If your success isn’t really in your hands, you might as well get in a coffin and wait. The good news is that you do have complete control and can start fresh with every new day. There’s never been a better time than now.