Remember the story about how the circus trains its elephants to never run away?  As babies, one of their legs are shackled to a chain and post.  Every time the baby wants to wander off, the chain will only let it move a few feet.  Eventually, the baby stops trying.  This is why huge adult elephants don’t have shackles, because they believe they are still there.  In a way, this is what happens to most people in the real estate sales business…

A new sales associate starts out bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (or floppy eared) with the gleam of excitement and possibilities shining in their eyes.  And then they start learning (either through training or watching others) that you must:

• do everything yourself if you want it done right;
   
• market “yourself” if you want to stand out;
   
• be available 24/7 for your clients or they will desert you;
   
• always work in (rather than on) your business otherwise you will lose what you have.

These are just some chains of limiting beliefs that hold back even the most experienced of sales people.  In fact, the more experienced they are, the more difficult it can be to break free of these imaginary bonds…

It’s difficult to even know what many of your limiting beliefs are because they are so well entrenched. Yet day after day, they hold you back and obscure your view of life’s best possibilities. To set yourself free of those limiting beliefs, crowd them out with inspiration. The more inspired you are, the more easily you’ll dissolve the beliefs that hold you back.

Ralph Marston

Many of you have reported to me lately that this Spring is showing a bit of an uptick in business activity, which is awesome!  There is a real potential problem buried within this good news however.  You see, the temptation to go back to the old ways just because it is getting “busy” is a big one.  If you abandon or even diminish your vision of working on your business in exchange for just working in it (because it’s “busy”) you are effectively forging the chains of limiting beliefs that will forever hold you back.

If things are starting to get busier, celebrate it with a doubling of resolve, inspiration and action to build a business that works for you no matter what the market, instead of you being a slave to its many ups and downs.