As with almost every career, staying motivated as a real estate agent can sometimes be a struggle. Since what real estate agents earn is directly based on their performance, it is crucial to stay motivated. Fortunately, there are methods agents can employ to keep themselves driven and motivated all year long. Keep reading to learn more about strategies real estate agents can use to stay motivated throughout their careers.
Table of Contents
Set Goals
The value of goal setting has been well documented and is a practice employed by organizations across all industries to keep their employees motivated and productive. By setting challenging yet achievable goals, real estate agents can provide themselves with a continuous source of extra motivation. For real estate agents to capitalize on the motivational benefits of goal setting, they need to choose the right goals.
A great goal is challenging enough to encourage peak performance but not so challenging that it is unrealistic to achieve. When goals are too difficult to reach, they tend to yield only disappointment and frustration. Likewise, when goals are too easy, they don't tend to spur optimum performance. Finding the right balance, therefore, is the key. It may also be beneficial for agents to write down their goals and put them in a place where they are always in sight to remind themselves of what they are working toward.
Treat Mistakes as Learning Opportunities
Far too often, mistakes and setbacks will diminish a person's motivation. No matter how great someone is at their job, mistakes are inevitable. However, when agents can view their mistakes as learning opportunities, mistakes can serve as a source of motivation rather than a motivation killer.
Once again, start by keeping in mind that everyone makes mistakes from time to time. Next, always try to pinpoint the lesson to be learned when a mistake is made. What led to the mistake, and what can be done to prevent the same mistake from happening again? When agents can view their mistakes in this manner, mistakes and setbacks can actually motivate them to do better going forward, in addition to providing them with valuable lessons.
Reward Yourself
For real estate agents, success on the job typically brings plenty of rewards. With that said, though, agents can generate even more motivation to succeed by making an effort to reward themselves for their accomplishments. Planning rewards for important milestones or big achievements can create additional sources of motivation that can often have a significant impact on an agent's performance.
These rewards don't have to be anything major — something as simple as a celebratory dinner outing or a weekend vacation can be more than enough to achieve the desired result. As with goals, writing these planned rewards down on a piece of paper and keeping them somewhere in sight can be a great way for agents to remind themselves of the joys to come when they reach the goals and milestones they have set for themselves.
Practice Self Care
An important step when it comes to maintaining motivation is avoiding burnout. Real estate agents should not be afraid to take breaks or days off when they feel that a little rest is needed. As long as it isn't overdone, a little time off here and there can actually boost productivity rather than inhibit it. Staying motivated year-round requires agents to keep their focus sharp.
When agents are mentally and physically exhausted, motivation can be hard to conjure, and productivity is sure to suffer. Sometimes, even a short break can do a world of good. Simply getting out of the office to go for a walk and get some fresh air can often be all that is required to reset an agent's focus and boost their motivation. For agents dealing with a higher degree of burnout, longer breaks are often completely justified and worthwhile.
Surround Yourself With Passionate People
Passion and motivation go hand-in-hand — and passion is highly contagious. When real estate agents surround themselves with passionate people who truly care about their jobs, the passion those people exhibit tends to rub off. It's also worth noting that passion can be spread by more than just in-person encounters. In addition to spending time with other agents who are passionate about the industry, agents can fuel their own motivation by reading articles that cover the latest news and trends in real estate and watching videos of prominent industry speakers.
It's also important to mention that while passion is contagious, so is negativity. Real estate agents should make an effort to avoid spending too much time around people who are negative about their job. In the same way that passion fuels motivation, negativity throws water on its fires.
Remember Why You Started Your Career
Every real estate agent has a "why" — a primary motivation or set of motivations that led them to choose a career in real estate in the first place. In some cases, this "why" is to help people find a place to call home. In other cases, this "why" might be a passion for the industry or the opportunity to work in a career where their rewards are determined wholly by the results that they produce. Whatever an agent's "why" happens to be, taking the time to remember that "why" can be a powerful source of motivation.
Agents should keep in mind what it is that drove them to pursue a career in real estate and use that reason as a way to keep themselves motivated. After all, if something can be impactful enough to influence a person's entire career path, it can be impactful enough to keep them motivated along that path as well.
Conclusion
Staying motivated as a real estate agent often requires a conscious effort. Motivation doesn't always come on its own. Instead, it's something that agents have to constantly fuel. By following the tips outlined above, real estate agents can ensure that they are making the necessary efforts to keep their motivation levels as high as possible. In more ways than one, this is something that can provide a tremendous amount of value. While skill and knowledge are certainly important, few things produce better results than high motivation.