I just read a great article by sales coach John Mayfield on Realtor.com that asks "Do You Have the Right GAS in Your Tank?" The premise of the article is that you need to fill your tank with the right GAS
to reach your destination, which is success. I never thought of using the word "gas", but it does fit perfectly with my beliefs and the way I used to teach when I was mentoring some entrepreneurs. So I'll use his GAS acronym to explain my own philosophy.
The first ingredient of GAS is setting GOALS.
This is something we all know, even if we don't think much about it. I have long been a proponent of setting goals, writing them down and using them as a roadmap to move me in the direction I want to go. Clearly if you don't know where you're going, it will be hard to chart a course to get there, and you will miss the important road signs.
It is important to make your goals specific and set a date for reaching them. That will keep you moving forward and planning your time and energy to reach the deadline you have set. You might say that you want to make $200,000 this year. This is not a bad goal, but it needs to be meatier. To accomplish this, break it down to its components.
For example, to make $200,000 in commissions, how much in gross sales will you have to close? Don't forget to estimate the deductions from your commission before you receive it. If you have desk fees or share commissions with your broker, have E&O, risk management or other costs taken out before you get paid, make allowance for those.
When that is done, look at the average sale price of homes you sell, so that you will know how many homes you will have to sell to meet your goal, then you can figure from there how many you have to average per month. If you can meet or exceed your monthly average, the annual income will take care of itself and tackling monthly goals allows you to know where you are at all times on your road to success.
The second ingredient is ATTITUDE.
The one thing that we can control is our attitude. We might not be able to control the ups and downs of life and the disappointments that may confront us, but it is up to us to decide how we handle them. I have found that putting on a happy face, as the song goes, will encourage others around me to smile and be upbeat, and before I know it, my smile is an accurate representation of how I feel.
If I were to mope around and react grumpily to those around me, I would infect those around me with my grumpiness and have a lousy day. I don't need any lousy days, so I won't do that.
By the same token, I don't surround myself with grumpy people, naysayers, and those who may try to tell me "for my own good" that I am not going to reach my goals. I believe in myself, and if others don't believe in me, I'm afraid I can't be around them. My attitude is too important to my professional and personal success and my physical well-being.
If you have trouble with this, try reading uplifting and motivational books, a chapter each night as you calm down for bedtime, and think about what you read as you go to sleep. Think about Robert Schuller's motto: If it's to be, it's up to me. And realize that you truly are the only one who can control your attitude. Don't let others govern how you feel about life and yourself. A positive person will always be more successful, as others want to be around you.
The third ingredient of GAS is SELECTIVITY.
This actually fits very well with the discussion of attitude, as you select those with whom you associate. Remember your parents warning you not to hang around with the troubled kids or you'd wind up troubled too? It's the same concept. If you surround yourself with unmotivated folks, you will have a difficult time keeping yours strong.
If you watch some television shows, hang with certain people and read certain books and newspapers, you will be convinced that the world is "going to hell in a handbasket" and there is nothing you can do about it. That is depressing. Immerse yourself in positive thoughts, surround yourself with positive people, and you will believe that anything is possible, and for you, it just might be!
This is a long post, but is only a small part of how important I feel that these three ingredients are. They are not the only ones, of course, but Mayfield's use of the GAS acronym inspired me to discuss these three factors.
So, are you putting the right GAS in your tank?
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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."
For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.
about some aspect of their business. Others post nothing but commercials about their rpoducts or services.
that are endangered, but not the native American species. She was funny, saying they hadn't spoken so she didn't know if they had an accent and were foreign. Our native mantises are plentiful and are not endangered at all. She decided that she would keep them and thanked me for making her feel better for rescuing them.
There are Energy Star products in more than 50 product categories. And again ... you will save money.
like in the 21st century. It predicted that there would be so many labor-saving devices, that instead of working 5 days and having 2 days off, we would all be working just 2 days a week and taking 5 off. I could hardly wait. I knew that when I grew up I wouldn't have to work the long hours and my dad did. I'd have it easy, and I'd travel or otherwise goof off 5 days a week!
Even then, however, the attorneys didn't type their own documents. We would dictate them and hand the tape to a secretary to type. This gave a little excuse for getting a document out in a few hours. It couldn't be typed until it was dictated, then had to be proofread and reprinted before it could be faxed. Before fax machines, the client never expected to get his document in less than a couple of days.
email. Why wait for a fax when we could send everything directly through the computer - and it was more legible as well. At least we had to be at the office to receive the calls from clients and work on our matters.
acquired netbook, and my other gadgets that didn't even exist when I started practicing law. Most of the time I don't mind hearing from my real estate clients in the evenings, as it is far less stressful than when I practiced law. The only trouble is, that is my time for blogging and posting on the other social media sites. 
