The Accumulation Effect
“Success is often built by taking small consistent steps over time. While these steps in the moment don’t feel significant, the results over time are massive.”- Darren hardy of success magazine
· If you committed today to not eating white bread, potatoes and deserts for a year
· Would you lose weight?
· Would your body change?
· If you make the decision to workout 4 days per week a year would you be in better shape?
If you go see 5 expireds at the door per workday for 240 workdays would you talk to some of them? If you talked to some of them and did some follow up would you list some of them and would some of them sell?
· The reason we don’t do this — is because it gets too boring
· Unfortunately…the bad accumulates just like the good accumulates
I read a terrific book recently called the Compound Effect written by Darren Hardy the editor of Success Magazine. I love his wisdom.
Most real estate agents are constantly multi-tasking – we have more jobs than hours in the day, and it’s pretty common for these agents like most to get side tracked by shiny objects.
So how can we change that?
How can we become more consistent?
5 points
The Compound Effect in Action
1. Choices
There are some things in life we have no choice over such as illness, but for the most part we are completely responsible for the life we create.
We all come into the world the same; naked, scared and ignorant.
When it’s all said and done, the life we end up with is almost entirely an accumulation of the choices we make.
The first step is to become aware of our choices. Choosing well takes you down a much different path than not choosing at all.
In our world we can choose today to do a 55 10 or not..
We can choose to work on our scripts or not
We can choose to exercise or not
We can choose to work on our business or not
We can choose to work on our business plan or not
So you see every day and every hour of every day we have the choice
Don’t live your life on autopilot.
2. Habits
We are all creatures of habit; some habits are good and some bad, but habits are necessary to get through life.
Think about this; what if you had to think of every tiny step necessary for brushing your teeth? What a pain. The problem is that by definition a habit is something we do without really thinking about it.
Sitting down with a bag of potato chips or a whole can of nuts when we are watching TV; then realizing that you have eaten the entire amount is nothing more than a bad habit.
So how do we stop living life on autopilot and create better habits?
You need a big enough “why” to change bad habits and create new ones.
Habits influence goals. If you’re not making the progress that you would like to be making, it’s simply because your goals are not well defined and you don’t have the right habits.
3. Momentum or “Big Mo”
When you are trying to get momentum in your real estate business the first steps are always the hardest. But when you get it, momentum is almost impossible to stop.
Here are the 4 steps:
- Make new choices based on your goals and core values
- Create new positive behaviors by putting good choices to work
- Create new habits to replace your current bad habits
- Build routines and stay consistent over a long period of time
These 4 steps are pretty simple at their core, but they are anything but easy to implement when you are first trying to make these changes.
The first step to making these changes is to identify those things that you need to change.
My suggestion is to start small; just pick one thing and create a new habit.
For me it was eating a little less each day. I’m still not where I want to be, but my clothes are fitting a little better.
4. Influences
Even though everyone is 100% responsible for their life and the choices they make, there are subtle influences or external forces that you need to be aware of that will put you off track.
Here are the 3 kinds of influences:
a. Input. These are things like the news. Did you ever notice how your mood and your confidence takes a dive when you listen to a steady stream of bad news on the TV? I’m talking about things like:
- The economy is tanking
- Real estate sales are at their lowest in almost a decade
- Unemployment is its highest in almost 15 years
Your mind is like an empty glass, so be careful what you put into it!
b. Associations. You have all heard the saying that, “You become the average of the 5 people you hang out with” and the books you read .
Seek out positive people; those that share your vision. Look for mentors that are already where you want to be.
Get an accountability partner that will kick your butt when you need it. Find a way to spend most of your time with people that that are “already sitting at the table you want to pull your chair up to.”
c. Environment. I’m talking about physical and mental clutter that may be getting in the way.
These things drain your energy. So finish your “incompletes.”
Clean up your work space or even your garage if that’s weighing you down.
Get all those unfinished projects done once and for all so that you can create an environment for success. Your physical environment has a direct correlation to your eventual success.
d. Acceleration. When things get tough, our minds create all sorts of reasons or “alibis” for why it’s OK to stop or to throw in the towel.
Your subconscious is more than willing to give up on this current new habit or the new choice we need to make in order to put the compound affect into place in your life. After all, change is hard!
When tough times come our way and we hit those emotional and mental walls don’t be the one that quits.
Just do a little more each day so you can see those massive results – the compound effect over time.
Take some time today and look down the road. Are you headed where you want to end up?
If not, what changes do you need to make? Here’s the real question you need to ask yourself:
“Who do you have to become? If you want more, you have to become more. Success is something you attract by the person you become.”
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
I often say that given enough time I will beat anyone in just about anything, because I take those small consistent steps needed EVERY day. You’ll notice I don’t say some days or most every day; I say every day.
Now lets go out and focus on what needs to be done to help us run through the finish line!
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