Many of us love working in the real estate industry because no two days are alike. This can be a blessing and a curse: Though the diversity of each day can get your juices flowing and your blood pumping, it can also throw you off track, leading to distraction and frustration.
So, what’s the best way to stay focused and achieve incredible results while also confidently juggling the demands of your business and personal life? The answer is to follow a prescribed, detailed course of action. In other words, establish and stick to a routine.
Routines and habits minimize the choices that we have to make, which is a good thing because the fewer choices we have, the better we do. You might think you’re not disciplined enough to follow a set routine, but odds are that you already do in some capacity in your daily life.
There are certain things that we all do every day without even thinking about it, such as brushing our teeth. With a little planning, we can utilize these same sorts of positive and proactive habitual rituals in business and enjoy highly successful results.
Here’s how you can accomplish this:
Define your goals
Write down your goals and dreams — and be specific. What’s your prescription for success? What would your life look like at its best? Visualize your ideal day and then describe it as if it’s already happening. It’s important to be hopeful. Hope can help us conquer any obstacle, and it’s a powerful motivator. But don’t forget that motivation is only a starting point — it’s habit that keeps us going.
Stick to a schedule
If you want to make something happen, you can’t be vague about it. You need to schedule it out. A set schedule focuses your mind and sharpens your priorities. The more automatic something is, the more likely it is to happen. It makes sense then that the more ritualized your day is, the more successful you will become. Boil down your goals into monthly, weekly and daily to-do tasks. Yes, this requires effort but, as the old saying goes, success comes dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.
Embrace detail
Be specific about what you want to achieve. The more detailed your schedule is, the better. Naturally, you won’t always tick off every item on your list. Life will happen, and you will encounter interruptions, but that’s OK. You don’t have to be afraid to be a schedule-breaker, but you do have to be scared of not being a schedule-maker. With a detailed routine in place, you will cope with what life throws at you while still achieving your priorities.
Successful people have certain traits in common — and routine is one of them. Don’t be a “chaos agent” — overwhelmed and exhausted by an endless to-do list. When you get knocked off-balance by life’s challenges, a routine will get you back on track quickly and efficiently. So put a routine in place, and put your success on automatic pilot.
Brian Buffini is the chairman and founder of Buffini & Company. You can follow Brian and Buffini & Company on Facebook.