How to avoid self destruction
By Darrin Friedman Are you tired? You should be. After all, real estate professionals have an exhausting job. It’s one where you never stop. Your phone rings and you answer it. Your device buzzes and your eyes go to it. Even when someone else’s device buzzes, your body’s response is to tighten into a stressful mess of nervous twitches. The fact is we have all become a collective ball of reactionary anxiety. Admit it: We are spinning out of control. Doesn’t feel so good, does it? I often come across articles about living a more stress-free life. You know, one of those “five tips” thingies that are supposed to make us feel better about ourselves. That’s not what this piece is about. I have no intention to even pretend that I know the one special tip that will make you feel better about our communal state of emotional disrepair. Further, most of the advice columns you read about the subject of reducing stress are so self-evident. Deep breaths, you say? Yeah, that’s earth-shattering. Moreover, the writers often have no clue how to make their advice realistic or applicable in the world of real estate sales. I mean, can you imagine not being immediately responsive to a client? They don’t care what time it is. And let’s be honest: You’re up anyway. When a call comes in at 10 p.m. from one of your clients who’s angry, upset, or despondent, are you really going to let that go to voicemail? Of course you aren’t. It’s professional suicide. Or at the very least, that’s how we have come to perceive it. But perhaps there is a new way out of our self-created mutual destruction; something we could work on or agree to where our reactions can be a healthy choice instead of a detrimental move to self-sabotage. In that spirit, I submit to you a couple of different ways we can change this paradigm. (Yes, this is ending up as a “tips” column. Sorry.) I’m not claiming to have all the answers. But I do know this: If we don’t make a change for the better, we will eventually self-destruct. And I don’t know about you, but that is one activity that just doesn’t fit into my busy schedule.