5 Mental Roadblocks Preventing Your Success As a REALTOR®

A big enough obstacle will prevent you from traveling further down any road.

That obstacle could be a fallen tree on a country road or it could be a mental stumbling block on your path to real estate success.

To make sure you’re not hindering your potential, take a step back and evaluate whether any of the five following mental roadblocks could be preventing your success as a real estate agent.

1. Overthinking and Overanalyzing

Decisions about your business should, of course, be made with careful consideration (we’ll get to this in a minute). But sometimes all that consideration can actually hold you — and your potential for success — back.

When we overthink and overanalyze decisions, we stall ourselves. It takes us longer to move forward and we do so without confidence. Not exactly a recipe for success.

You’re affected by this mental roadblock if… 

You find yourself taking a long time to make decisions (even relatively small ones), and you’re constantly debating “what if?” and you frequently find yourself wondering whether your choice was the right one.

To overcome this roadblock, try…

• Giving yourself a deadline for when you have to make your decision
• Clear your head by writing all your thoughts down, just to get them out
• Avoiding asking more than one other person for advice
• Reminding yourself that perfection is an unreasonable expectation
• Imagine the true worst-case scenario – could you handle it? (In all likelihood, yes).

2. Making Decisions Without Data

“Measure twice, cut once.”

If overthinking isn’t your challenge, underthinking might be.

In an effort to keep things moving along, we often choose to simply roll the dice rather than carving out time to examine the information available to us, and making a decision based on that data.

For example, this could look like deciding to make retirees your real estate niche without doing the research to see if there’s a big enough population of retirees in your market who need your services.

Sometimes these data-less decisions are made because we’re trying to avoid the roadblock that is overthinking. But underthinking, and making rapid decisions that aren’t based on data, is its own kind of roadblock.

You’re affected by this mental roadblock if…

You tell yourself you’re just a spontaneous person, you often realize after the fact that your decisions were off-the-mark, and your rapid decision-making often surprises those around you.

To overcome this roadblock, try… 

• Enforcing a minimum deliberation time for making your decision
• Creating a checklist for each decision that includes doing research, making a pros and cons list, and asking one person for advice
• Evaluating what you could have done differently when a rapidly made decision turns out to have been a poor one

3. Getting Too Comfortable With Routine

Routines are great. They keep us focused, they make us efficient and they reduce the amount of thinking we need to do.

But getting too comfortable with routines can spell bad news for real estate agents when it comes to growing their business.

When we don’t think beyond our current routine, we miss out on opportunities to improve and grow our business. We may not consider how new tools, processes, schedules or habits could help us take things to the next level.

You’re affected by this mental roadblock if…

You can’t remember the last time you tried a new app or tool, you’re strict about following your daily or weekly routines, and the idea of changing the way you run your business in any way makes you anxious.

To overcome this roadblock, try…

• Introducing one small change at a time, such as trying out a new app for real estate agents
• Observing the routines of other agents and seeing what elements you could incorporate into your own
• Evaluating and reworking your routine every three months

4. Thinking Small

Here’s a secret of high-achieving real estate agents: they think they can do big things and so they do.

One of the most common mental roadblocks for real estate agents is thinking small — not considering the possibility that you could be a top agent in your town, province or the country.

Because we’re modest, we subconsciously set limits for the success we allow ourselves to imagine. While modesty can be a good thing, modesty in our goal-setting can hold us back.

We might dream about selling an extra five homes next year and thereby increasing our profits, but it’s the rare real estate agent who dreams of selling an extra 20 homes, building an instantly recognizable brand and making the top 10 list.

You’re affected by this mental roadblock if… 

You rarely feel butterflies in your stomach when imagining the future of your business, you easily achieve (and surpass) most of your goals, or you don’t make business goals at all.

To overcome this roadblock, try…

• Spending time with inspiring, high-achieving people (look for mastermind groups or speaker series in your community)
• Reading biographies of successful people from all industries, or essential real estate books
• Having regular meet-ups with a friend in the real estate biz that you look up to, to talk about business, goals and the future

5. Focusing Entirely on Work

Dedication, focus and concentration is good for your business. A lack of work-life balance is bad for your business.

Real estate agents are entrepreneurs and it’s easy for entrepreneurs to become completely consumed by their business.

But being that consumed can take a toll on your mental, physical and emotional well-being.

It can also cause you to lose sight of why you got into the business in the first place. And if you lose sight of that, it becomes harder to move your business in the right direction.

You’re affected by this mental roadblock if…

Your work frequently gets in the way of your family and friend time, your relationship with your partner and your health, and you find it nearly impossible to switch off from work mode.

To overcome this roadblock, try…

• Scheduling your breaks, meals, workouts and social engagements, so you’re more likely to adhere to them
• Starting the day right with a healthy morning routine.
• Limiting the number of work-related plans you schedule after 5 p.m. to once or twice per week
• Outsourcing some tasks, such as social media management or even meal prep, so that you can maximize your personal time

 

What do you find is your biggest mental roadblock when it comes to your real estate business?

 

 

 

Last Updated on November 28, 2023 by myRealPage