Living a Proactive Life
For years, I lived a reactive life. As things came at me, I dealt with them. I went to college not because I had strategized about my future, I went because all of my friends went. I reacted to what was going on around me. Somewhere along the way, I realized I couldn’t just let other people and situations determine my fate. I had to start being proactive.
That’s when I decided to move to California. It was the first time I really did something that would change the course of my life. I took a job in relocation doing business development with the large high-end real estate firm in LA, Jon Douglas Company, and got in my Honda and hauled it west. I lived with a roommate I didn’t know in a place that was unfamiliar. My coworkers made fun of my accent and people were as enamored with me as if I were from outer space, instead of from Texas. It was exhilarating.
Change your habits, change your life
Ever since then I have tried to live a proactive life. Prior to that, I was a procrastinator and never was prepared when something unexpected happened. I realized that we are in control of our own destiny and by imagining what might happen (good and bad) I could plan how I wanted things to go or at least how I would deal with them when they inevitably happened. That’s when my life took off. I created vision lists and thought about strategy and how to move my life forward (personally and professionally) by setting goals. Are there things I do not deal with to this day proactively? Exercise. Sadly, never going to be proactive in that arena.
I meet people in my work and in my life every day that live reactive lives. They just sit back and react to what I coming at them. It seems so unsatisfying to me. Particularly in our business. In real estate and relocation, things may be good for a while, but if we are not constantly thinking about the future and how we can sustain and improve our business, then our business will ultimately begin to shrink. It may bumble along for a while, but the slightest hiccup might derail it.
If your business isn’t growing, it’s quietly dying. And if you aren’t challenged on a daily basis, then you are underutilizing your brain and your hard-earned expertise. New competitors are entering the market constantly and their main goal is to take the business away from you. If you have staff who make no effort to learn new things and improve their delivery of services and follow up then you have the wrong staff. Everyone should be rowing in the same direction with an eye over their shoulder for what is coming next. Never let the desire to grow, take a back seat.
Know your surroundings
Being hyper-aware of competitors is critical. Not to necessarily model after them, but to learn from them. What do our clients and consumers need and want? How can we make the process simpler and better? Do we regularly evaluate our internal processes to eliminate things that are unnecessary or outdated? How can we capitalize on the changes going on around us? Relocation is changing, there is no point to complain about it. Figure out a way to backfill the change. Constant evolution will ensure we adapt without being left behind. Let curiosity lead the way. Try a lot of ‘what if?’.
If you aren’t keeping your staff in the loop on the worldwide changes taking place in real estate and relocation, you are missing out on a chance to bring them along to ignite their proactive thinking. It’s easy to do the same thing every day. But as they say, expecting different results is insanity.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” ~ attributed to Albert Einstein, a theoretical physicist, although there is no proof he ever said it. Still a great quote no matter who said it.
