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Take a Day Off
By, Corey Wells

As real estate agents, it’s easy for us to put in long hours and work seven day weeks. Especially since the only time some clients can meet with us is often in the evenings or on the weekends. All your life you were told you have to work hard to succeed. It’s the classic work ethic that we were brought up on. But most of us are already working longer hours than we should. There eventually comes a time when we’ve used up our available energy and there’s nothing left in the tank.

We’ve all seen the agent that goes non-stop just to burnout in the end. It’s easy to do with clients demanding so much of our time. But we don’t work at peak efficiency when we’re tired. We make mistakes, become impatient and finally, frustrated. Reclaiming some time for ourselves becomes essential if we want to be effective and successful in this business.

Taking a day off allows us to renew, rejuvenate and refresh. We need to spend at least one day every week doing things we love and enjoy. A day of vacation where we don’t do any work or run any errands. A day spent reading, visiting, relaxing or whatever else gives you the ability to renew your spirit. Taking care of the most important person in your life should be your first priority, not the 6th or 7th. If you don’t think you have the time to do this, then you may be cheating yourself out of a life.

Ever since we were little, we’ve been told that being selfish is a bad thing. It’s time to reconsider that prospect. Taking care of yourself so that you’ll have the ability to take care of others is not a selfish act, and self-care begins by giving yourself enough time off to get rested and refreshed. As a result, you’ll be thinking more clearly and feel less stress when problems do pop up. You’ll also have a reserve of energy you can tap into when needed.

In the Real Estate business we need to pace ourselves. We all need to take at least one or two days off a week. When you take a day for yourself, make sure it is a real day off. Don’t do any business that day. Not even a single phone call. It’s best if you can find a partner agent that will take care of all your business affairs while you’re off. Hand over your pagers, cell phones, and all other electronic devices to your partner and make yourself completely unreachable. A good idea is to make a deal with your partner that if any business does occur on your respective days off, you won’t charge each other any fees. Instead, you agree to reciprocate if you should negotiate a deal for your partner on their day off. It eliminates the worry of losing a portion of your income while you’re away.

Start planning which day you wish to have off and spend that time doing things you enjoy. Do not fall into the trap of making Real Estate a 24-hour, 7 day a week job. Take a break and you will be able to stay fresh and focused on your career.

(c) 2008 Leading Example Enterprises Inc.

Corey Wells, is the founder of Leading Example Coaching which offers Real Estate Agent Coaching, Books, Audio, Scripts, Packages, Software & More.
Visit: Leading Example Coaching
This article was originally posted on LeadingExample.com/Blog

Tags:   Attitude · Personal Time · Real EstateNo Comments