When life happens
My father passed away in March of this year from colon cancer. The next morning, I forced myself to go to a home inspection on a million-dollar listing because I didn’t want to let my client down. Some of you might read this and think that is absolutely ridiculous. But I couldn’t help it.
For obvious reasons, attempting to keep up with my clients’ needs, my business backend, and lead generation — while managing a very stressful personal experience that held my heart in Ontario, Canada — led to months of sleepless nights. There just wasn’t enough of me to go around.
On our best day as realtors, we’re working at breakneck speed. Our schedules are packed in like pickles as we try to manage multiple tasks at once.
So, what DO you do when life happens?
Here are some tips that worked for me that might help you if you have a major life event going on:
Communicate. At first, I tried to hide how I was feeling and fake it. But people still picked up on it and thought it was THEM I was funky about. After I started sharing more with folks around me, including other agents, there was a better understanding that I just couldn’t be completely put together.
Ask for help. I didn’t start doing this until the wheels were coming off the jalopy I fondly called “my life.” My business suffered because I couldn’t see that I needed help. The moment I did ask, everything got a lot better and in a hurry.
Accept that it’s just going to be messy for a minute. My mindset of showing up awesome every single time … just couldn’t happen. I had overwhelming feelings I couldn’t put away and they were bleeding on the outside for all to see.
Give yourself a break. Look, you can’t show up for work as an emotional shit show while you’re helping your client go after their dreams. Take time out of the day and get it out. Then get on with it! For me, every day I went trail running and usually by the end of it was feeling all the “feels.” Afterwards, I could get on with my day because I made some space to just be.
Keep doing the little things. Something is better than nothing. Remember that you must continue to prepare your business for the future. What you do today impacts you 90 days from now. When your head becomes clear again, make sure you’re not starting from scratch.
Every single one of us has a “thing” that isn’t perfect in our personal lives. Grief, sadness, loneliness, betrayal, abandonment, whatever it is. My point is, you have a choice to manage IT before it manages you. I realized all these things way too late and it has impacted my business.
The expectations people place on realtors are pretty surreal sometimes. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic as I think it’s something we don’t talk about enough. Leave me a comment below.
Until then, chin up, keep your feet moving … and burn the white flag.
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Copyright 2019 - Shelley Zavitz Realty