Waiting For Your Ship To Come In?

Waiting For Your Ship To Come In?
Article by: Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, June 4, 2008

The radar operator was tracking a contact that not only remained constant it was also drawing nearer. The operator contacted the commanding officer to make sure he was aware of the contact.

“This is Captain Lloyd of the U. S. Navy Air Craft Carrier Ronald Reagan; you are on a collision course with this vessel. We are the world’s largest war ship and I demand you change your course immediately!”

“Captain,” the rather calm voice replied, “this is the U. S. Coast Guard Lighthouse at Rocky Shoals. I would be more than happy to change my course if I could but instead I would suggest you change both your COURSE and your ATTITIDE!”

You and your career ARE on a course, the question is which course and do you really know where you are going? Like Zig Ziglar states, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

If you are waiting for your ship to come in, you had first better make sure you have water in your harbor. Wishing something to happen will not make it so and as Dr. John Maxwell so often states, “Hope is not an effective strategy!”

It is not enough to just know what needs to be done. This past evening I had an epiphany of sorts. I was reading Jeffrey Gitomer’s book, Little Gold Book of YES!Attitude for the fifth time. Now I know what some people are thinking (certainly not you), Gymbeaux is a slow learner. Let me explain. Gary Keller wrote The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (MREA) and he suggested that the prudent real estate associate (that would be you) should read the book once a month for a year. That the important passages be underlined, pages be dog-eared, and notes be entered in the margins. It is only through repeated study will the pages come to life and have a positive impact on your real estate career.

I believe the same is true of any great instructional book, or course for that matter. If professional knowledge were a potato chip, you could not eat just one. Nor should you read a book or take a course just once provided it has value. You only gain more insight with each reading or course attendance. The Little Gold Book of YES!Attitude is such a book. There are Ahas on every page. True, most of the material you probably heard at different times in your life but this book puts it all together in one resource. It is a course on attitude. The only way someone can change their attitude is to think about their attitude. Most of us (certainly not you) go about our daily lives and give our attitude little to no thought. As Gitomer says, the natural tendency is to think in negative terms. Thinking in positive terms is a labor of love and at times can be difficult considering negative thinking is our most natural way to think.

The connection between The Little Gold Book and The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (MREA) book came to me this past evening while reading the Gold Book. The MREA is a book contains just about everything one would ever need to know to open a successful business of any kind, not just real estate. It provides a “cookie-cutter” plan that if followed should prove to be as successful as you wish it to be. The book helps you to “stay on course” in regards to organizing and operating your real estate business. I had always felt that something was missing in the book and until this past evening had no idea what it was. It takes more than just a course to follow; it also takes a change in attitude to get where you desire to be – your objective – your goal!

Following the MREA requires a YES!Attitude® mindset. If you have not read the Gold Book, a YES!Attitude® is one you exhibit when something happens and you pump your fist in the air and shout YES! If, while reading the MREA you run across an Aha moment, something that stands out from the page, something you truly know you should be doing, consider it a YES! moment. Write it down. Write down enough of these moments and you create an outline for your “success course.”

If you have not as yet read the MREA (of course that would be someone else), I would suggest that you first read The Little Gold Book of YES!Attitude. This will put your mind into the proper receptive mindset to truly appreciate what Gary Keller, Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan have done for you by providing you the proper course (path) to success. The formula is really quite simple (that is why it took me almost 5 years to figure out):

CAREER COURSE + POSITIVE ATTITUDE = SUCCESS
Or
MREA + LITTLE GOLD BOOK = REAL ESTATE SUCCESS!

It is the positive attitude that is the tough part of that formula. Why? Because as stated above, our negative attitudes are the dominant and natural way to think. Who knows who first said it but if you want to change your attitude, you first have to change the way you think (about your attitude and your success). Henry Ford had it right; “If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right!”

To show you how this works, I recently played golf with a friend who shall remain anonymous, who on the very first tee said things like, “I have no idea where this ball is going to go,” “I am the world’s worst golfer, you wait and see,” etc. Then when he hit a bad shot his opinion of his game was confirmed to both his conscious and subconscious mind. It is the subconscious mind that we must first begin to change and to do that the subconscious mind needs food – positive affirmations on a regular basis! Before you can become a good golfer you must believe you can be. Before you can become a successful real estate associate, you must believe you can be. Before you can have a positive attitude you MUST ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE YOU CAN! It starts with the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you think of when go to sleep at night. You do have a choice as to whether you have a positive attitude, or not. Why would anyone ever want a negative attitude? (I would really like to know how you justify that kind of thinking!) Knowing that negativity is natural, it takes hard work and constant work to be ever mindful of your attitude. Ever hear someone say, “He’s got an attitude!” Tell me that and I’ll take it as a compliment not an insult.

ACTION STEPS

1. Read The Little Gold Book of YES!Attitude by Jeffrey Gitomer
2. Read The Millionaire Real Estate Book, by Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, & Jay Papasan
3. Buy a piece of jewelry that you wear because YOU make IT look really good when you wear it but more importantly, every time you see it or feel it, the jewelry makes you actively think of your attitude and where it is and where it needs to be at that very moment
4. Write your goals down, if you do, it has been estimated that you are one of about 3% to 5% of people who do. Without goals, how will you know where you are going and more importantly how will you know when you get there?
5. Take the time you spend in the evening watching television and use that time to work on your career and attitude by reading, listening to CDs or watching DVD’s such as Stand Up For Your Life with Cheryl Richardson, You Can Heal Your Life with Louise L. Hay, The Secret with many featured presenters, or Messages from Water which you will simply not believe.
6. Read anything (or everything) written by Joe Tye
7. Read anything (or everything) written by Dr. John Maxwell
8. Read anything (or everything) written by Jim Paluch
9. Read anything (or everything) written by Jeffrey Gitomer
10.Read anything (or everything) written by Jack Canfield

Remember: To change your life, change the way you think. To change your attitude, change the way you think about your attitude. Okay, to change your golf game, think about the way you think (and talk) about your golf game.

As Dr. John Maxwell (my hero) says:

THINKING FOR A CHANGE!
(Which is also the title of his great book!)