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ACT AND BE
By
Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, first written, unknown, updated March 6, 2022
“ACT and BE as though HOW you ARE dictates that EVERYONE
else WILL BE that same way?” James Redfield, The Twelfth Insight. In other words, ACT and BE POSITIVE
and EXPECT everyone else to be positive. ACT and BE NEGATIVE and EXPECT everyone else to be NEGATIVE. It IS something that YOU
can choose, every day!
The problem with writing Nuggets
For The Noggin is not so much what others who read them might think of them or
me for writing them, no, it is that some who read them might take them
personally as if I wrote a specific Nugget directed at a specific person. This is such a Nugget. Who knows, maybe I did write this one with
specific folks in mind; certainly not you of course.
I consider myself to be an
“observer”; I try to observe things that oftentimes other people fail to
see. This may include my physical
surroundings but more often it involves seeing people for what they say, what
they do, or not do, and their body language.
Everyone has opinions and this Nugget reflects mine, right or
wrong. But before you dismiss what I
say, consider this, if I think, see or feel this way, is it possible for
someone else to think, see or feel as I do?
Like, for example, your customers or worse, your family members? A word to the wise should be sufficient
except for possibly you-know-who.
I was truly fortunate when Bill Wiersma, author of the book The Big AHA asked me to proof read a
portion of his newest book, The Power of Professionalism. The book should be considered a “must read”
for anyone who thinks of themselves as a professional or who works in a
profession where you should be considered a professional. In
this regard it is NOT about what YOU think of yourself that counts, it
is what your customers think, your peers think and the people you work with and
for think that counts.
The following story is told to
emphasize this point. I was waiting for a friend to come through the New
Orleans airport terminal. While waiting,
a man in a janitor's uniform with his janitor’s cart stopped near where I was
sitting. He was there to pick up the
trash from the nearby trash can. He
carefully removed the trash bag, tied it tightly and placed it on his
cart. He then sprayed the trash can,
wiped it dry making certain to leave no streaks or finger prints on the
stainless steel can. He then placed a
new trash bag in the can making sure the seal around the top was tight so the
bag would not slip into the canister.
That was not enough, he than loosened one side of the bag to force the
air from between the bag and the canister out so as to avoid creating an air
bubble inside the canister. He then
replaced the top to the canister, wiped it down, and then took a couple of
steps back to observe his work. I said
to him, "Good job! I am curious, does
anyone ever comment on your work?"
He said "No but thanks for noticing." He went about his business and I mine. Can a janitor be a professional? Was he a professional? In my eyes he was.” I believe in his mind he was as well.
If someone were to observe your
work in action, would they say you were a professional? Would they say you have the customer’s best
interest at heart? Would they get the
impression that you love what you do and do what you love?
It seems fashionable to refer to
The Law of Something like the Law of Attraction, The Law of Leadership,
etc. I do not know if there is a Law of
Self-Education but if not, there should be.
The Law would simply state, an Education is what you get when you
read; Experience is what you get when you don’t! There are a lot of folks acquiring experience
when they should have earned an education, know what I mean?
If I had a magic wand and would
be granted just one wish, it would be that everyone read Jeffrey Gitomer’s
book, The Little Gold Book of YES!Attitude and Bill Wiserma’s
new book, The Power of Professionalism.
(Maybe that is two wishes; so be it!)
Being a professional, at least to
me, starts with having the proper attitude.
How many courses have you taken on attitude? My guess would be none; not sure such a
course is even offered. Yet having a
good attitude about everything is essential to your success. But few if anyone has ever literally worked
on their attitude. Do you have attitude
improvement on your Daily To Do List?
You should! It starts with looking
in the mirror and asking yourself if you are in a good mood or not. If not, what are you going to do about
changing it?
The following is a list of situations, conversations or simple
observations. How many of them describe things you have said
or done?
1.
Comment:
Why do I always seem to get the weird customers?
2.
Comment:
Buyers are liars.
3.
Comment: Do
you know how hard I worked for those people?
4.
Comment: I
can’t lose this deal; I worked so hard for the commission.
5.
Comment:
I’m not going to drive all the way over there to get a signature.
6.
Situation:
Talking while waiting for someone to answer a call you just made?
7.
Situation:
Chewing gum or food while talking to someone.
8.
Situation:
Engaging in very long winded explanations with someone who is typically
short winded.
9.
Situation:
Engaging in very short explanations with someone who expects a more in
depth explanation.
10. Situation: Talking with someone on your Bluetooth
telephone while also talking with someone you are physically with
11.
Situation:
Arriving late for a meeting
12. Situation: Leaving early from a meeting
13. Situation: Carrying on conversations at a meeting when
the leader of the meeting is making a presentation
14. Situation: Using your cell phone while driving (hint,
you are not as good a driver as you may think you are)
15. Situation: Calling people during a typical
supper/dinner hour
16. Situation: Calling people after 8:00 pm for business on
non-emergency issues
17.
Situation:
Calling people before 8:00 am for business on non-emergency issues
18. Situation: Entering an office that has a closed door
because your issue is too important to respect the closed door
19. Situation: Interrupting someone’s conversation to
interject your comment whether it is pertinent or not
20. Situation: Being late for an appointment
21. Situation: Failure to call to let someone know you are
going to be late for an appointment
22. Situation: Failure to do what you said you would do
23. Situation: Discussing politics in a non-political
situation
24. Situation: Discussing religion in a non-religious
situation
25. Situation: Telling off-color jokes
26. Situation: Listening to off-color jokes and not leaving
the area
27. Situation: Gossiping about others
28. Situation: Listening to gossip about others without
excusing yourself
29. Situation: Always making excuses for the condition of
your car’s interior
30. Situation: Always making excuses for the condition of
your office space
31. Situation: Seeing trash lying about without doing
something about it
32. Situation: Saying critical or derogatory things about
people who are not present and who you would never say to their face
33. Situation: Disregarding traffic laws or expected
courtesies but especially with your name rider on the side and back of your car
The Keller Williams WI4C2TS focuses on Integrity; do the right thing. While that is an admirable goal, it would be
even better had it said, Integrity, do the right thing, especially when no one
is watching.
The Law of Attraction IS real and it DOES work both positively and negatively. If you find your conversations to be
continually negative you will most assuredly attract more negative situations
and negative people into your life. On
the other hand if you work on insuring that you have a positive attitude,
engage in positive conversations and avoid negative people you should then
begin to attract more positive situations and people into your life. You tend to receive more of what you expect
to receive.
A perfect example of this occurs
with a lot of senior citizens. When you
get the chance, listen to the types of conversations seniors engage in. Most involve sickness and disease. If you constantly think and discuss sickness and
disease and if the Law of Attraction works, why would these same people then
not expect to have more of what they think about most come into their lives –
sickness and disease? I know this
because…
Do you honestly believe that the
top producers within the real estate industry sit around and talk about how
horrible their buyers and/or sellers have been?
Or do you think they talk about what they are doing that is working or
what they might want to try or ask another top producer what is working in
their business?
You are what you are but you
don’t have to be what or who you are. No
one should accept who they are because there is always room for improvement –
always! To be a work in progress you
must ALWAYS be aware of EVERYTHING you say and do because if you aren’t
- someone else is; no one lives in a vacuum.
Your words, your actions and your body language have a tremendous
influence, both good and bad, on other people.
What kind of influence do you leave behind? Do you brighten a room when you enter or when
you leave? How do you know? Why not ask someone who will tell you the
truth?
ACTION STEP
Keep a small pocket size notebook
with you for just one week. Make a mark
for every incident that you either observe or you engage in that may not be in
your best interest, your team’s best interest, your family’s best interest,
and/or your customer’s best interest. As
you learn to keep track of such incidents, conversations and situations, you
become increasingly more aware of them and will learn how to better avoid
them. Why go out of your way to make
your life miserable. Jeffrey Gitomer
said that people try to rain on your parade because they have no parade themselves
to rain on. The question is, how many
parades have you been raining on? How
many of them were your own parade.
Misery does love company. Are you
avoiding miserable situations, engaging in other people’s miserable situations
or God forbid, causing miserable situations?
Are you sure?
