During one of my recent seminars, and again on a coaching call, the topic of stress came up. I was in your shoes when I was a new agent and I know it can feel like there is a mountain in front of you. I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen years old and started in this business when I was just nineteen. (Talk about green!) One thing that life has taught me over the years is that worry doesn’t help. It’s like that old quote by the very funny Erma Bombeck, “Worry is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.”
So, I decided to create an acronym (acronyms and analogies are my thing) for handling worry in our business! It is S.T.R.E.S.S., which stands for: Stop Taking Real Estate So Seriously!
Look, I know this can be a stressful business. Prospecting. Phone calls. Time crunches. Deals going sideways. Demanding clients. Over-the-top expectations. The works! It’s also filled with extraordinary opportunities. Blessings. Terrific people. Unlimited potential. And joy.
Stress and worry cause breakdowns. They hold our emotions hostage and rob us of the bandwidth we need to think on our feet and create solutions. The keys to flipping the switch? Laughter, perspective and action. Those are three powerful ingredients that can help you send stress packing and design a life and career worth smiling about.
Did you know that every genuine smile you produce triggers the release of what I’ll call the four “feel-good chemicals”? (I remember them with the acronym D.O.S.E.): Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphin. Laughter delivers a much needed D.O.S.E. of all the feel-good chemicals our bodies need to lift us up and keep us running.
These are released from the limbic system, an ancient part of our brain that is responsible for emotion, motivation and many instinctive responses. This is important to understand because a lot of our behavior in this area is automatic, given to us by our ancestors and related to our survival as a species.
If you’re like most people, you probably believe that you have to wait until you feel something good and then smile. After all, it’s only natural. But research shows that smiling actually makes us feel good. So, the “formula” we’ve been following is scientifically backwards! It’s important to understand why we smile, the different types of smiling, the impact that our smile has on those around us and on ourselves, and specific action steps that we can take which can make us happier in life…which, of course, leads to more smiling!
Perspective reminds us that nothing lasts, so worry in the moment doesn’t even make sense.
Action is the game-changer. It allows us to get out of our own way. Tony Robbins says, “Motion impacts emotion.” Or the other saying I like is, “If you fall into a rut, don’t unpack and stay there!” Take action, it works!
So, no stress! Keep moving forward, know that you have people and resources that can help you move in the direction of your dreams, and that my team and I are here for you!
We’re here if you need us!
Darryl Davis, bestselling author of “How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate” and owner of Darryl Davis Seminars, has trained and coached over 100,000 real estate professionals around the globe for more than 27 years. He is the founder of the Next Level® real estate training system, The Power Program®, which has helped agents double their production over their previous year. For more information, and the new agent tools that can help take you to your Next Level®, please contact darryl@darrylspeaks.com or visit www.ThePowerProgram.com/NewAgentSuccess.
