Hint: It’s something you can do for yourself
Key Takeaways
- Coaches can provide accountability and motivation — but so can spouses, coworkers, and brokers.
- Share your goals with your social circle, and ask them to hold you accountable — peer pressure is a powerful motivator.
- Be your own consultant, and look over your business with a critical eye — you’ll be surprised by how many ideas for improvement you find.
Accountability. That is the number one reason many agents pay over $1,000 a month for a coach. Does that mean they can’t find other ways — even free ways — to hold themselves accountable?
Here are some alternative (free) ways to hold yourself accountable:
- Set goals and write down the dates you want each step completed.
- Tell other agents in your office what goals you’ve set and ask them to hold you accountable to your timeline. Ask them to check in on you and ask you for progress reports.
- Ask your broker to check in with you on a weekly or monthly basis on your goals. Any broker or office manager should be happy to help you hold yourself accountable to your goals.
- Tell your spouse and family members. Ask them to support you and hold you accountable.
- Announce your goals in a social group, on Facebook, or at an office meeting. Tell them when you expect to complete each goal and offer to buy them lunch if you don’t meet your timeline. Peer pressure is a powerful thing.
Be your own guru
Have you ever noticed that it’s easy to give good advice to others, but somehow with your own life or business you often don’t take your own advice?
A good friend shared with me a great way to solve this problem. She has a standing appointment with herself every day at 11 a.m. She pretends she is meeting with an experienced professional (with much more confidence and experience than she has), who values the same things she does, and she has that professional examine specific areas of her business.
For example, she will look over her company website with a critical eye like a paid consultant might. She pretends she is that consultant and looks for ways to make the website better, and makes notes on what isn’t working.
She told me that, surprisingly, she gets a clear answer or solution every day. It makes her honest about what she knows deep down that she needs to do better. She then implements the changes, which means she is improving her company every day.
The point is, you don’t always have to pay someone to tell you what you already know, but you do need to find a way to consistently tap into your own knowing, to trust your own advice and make time to implement it.
The noise of the gurus, trainers, coaches, and experts will become significantly quieter by implementing your own advice first. Write down your goals, set deadlines for mastering them, and then do it. Hold yourself accountable by telling your coworkers, friends, and family your goals and timeline as mentioned above.
If you do that, the noise from the gurus is going to get really quiet, because you’ll be too busy implementing your own plans and changing your business.