Those who achieve mastery at something and are the best at what they do are that way due to the number of times they have gone through the same process. The best basketball players practice the greatest number of hours. The best real estate agents and investors make an effort to develop the most relationships, and so on. There is a common underlying theme here that overlaps everyone who is the best at what they do, it is repetitive action or what I like to call getting in the reps. The more times you do something, the better you will get at it. It’s a simple answer to a simple question, but actually getting in those reps is a challenge that many people try to circumvent. There is nothing in this world that will make you the best at what you do unless you truly want to be the best and make the commitment to do the work that is required to reach that level.
The Gym analogy
Everyone understands the gym in terms of its basic principle in that going there to work out develops your muscles. The more you train, the more reps you do, the bigger your muscles get. This is such a simple concept, and everyone understands this for the most part. However, when you change the context slightly to something like being the best real estate agent in your local market, people don’t realize that the same principle applies here. I am admitting now that I have been a victim to this, and I can’t wrap my head around why that is. You see, being the best local real estate agent for example is fairly simple yet extremely hard to do. Everyone deep down understands the process of how to get to the top, much like the gym example, but in the case of the real estate agent they think they can circumvent the reps it takes to be the best. This is not the truth! It takes a persistent effort, lots of patience, and the ability to keep yourself motivated and accountable to be the best. Without these simple yet challenging aspects all aligning, being the best will be out of the realm of possibilities.
Defining the process
Let’s keep going with our real estate agent analogy for the sake of continuity in our example. How do you become the best real estate agent you may ask? Just like to answer to getting bigger muscles, the answer is not a secret. Make the most connections with other people and tell everyone you encounter what you do in a polite and respectful manner. This is known by everyone, yet so many people don’t do what they can to achieve this due to self-limiting belief, lack of confidence, etc., and fail to understand why they aren’t getting the business they expected to get. The process of making connections is not something that is complex. Start walking around your neighborhood and knocking doors, call lists of people in your local area, send out mailers advertising yourself, reach out to other agents and offer to help them at their open houses, etc. There are so many things you could and should do to be the best real estate agent, yet everyone has what I like to call, “magic pill syndrome”, in that they think things will just magically happen to them because they want them to similarly to how people take weight loss pills and expect to lose 100 pounds and wake up with a 6-pack the next day with no effort! Your goals are clear, the process is clear, all you need to do is get over your fear, choose a method, and GET IN THOSE REPS. Success is really that simple. Being the best is hard, but the process is worth the reward. When you are at the top, especially as a real estate agent, you will find that a lot of business comes to you, and the things that were once extremely hard become almost effortless. This is where we all strive to be. Those who want it most and don’t try to take any shortcuts will get there.
WHat to do when the reps get easy
When you’re at the gym and the reps you are doing begin to get easier and easier, what do you do to ensure you are still getting a good work out and growing your muscles at the rate you’d like to? You add weight! This same principle is true for anything else as well. When you become the best at what you do, the next natural progression is to elevate yourself to a position where you can feel challenged again and keep improving your skills to become even better. For our real estate agent example, if you are a top producing agent in your office consistently year after year, the next step for you to elevate yourself may be to start a team and have agents work under you. This will allow you to focus your time on high-level things rather than doing what you did when you started (lead generating). This new set of challenges comes with new and exciting opportunities to learn new things and grow as an individual. When the time is right, we need to elevate ourselves. If we don’t and we remain stagnate, we are doing ourselves a disservice. Get in those reps and when a workout gets too easy for you, elevate to a new and harder workout! This is how the most successful people in the world think and you are sure to be one of them if you adopt this mindset and apply it in a way that makes sense for you! Get in those reps!!