Maybe you’re a broker-owner who just watched a good agent walk out the door. Maybe you’re a recruiter who has heard “not right now” six times this week. Maybe you’re an agent staring at an empty calendar, an affiliate watching referrals slow down, or a student wondering if you picked the right career at the wrong time.
Different seats. Same pattern.
Most bad weeks don’t start with a disaster. They start small. A scroll through the headlines before coffee. A skipped workout. A text sent too fast.
The good news is that the way back is just as small.
Your mind eats what you feed it
Your mind will follow whatever you feed it. Want better thoughts? Consume better things.
Think about the first 30 minutes of your day. For a lot of us, it’s the news, a Facebook group full of people complaining about rates, and a feed of someone else’s closings. Then we wonder why we walk into the next appointment anxious.
Inputs become outputs. Listen to market panic and you’ll talk market panic. The people across the table will hear it.
So swap one input. Ten pages of a good book instead of the headlines. A podcast on the drive instead of talk radio. A call with the most optimistic person you know instead of the group chat. Starve the ANTs before they get comfortable.
Five minutes breaks the cycle
Every slump has the same shape. You miss a day, then two, then you stop counting. The gap starts to feel so big that closing it seems like a huge project.
It isn’t. It only takes five minutes to break the cycle.
Five minutes of exercise and you are back on the path. Five minutes of writing and the manuscript is moving forward again. Five minutes of conversation and the relationship is restored. Five minutes of calls and your pipeline has a pulse.
Set a timer. Tell yourself you can stop when it goes off. Most days, you won’t want to. And remember the rule: never miss twice.
It doesn’t take much to feel good again.
It’s usually how you said it
It’s remarkable how often the real problem is not what happened, but how it was communicated.
The deal didn’t fall apart because of the inspection. It fell apart because the buyer heard about the repair request from the other agent before hearing it from you.
The agent didn’t leave over the new tech fee. They left because they read about it in an email with no explanation and no conversation.
The fix is simple: call first, text second.
The call delivers the news. They hear your tone, they can ask questions, and they hear it from you before anyone else. The text that follows puts the details in writing so nothing gets lost.
Most communication problems come from skipping the call. A text can’t tell them you’re on their side. Your voice can.
Try This
- Leave your phone face down for the first 30 minutes tomorrow. Read ten pages of something good instead.
- Set a five-minute timer before noon. Point it at the one thing you’ve let slip: the calls, the workout, the person you’ve been meaning to reach.
- Call first, text second. The next time you have news someone won’t want to hear, pick up the phone before you type a word.
Question
Which one is costing you the most right now: what you’re consuming, what you’ve stopped doing, or something that needed to be said differently?
Resources
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler.
Better inputs. Faster restarts. Clearer words. That’s how big days get built.
Win the day.
Want help applying this in your brokerage? Book a 30-minute conversation with Mark at calendly.com/mjsession.
Hi Mark, I recently joined a book club that my employer promotes. The books are mainly about CEO’s, big companies, and tech corporations that have grown to become iconic businesses. I feel I have gained knowledge and experience in my business and my personal life, from the book that I listen to on my morning commute. I like to listen to it once, then a second time around I listen and I like to take notes on how I can implement these items into my daily life. The results are profound; I think I am more motivated to make changes that can improve daily life at work, and in my personal life at home. I only made a small daily change on my commute to work, which resulted in a large personal life improvement.
Hi Janek, I’m so glad to read that the small change made a big impact! #Breakthrough
Hi Mark. I agree that if you want change, all you have to do is start to make little changes here and there. Those small changes will accumulate over time and you will start to notice a difference. Nothing will seem too big to tackle if you break it up into small pieces and tackle it a little at a time.
Elaine, yes! The compound effect! #WinTheDay