The real estate industry is obsessed with “mindset.” We spend millions on keynote speakers trying to change how our agents think, hoping that if we just inspire them enough, their actions will follow.
Change your heart, and your actions will change.
But what if that model is completely backward?
Psychologist George Simon inverts this approach. He argues that acting differently first can actually change your beliefs and feelings. You don’t wait to feel convicted before doing the right thing. Doing the right thing, repeatedly, is what produces the conviction.
This is the essence of metanoia—transformation through practice, not just insight.
The Friday Afternoon Trap
Here is the hard truth for every CEO, recruiter, and agent reading this: we don’t have much control over how we feel.
Picture this: It’s 4:00 p.m. on a Friday. A recruit you’ve been working on for six months just texted you to say they are signing with your competitor. You feel gutted. The immediate instinct is to pack up your desk, tell yourself the market is brutal right now, and vow to “reset” on Monday when you feel more motivated.
If you wait for the feeling of motivation to return, you have already lost. The heart’s true convictions are revealed not by what we say on stage, but by what we do at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday.
The Simple Path of Action
The path to genuine transformation in your business is actually quite simple: do the right thing first. Do the loving thing.
As Paul exhorts in 1 Corinthians 16:14, we should do everything with and in love. Imagine a brokerage built on that standard. What does doing the “loving thing” look like at 4:00 p.m. on that Friday?
It looks like picking up the phone and calling a struggling agent on your roster just to check on their pipeline. Not because you feel inspired, but because that is the standard you committed to. You make the call. You help them solve a problem. Suddenly, your posture changes. You feel like a leader again.
You didn’t wait for your mindset to change before making the call. Making the call changed your mindset.
What we believe dictates how we do things. But conversely, doing things differently will profoundly change what we believe.
Your Next Move
Identify one vital revenue-producing or culture-building action you have been putting off because you “didn’t feel ready” or “weren’t in the right headspace.”
Stop waiting for buy-in from your own emotions. Execute that action in the next 24 hours. Pick up the phone, write the plan, or book the meeting. Compel yourself to do the work, and watch your mindset follow your feet.
Win the day.
