Category Archives: Food for thought

The Time Management Blame Game

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choice

It’s important to think about time management as a choice, not so much as a tool.

What I find is that many mortgage professionals battle between freedom and discipline, that is, they indulge in the freedom of not being stuck in a 9-5 job with a Manager overseeing their hour by hour production, but don’t embrace daily disciplines and practices to ensure the production they need AND then they beat themselves up for taking the time they took to be with friends, attend to family and/or personal to-dos during peak productivity time.

So, if you find yourself blaming a lack of time management as the cause for an unstable pipeline, the first thing to investigate are the choices you are making on a daily basis.

There are only so many hours in a day and only so many hats one person can wear. Be at peace with your choices. Be realistic about your potential production. Or start making changes.

Start the New Year Focused on One Thing…YOU!

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Happy New Year!2018newyear

It’s a fresh, New Year with all fresh new beginnings, which include: new habits, new attitudes, new risks, new hopes, new goals, new challenges, new focus, new passions, new possibilities, and THANK GOD, we’re here and able to experience it ALL!

Since everything we experience on the outside, starts with how we feel on the inside, here are 6 simple practices to maintaining a positive attitude in any situation all year long…

Break-up the Negative Stream –The moment you realize you are riding down that mental negative stream of frustration, anger or self-pity– shift your thoughts to a totally unrelated memory, to-do list or other thought. This breaks the negative pattern and keeps you from sinking into a downward spiral.

Find the Lesson – There is a lesson to be learned from every situation. No matter how unfortunate the situation may appear, recognize the beautiful lessons waiting to be discovered. Every problem is a learning and growth opportunity in disguise.

Focus on Daily Gratitude – You cannot be both angry and grateful at the same time. Start every day off by counting the blessings and miracles in your life, start looking for them and you shall find more.

Positive Affirmations & Visualization – Practice seeing yourself in a positive and confident light. Do this whenever you have a few minutes (while waiting for a friend, sitting on the bus, riding an elevator.) Keep a list of positive statements about yourself someplace where you will see them daily, like your bathroom mirror.

Inventory of Memories – Keep an inventory of memories that can immediately make you smile- Occasions where you felt happy, appreciative and cheerful and at peace with the world.

Criticizing Detox Diet – Change your approach and attitude. See if you can stop criticizing others and situations. Shift from fault-finding to appreciation-finding.

Watch-Out for these Time Sucking Vampires

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timevampsTime-sucking vampires are amongst us and the faster you can identify them and learn how to extricate yourself from their never-ending thirst, the faster you can get back to being productive, focused and a lot less drained at the end of your work day.

Here are the top 3 time-sucking scenarios that need to be immediately managed and by managed, I mean…Boundaries are set & expectations clearly communicated with a goal of 100% satisfaction, OR you sever the relationship all together.

  1. Loan officers, whether peers or direct reports, who ask you the same questions over and over again, do not apparently take notes or take time to read guidelines and learn their craft. Or, those peers or direct reports who vent tirelessly about their clients, their struggles, the market or what Corporate isn’t doing for them.
  2. Assistants or other support team members who make their work load your responsibility, by constantly having to double-check their work, take tasks back from them, ask how they’re doing with projects, rather than automatically receiving regular updates from them, or those who buck the system, refuse to proactively seek-out solutions or infect the rest of the team with their complaints, negative comments and insubordinate behaviors.
  3. Referral partners who accept your lunch invites, attend your seminars, use your resources, ask for contributions to their marketing, auctions, fundraisers, charitable causes, Broker Opens, Open Houses, demand that their procrastinations become your emergencies and NEVER offer to reciprocate on their own accord in any way.

Goals Eluding You? Give Yourself Some Grace!

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graceGiving yourself Grace is not about giving yourself excuses. Excuses are external, verbal creations that are given to people you believe hold expectations of you. Excuses are mired in guilt and many times an unspoken desire to pass-off responsibility.

Grace is personal and steeped in forgiveness and new solutions. Giving yourself Grace when your goals seem to be eluding you will help you to push past the hard times and make it to the finish line.

Is there a formula for practicing Grace? I’m glad that you asked. My personal formula for practicing Grace is: G=R3, or Grace= (Recall) x (Reaffirm) x (Recommit).

The first step is to Recall all that you have accomplished in the past and to imagine the lift of good feelings and rush of endorphins that accompanied those wins.

Next, it’s very important that you Reaffirm who you know yourself to be at your very best. If you’ve got your list of positive affirmations, read them. If not, write a new set of 10 positive affirmations immediately.

Finally, Recommit to those goals, visions and/or aspirations that you feel passionate about. If you’ve lost the fire for one goal or the other, examine why that might be. Is fear holding you back? If it is, it’s likely a very worthwhile goal that needs to be broken down into smaller steps.

If you feel a sense of boredom or simple disinterest, scrap-it from the plan and move on.

All great accomplishments start internally, as a seed of thought in the mind. The goals that we set are the first promises we make to ourselves to bring those thoughts into action.

If along the way we become derailed, or some of our goals seem to elude us, all we ever need do is to Recall, Reaffirm and Recommit, thereby summoning the blessings of Grace.

The Field

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Amazing post with all the goodies

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