Understanding Your Core Motivation

Once we grow up, often we stop asking ourselves “why” yet this can be one of the most powerful methods for success in life. My video below encourages you to ask; “What’s Your Why,” and helps you to understand what motivates you to be successful in your career and in your life.

Can you remember moments in your life when you’ve had a very clear purpose or intent? Probably it was a moment of crisis or emergency and you simply HAD to succeed. The goal was clear and you found a determination that was clear and strong and you handled the issue. Imagine the power of that level of intensity and focus in your real estate career. What if you could tap into those reserves and use that power in growing your business? I address this kind of motivation by asking “What’s Your Why”. What is it that compels you to success?

Finding your “why” can help you set goals which will help you achieve greater success than you might think possible. Are you motivated to pay off your home? Send your kids to college? Take that vacation of a lifetime? Own your own brokerage? Why are you a real estate agent in the first place? Is it for the financial opportunity? The flexibility which comes from being your own boss? The freedom to attend all of your son’s baseball games? Why? What is your why? While you might not discover your personal “why” or” why’s” overnight, you can start to learn more about your motivations by asking yourself some questions.

What excites you?

What inspires you?

In your personal life, it could be a beautiful sunset or peaceful morning. It’s what makes you feel alive. In your real estate business, it might be as simple as the thrill of giving the keys to a first time home buyer at the close of escrow. Maybe you are motivated to earn money which allows you to contribute to a local shelter. Perhaps you love to mentor new agents and watch them grow in their success. What are you passionate about

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Time to look at your innate talents and shortcomings honestly. The most successful people are those who combine their passion with their natural abilities. By utilizing your personal skills in your profession, you’re more likely to enjoy your career and success is far easier to achieve when you like what you’re doing each day. Remember in school that when you liked the subject matter you got better grades? Those were the classes with readings that interested you and most likely appealed to your natural inclinations. An analytical person is more apt to enjoy a science class while a visionary would excel in an art class.

Where can you make a difference?

What do you contribute to your career which has the biggest impact on your business? Where are you already being successful? While many real estate agents loathe the idea of door knocking, there are many who have found great success doing just that. They love to get out into the community and meeting people. They are successful in this activity because they genuinely love what they are doing. What are you currently doing that is bringing you success….and what takes you away from doing more of it? As you continue learning about your “why”, you also need to see what problems you gain satisfaction from solving and what activities you really enjoy which make a difference.

How do you measure success in life and your career?

How do you define success? Living with purpose and intent involves knowing the goal. A clear understanding of what you consider success to look like it the only way to achieve it. Focus on the things that matter most to you. While everyone yearns to feel financially secure, normally the things that bring people the greatest happiness are the intangible things of life…health, family and peace. Real estate agents typically place freedom high on the list of things that bring them satisfaction. Learning how you measure your personal success can change your life in tangible ways. By clearly knowing your purpose, you can set concrete goals and activities to reach it.

Asking the question, “What’s Your Why,” starts the conversation. What motivates you to take risks and be successful? Take the example of two tall buildings with a beam connecting them. At first, I ask if it would be worth risking the fall and certain death to walk across the beam if you were offered $10,000. Probably not. Then I change the story. In the second instance, the other building is on fire, and your child is on the roof with no way to escape. Now would you risk going across the beam to save your child? Absolutely! What changed? The motivation! Same activity, different motivation. That is why it is so important to understand the “why”, or motivation that will propel you in your real estate career.

Knowing your purpose will push you to take on new challenges and overcome obstacles to succeed. Just as you were able to do in the crisis we spoke about at the beginning of this article, now you are using your talents to make positive changes which will bring you further in your real estate career. A force for good, using your passions in your daily business activities will not only help you enjoy your work more but also see better results…just like that class that you loved in school.