Commitment in all things
Commitment is defined in Webster as
1 : an agreement or pledge to do something in the future
2 : the state or an instance of being obligated or emotionally impelled
It’s not obvious at first. I don’t know if we consider commitment as much as we should so let’s dig in. Commitment is what carries us through the rough patches.
Seth Godin wrote a book called The Dip. Every endeavor that moves us from a lower place to a higher place involves a dip. A dip in excitement, passion, energy and drive. It’s the place where you find out if you really want the thing you are going after.
Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art talks about something called Resistance. The force that keeps you from doing what you know you ought to do. I think this is part of the dip but it’s also external to us. As we move past the start we find out there is work involved. There is learning involved and you have to commit to doing it. To show you’re invested.
Pressfield talks about The Muse too. His book is about writing but it applies to anyone working on anything to improve your life, business or health. His take on The Muse is she’s someone who comes by and if she finds you working, she’ll reward you with inspiration but if you’re just sitting on the couch, she won’t. You have to put in the labor (emotional, physical or intellectual) before you receive her gift. I know I’ve experienced this in my writing. I go back and read things I’ve written in the past and am amazed it came from me. It seems to come from somewhere else, it’s not just me in the effort.
I think this business of real estate is similar. Especially if you work by referral. It involves work for sure. Calling your sphere or database, writing notes to folks or going by to see how they are doing. It’s hard to keep on doing it but if you do it consistently, invest time is listening and action based on what you heard the reward comes and it’s not obvious where it comes from. The cool thing is it gets easier as you do more of it and it develops a momentum of it’s own. It’s not just the slog of daily cold calls.
Commitment is what got me where I am today but it was a struggle early on. I remember the day I took down an old journal and started reading. I was able to see a pattern in my thoughts from a couple of years back and realized I was focused on quitting instead of succeeding.
I repeatedly wrote things like ‘don’t give up’ or ‘don’t quit!’ and that focus on quitting was not helpful. I changed my thinking that day and committed to staying in, no matter what and I’d encourage you to think about that too.
Make a commitment, burn the boats (you know that story, right?), and figure out what you need to learn. What you need to know or do to succeed. Winston Churchill said “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.” Check here for the full speech if you want to read it.
I’ll be back with the next thing on culture shortly. Stay tuned.
Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-616-1578 Direct
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