*Actions & Attitudes

One of KJF Partners’ Core Values is:

“We are driven by our personal commitment to create value for our investors, tenants, teammates and brokers.”

To serve our broker partners, we send occasional emails that focus on lessons learned through my brokerage history or from my current role as a principal.

Brokerage is a challenging business. In today’s turbulent world, it is essential to focus on the actions and attitude that you can control in order to develop/maintain habits that will lead you to a successful career. Reflecting upon our current, unsettled times, I’m reminded that life will always present challenges, both large and small. As real estate professionals, it is our job to face those challenges without losing focus on what’s necessary to be successful. The following are some thoughts to consider.

You choose your future with the actions you take each day.
While I did not write the above phrase, those words are taped to my computer to remind me that what I do today matters. The future we construct for ourselves, is built with small bricks we put in place each day. Focus on building and maintaining habits that will create the future that you desire. In brokerage, those habits certainly include consistent prospecting to generate business opportunities, and cultivating strong, lasting, productive relationships. Largely, prospecting is a numbers game. Maintaining your client “touches,” despite the noise and turbulence that surrounds us today, is everything. Plant seeds by adding value with every interaction, and your future harvests will grow. Strong prospecting leads to great listings which lead to success; that has always been true.

Control your attitude with your actions.
There may be people that roll out of bed every day with a perfect attitude. Maybe they never experience the difficulties of life and the pull that those challenges have on maintaining a positive attitude. I wish I were one of those people but, sadly I am not; most of us aren’t. We have fears, sadness, anxiousness, anger etc., which, if allowed, can result in an unproductive attitude. I have learned that if I force myself to take productive actions, despite my initial “feelings,” my attitude shifts with the actions that I take. I am a firm believer that your actions create your feelings. Be productive, and you will surely feel productive.

Control your environment.
Your environment consists of the surroundings and conditions which you operate in. This includes what you watch, where you work, the people you interact with and many other things. In today’s chaotic world, my very simple advice is to surround yourself with people that you aspire to be like; watch and do things that improve your outlook and your health. There is abundant negativism in our environment today. What we can do to prevent ourselves from being carried into that abyss is to surround ourselves with positive people, positive places and positive information.

You are not responsible for everything that happens, but you are 100% responsible for your reaction.
Sometimes bad things happen that are out of our control. Please remember that you have a choice in how you react to those things, and you can shift in any moment. No matter the circumstance, if you can ask yourself a few questions, I promise you will make acceptable choices. Ask yourself, “what is the ultimate goal?” Ask yourself, “what is most important?” Ask yourself, “what communication and actions will lead me in the proper direction?”

An example from my life: I have been married to a wonderful woman for 27 years. We often have different ideas about how to solve an issue or what actions to take in a given situation (or whose turn to clean the dishes is it?). Issues do not have to be large to create disagreement. When I remind myself that winning an argument is much less important than having a great marriage, I can easily shift communication to focus on what’s important in my life. No matter the situation, if you react in a manner that supports your goals and relationships, you will take actions that will produce positive results.

I wish you the very best that life has to offer!

Happy Hunting!

Joe Faris
KJF Partners, Inc.
Cell Phone: 949-275-5038