Middleton Elite Coaching. Expert Real Estate Coaching for Top Real Estate Professionals

This article is for you if you can relate to one or more of the statements below:

• You are a real estate professional, a business owner, a leader, a team member, or a human. 
• You often back-burner what is personally important to you in order to focus on higher-priority career objectives. 
• You often feel that it is necessary to move 100 mph 24/7 in order to gain productivity. 
• You have a pulse. 

Real estate professionals have been running sprints for the better part of the last two years.  

2020 and 2021 were in many ways unprecedented years thanks to a global pandemic and its trickling effects on the financial climate. 

The majority of the real estate professionals we work with have seen 2021 as their strongest year ever. Many of our real estate coaching clients have done more business in 2021 than in any other year.

Being busier than ever can often mean living in a space full of unmanageable workloads, numerous time constraints, and stressful deadlines. For many real estate professionals, this can feel like a 24/7 race being run at 100 mph.

It is necessary to make self-care a priority in both your personal and professional life to avoid burning out. 

RELATED: Burnout…And How To Avoid It 

We coach on the principles of The 4 P’s – Productivity, Projects, People, and Personal. The Personal aspect of our lives is just as important as how productive we are, the projects we take on, and the people in our world who support them.

Here are 7 self-care tips we’ve compiled for real estate professionals. These tips are designed to help you regain focus, prioritize your ‘Personal’, and have more energy for the productivity, projects, and people in your life. 

1. Establish Your ‘On’ and ‘Off’ Time

Many real estate professionals feel that they are always ‘On’. Always on call, always available, always on top of things. For many, this likely means being ‘On’ more than you are ‘Off’. 

It is important to set boundaries for when you take calls, read and write emails, and send and receive texts. 

• Establish Offline Time. Try to limit sending emails to business hours only. 
• After Hours Boundaries. Set a cutoff time for answering your phone each day. 
• Unplug Daily. Create a dedicated time of day to unplug. Make sure to reserve ‘family time’ and ‘you time’ by turning off your phone at a certain time of day. 
• Set up your voicemail and any auto-replies to acknowledge your ‘Off’ hours in a way that sets the expectation and boundary with your clients. 

2. Recharge Your Batteries During The Day

It is neither fun nor productive to run on empty. We can all benefit from taking time to recharge our batteries. 

Try adding a few moments each day to find peace and quiet. Take several short 5 or 10-minute breaks throughout the day to help you focus and find your center.

 Here are some ideas for incorporating a mid-day recharge:

• Take a walk. Walk down the hall, walk to the water cooler, walk around the block. When possible, take a walk outside in the fresh air. There is a direct relationship between mental centeredness and moving your body. 
• Give yourself a screen break. Take some time away from your computer and phone screen. 
• Keep a journal. Set aside several short breaks each day to add entries to a journal. Giving gratitude, documenting your positive thoughts, and writing messages that your children can read in the future are just a few examples of things you can journal. 
• Meditate. Perform a breathing exercise, relax and clear your mind. Find a meditation app that will remind you daily when it is time to take a break.
• Stretch. Stretch at your desk. Stretch during lunch. Stretch in your car. Find a yoga or stretching app that will provide ideas for stretches you can do from almost anywhere.
• Read. If you love to read and lack the time, pick up your favorite book and read a chapter or two at a time.  

3. Just Say “No”

Overcommitment can cause frustration and exhaustion. It can be difficult to decline an invitation to an event or a request for help. Saying “no” is an important part of self-care.

Practice self-care by giving priority to things that you enjoy doing. Doing things that bring you joy and satisfaction is good for the mind, body, and soul. 

Here are a few things you can say “no” to when you are actively practicing self-care:

• Just say “no” to listings, buyers, or professional opportunities that will not be worth the investment of your time.
• Just say “no” to the people, places, and things creating unmanageable workloads in your life.
• Just say “no” to the team members, clients, and people who do not respect your personal boundaries for time and self-care.

4. Keep Your Body Healthy

There is little use for an engine without a vehicle to propel. Taking care of your body in healthy ways can give you more energy and keep you running a lot longer. 

Here are a few of the most important ways to keep your body healthy: 

• Get exercise. Take a walk, go for a jog, run a marathon, train for a body-building competition, or anything in between. Even small amounts of daily exercise can boost your energy level.
• Eat balanced meals. Try to eat home-cooked meals more often than you eat take-out. If you lack the time to prepare daily home-cooked meals, try to prepare your meals in advance, or hire a person or a service that can prepare meals for you. Eating regular balanced meals is an essential part of keeping your body healthy. 
• Stay hydrated. Maintaining your intake of water can help you feel more clear-minded. Drinking at least half of your body weight in ounces daily is proven to have a positive impact on your overall immune health and energy levels. 
• Get enough sleep. Sleep is essential. Try aiming for 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Create a bedtime routine. For many, clearing your mind of any tasks you may want to accomplish the following day is a great way to unwind. You can also benefit from going to bed at a reasonable time.

5. Stay In Your Own Lane 

As real estate professionals, we spend a lot of time comparing our production and successes to the production and successes of others. It can be unnecessarily exhausting and demotivating. Constant comparison is counter-productive to forward progress.

 Here are a few ways you can limit comparing yourself to others.  

• Stop the scroll. Try limiting the amount of time you spend on social media each day. Though our intentions for the use of social media may be for business or networking, it is nearly impossible to avoid comparing our lives and successes to those of others.
• What are you following? Take a good look at the social media pages you like and follow. What you follow is what you are letting into your life and into your mind. Are these people and pages that bring positivity and good vibes into your world? Evaluate the pages and people you are connected to and give priority to those who will help you on your path to self-care and growth. 
• Don’t compare yourself to others. It is important to note that you likely only see the polished and the pretty; the production numbers and the accolades. We are all just people on a daily quest for improvement. We all have successes and we all have failures. It takes a lot of work and a lot of grit to do what we do. It isn’t always pretty. Some people are just really good at highlighting the best parts. 

6. Leave Room For What You Love

Self-care shows up when you do something that gives you purpose and passion. Find what fulfills you and do that as often as you can. Time with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers can be a source of love and fulfillment for many. Volunteer in your community, take a cooking class, learn to paint, or buy a boat.

 Here are a couple of ways to make sure you do more of what you love:

• Find something you are passionate about and make time for it. Add this person or activity to your weekly schedule. Create a block of time or a calendar event for this activity and commit to doing it. 
• Announce your participation in this activity to the people in your life who will ensure you stick to doing it. We can all use an accountability partner both personally and professionally. 

7.  Self-Care Should Be Guilt-Free

Taking time to care for yourself is a necessary part of being productive, positive, and healthy. It can be difficult to not feel guilty for saying “no”, or for making time for yourself. Your spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health is important. The ‘Personal’ side of your life is important.  Period.

Here are a few ways you can remind yourself that self-care is not selfish.

• Positive affirmations. Remind yourself that you are important. You are important to yourself and you are important to others. Taking time to take care of yourself is something that you need to do in order to stay healthy and happy. 
• Personal Is Always Part of the Plan. A great and well-rounded business plan should include personal goals, personal objectives, personal interests, as well as the time and resources to partake in them. 
• You are NOT selfish. It would be selfish to allow yourself to burn out and it would be selfish to stay in an unhealthy space. The health of your body and your mind is crucial to your longevity, both in your career and in life. The people who love you and depend on you will always want the best for you. 

Take Care Of Yourself So That You Can Take Care of Others

There may be people in your life that depend on you for care. How can you properly care for others if you are on the 24/7 hamster wheel sprint? How are you able to show up for others if you have no gas left in the tank?

It’s like when a flight attendant tells you to put your oxygen mask on first so that you can be available to help the others around you.

Value yourself. Learn to say “no”. Take care of the ‘Personal’ (spiritual, mental, physical, emotional) aspects of your life. Set healthy boundaries so that you can continue to show up for yourself and for others. 

Self-care should always be in the business plan. 

Take care. We mean it. 

Be Elite!

Debbie, Bill, and The MEC Team.