Before I go to bed at night I iron a shirt or two, I constantly do this Sunday through Thursday night as part of an evening routine to set in motion the following day.

Because this has become a habit, once I start the process my body and mind immediately go into the sleep routine and I just follow the steps all the way to bed like clockwork.

Also I mentally prepare for success the following day. For my job I do not need to wear dress shirts. So why would I bother spending the time to iron them week after week? Because I take what I do seriously, and I remind myself of it each night before I go to bed.

When my alarm goes off at 5.30 my subconscious knows it is “go time.”

I hate ironing though and often I have to iron 2 shirts a night to get the job done by Thursday evening. So when I am feeling “more in the mood” I often want to iron as many as I can in one evening, saving me work later in the week. However this would be a mistake…

The 20 Mile March

In 1911 Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott set out to make history. They both wanted to be the first explorer to reach the South Pole.

As you can imagine the trip was treacherous and cold. Both men however had very different approaches to how they would accomplish the task.

Amundsen stuck to a specific routine. He would travel 20 miles per day, in good and bad weather. It was tempting for him to push hard on the clear sunny days, but he restrained his team.

Where he felt the most difficulty in this restraint, was the knowledge that his competitor may use every opportunity to press ahead when he had stopped. However he stuck to this, and even in the worst weather his team pressed ahead to achieve their 20 miles.

Scott in contrast pushed incredible hard on the clear days, he would push his team to exhaustion. And on the bad days he was known to write in his journal that he could not imagine any man venturing out in the bad weather.

Amundsen however was out in that weather on his 20 mile march.

It is worthy to note that there were a few days that not even Amundsen would travel. However by the time he reached the North Pole he had on average travelled 15.5 miles per day, 360 miles ahead of Scott.

Scott had no daily routine and as a result he kept slipping further and further behind. By the time he reached the South Pole, a month later, he was discouraged to find a flag already in place.

By this time Amundsen was already 500 miles ahead on his return trip.

Scott and his entire team perished on the way back.

For more on this read Jim Collins book Great by Choice

In your Real Estate business, it is important to remember this key principle.

The 20 mile march:

• It sets in place good habits
• Helps maintain momentum
• Allows you to take on the right amount of work at the right time
• Allows you to work within the recourses that are available
• Helps you win in the good times and the bad times.
• Keeps your growth constant
• Helps set balance within the company and within yourself
• Is measurable

Practical Use:

This of course can be a challenge. “Make hay while the sun shines” right!

How many Realtors do you know that go up and down like a yo-yo? Exactly for that reason, Realtors work on the business under their nose and hustle until they are exhausted. Suddenly things change and now that same agent goes through a dry spell while they try to find ways to drum up new business. This cycle of course further confirms in that agent’s mind to work super hard again when the sun shines because they “need it”.

Rather than working smart. Doing what is required each week without crashing and burning, and in turn seeing long term growth and success.

Compare the above example with a Realtor who sets a weekly habit of what MUST be done. And includes in the week to run a Marketing program to attract new leads.

When the sun shines and things are getting busier the Realtor does not hit the brakes on the marketing or the follow-up required. Instead, this Realtor either hires on help to handle the increased work load or chooses to pass on some more time consuming “deals”. Never forsaking the “boring” weekly tasks.

As the sun goes behind the clouds and most Realtors are panicking for business, this Realtor is doing business from the leads he has been generating week after week. In fact his database is so large that he has brought on another full-time agent to help grow his business.

This is the 20 mile march.

It is not glamorous and can often be boring to follow, however it recession proofs the agent’s business and sets in the weekly required tasks to be successful in the long term.

Hope you find this useful.

“How you spend your day, is in fact how you live your life.”