Am I Mentally Ready to Succeed?

Saying you want to succeed is different than actually being ready. Without being mentally prepared all of the tricks and secrets or strategies won’t give you the results you are looking for. The biggest difference between those who reach their goals and those that have fallen short has nothing to do with programs, rates or ideas. 

Being Mentally Prepared

I’m fortunate to have been around lots of different types of loan officers.  Established loan officers, new loan officers, loan officers that went from 10mm per year to 180mm per year and loan officers that have done the same thing for 10 straight years.  I’m right in the middle.  I was growing, then I hit a plateau and then I broke out of that and grew again. I learned some key principles when I was stagnant that I wanted to share with you since these are qualities that every top producing loan officer has.  The beautiful thing is that they are all free, you just need to commit to them.

• You must be willing to Fail.  You must be willing to fail early, and fail often without losing your resolve to succeed or have your confidence broken.
• You must be willing to accept help.  Originators are like teenagers, we know everything but as soon as you admit that you don’t and are willing to listen to others that have been more successful than you is when you’ll be able to grow.
• You must be committed to implementation.  Too many LO’s get an idea that would work and just before they act on it they get distracted and then never do anything about it. 

You must have inner confidence.  I’m not always confident in my ideas, but I am always confident in myself.  “If anyone can make this happen it’s me” I don’t mean arrogant, but be at peace with yourself, be confident in what you do and in everything you do go after it with a raging passion.  “Do it with passion or not at all.”

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal; It is the courage to continue that counts.” — Winston Churchill

Being Willing to Fail

Realize that you have nothing to lose

If what you were doing now was taking you where you wanted to go then why change?  As soon as you realize that it’s not, or you’re kind of on the right track but not quite there yet that is when you gain the freedom to go all out.  When you realize that the things you think you stand to lose by implementing your ideas, or going with your gut will still be there whether the idea works out or not that is when you’ve released the mental chains that have been holding you back. 

Don’t be afraid of the results

Fear is the reason we don’t act or implement what we know we should do.Most of the time people equate fear to loss but it’s also associated with success.People can be afraid of “what if this actually works” what if by me doing this I’ll start getting 10 new applications a day, I can’t handle that, I’d have to work 20 hours a day… So they talk themselves out of a great idea.This isn’t as common or in front of your face as fear of failure, this is the little voice in the back of your head saying it, wondering about it, making a movie in your head about the future.Ignore it and go after it.  Do Not Be Afraid to implement something where the results may overwhelm you.

Example: right now you get 1 referral a day and you’re idea might end up getting you 10 referrals a day which you can’t handle.  Ok, do the idea and see what happens.If you really get 10 referrals a day that’s’ a great problem to have.Work on 3 of the 10 and ignore the other 7.  You still tripled your leads and it then gives you the opportunity to take a step back and figure out at a later date how to handle the other 7.

Success isn’t making everyone happy

Too many times originators put what other people think about them ahead of their own success.  “If I do this, then so and so won’t be happy.”  In what we do it is better to have 3 out of 10 people love you and be raving fans, than it is to have 8 out of 10 like you.  When people like you they may work with you and they may refer you clients.  When people love you they will without a doubt work with you and they will send you 3 or 4 more that will love you as well. 

“Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” — Benjamin Franklin

Be Willing To Accept Help

Be in a constant state of humility

Being humble does not mean being passive and it does not mean that you are not confident.When you are humble you are able to take down the mental wall in your head that says “my way is always right.”THERE WILL BE SOME CASES THAT YOUR WAY IS RIGHT so don’t change it.But you need to be humble enough to listen, think and learn because when you do this you allow yourself to find a better way to do something.Brick by Brick you build your business with a combination of your own ideas and the ideas of others.

Look to those who have gone where you want to go

Too many times loan officers want to be Christopher Columbus and chart their own course to the new world.A world where they have infinite loans and they are swimming in a pool of money.That isn’t going to happen, the Christopher Columbus of the mortgage industry already sailed and he’s given all of us a map.Why would we try to make our own map when there is already a map that we just have to follow that will take us where we want to go?It’s ego and human nature to think that we are always right.Learn from those that do better than you, ask questions, be open to ideas.This doesn’t mean blindly following something like a cult, this means you need to be hungry for all the information you can gather and then use it to the best of your ability.

The best leaders are always the best students

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by some very successful people in our industry and the one thing they all have in common is that they are all passionate to gain more knowledge.  If you were doing 150mm in a year would you still be asking for advice or be in a coaching program?  The answer is you should be, and that is exactly why someone does 150mm.  You need to have an internal thirst for knowledge before you can reach your full potential.

“The path to success is to take massive, determined action” – Tony Robbins

Be Committed to Implementing

Plans and ideas are worthless without action

People that think and never act end up having a high success ratio but a low number of successes I call them movie makers because they constantly make movies about what is going to happen in their own head but they end up being the only person who ever sees the movie.  People that act but never think have a low success ratio but a higher number of total successes.  I call these people predators, because they see what’s in front of them and they pounce, no thought to what will happen or what could happen but because they are in a constant state of action somethings end up working out.  This is in all aspects of life and in all businesses.  The key is to become a movie making predator.  Enough thought to get you started correctly and the aggressive action of a predator to take you to the finish line. 

Don’t mistake movement for progress

This is the #1 thing that wastes originators time.  They do all these things in a day, work really hard and when they leave they aren’t sure what they did.  They moved all day, responded to emails and did stuff but they never really took any action that would lead to progress.  This is a look in the mirror moment.  Throughout the day and at the end of the day you need to ask yourself “By doing this am I doing something that moves me to my goals or is this something that I am just doing that doesn’t move me forward.”  Only you can answer that but you need to get into the habit of having this inner conversation with yourself.

Take big ideas and break them down into small goals

Brick by Brick is the only way to build a sustainable successful mortgage business.  Start with your end goal and ask “what will I need to happen to achieve this?”  Once you’ve made that list then you look at the list and say “what do I need to do in order to accomplish this 1 item?”  then you break that down again into smaller tasks to do.  Now you have goals for the day, once you accomplish those you’ve completed 1 step in achieving your end goal.  You continue to do this until the end goal is accomplished.

“Believe in yourself, Have faith in your abilities, without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful.” — Norman Vincent Peale

Having Inner Confidence

There is nothing I can do or say that will make you confident.  It’s not as easy as someone telling you “Hey, Be Confident” and all of a sudden your confident it doesn’t work that way.  What I have found is why people are not confident and by finding that you can start to work on those things which is what will lead to confidence.   

Ask Yourself These Questions:

• Are you personally committed to your clients?
• Do you give your best effort everyday?
• Do you believe what you say and are you honest with your advice?
• Do you know what you are doing?  (i.e. knowing my product inside and out etc…)

If you can answer yes to all of these questions then there is no reason not to be confident.  If you answered no to any of these questions then that is exactly why you don’t have confidence in what you are doing.  It has nothing to do with how long you’ve been in the business or where you live, or how many loans you’ve done.  When you get into contract with a client or you make a promise to a realtor you’re not saying that you are going to work miracles every time all of the time. 

You are committing to these 4 things.  They apply differently to clients and to referral partners but in the end this is what you are selling.  If you believe whole heartedly in these 4 things then you should be confident in every conversation you have whether it is a client or a referral partner