Coaches Share Their 8 Tips for a Better Rest Cycle
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You’ve just wrapped up the 45-day Summertime Surge, where you increased your lead generation, connected with clients and asked for more referrals. For the next eight weeks, your focus will be to rest and recharge your internal battery before the final Blitz of the year. According to Brian Buffini, you’ll increase your performance by increasing your rest and working less. Resting allows you to go farther and faster than you could by working hard all the time. We asked a few of our Coaches to share their best tips to help you optimize the rest cycle.
Tip 1: “Focus on one area of lead generation that you enjoy or want to improve.” – Coach Barbara Cunningham
The rest cycle is the ideal time to improve your skills, especially those that generate leads. What area of lead generation do you love doing? If you love meeting your clients for coffee or lunch, invite a favorite client out once a week. In addition to improving your skills, you’ll have something to look forward to doing.
Similarly, is there an area you’d like to improve on? For example, do you get nervous picking up the phone to talk to a client? Practice what you’ll say to your clients in a mirror or with your coach or accountability partner using the dialogs you learned during the Blitz. The more you practice, the more at-ease you’ll sound and feel when you pick up the phone to call them for real.
Tip 2: “Treat the rest cycle like a dimmer switch, not an off switch; turn it down, but not off.” – Coach Kelli Snyder
The dimmer feature on a light switch allows you to adjust the brightness of a room without turning the light off. During the rest cycle, you’ll reduce the number of lead generating activities you’ll do, but not stop doing them completely. Many real estate agents make the mistake of thinking they’ll close up shop during the rest cycle. While this may be the ideal time to take a vacation, you’ll still continue working on your business.
Staying in touch with your clients is always important, so while you’ll still make phone calls, write notes, and send your monthly marketing items, you may not be contacting as many of your clients each day. Think of the rest period as the time when you’ll tend to the clients you’re currently working with and nurture referred leads, most of which you likely generated during the Summertime Surge.
Tip 3: “Schedule shorter work days.” – Coach Gail Pilien
Although you’ll still have to work on your business during the rest cycle, no one says you have to work all day. Do what you have to do to close deals with your current clients and lay the groundwork for lasting relationships with your referrals, but don’t feel compelled to clock in for a full day. Whether you work half days or cut out an hour or two earlier than usual, enjoy the rest portion of the rest-run cycle. Instead of working, do something you enjoy (see the Tip 1) or spend time with family or friends.
Tip 4: “Take time to read that good book you’ve been putting off.” – Coach Scott Oppitz
One of the best ways to improve your mindset is to read. Coincidently, reading is also a leisure activity that many of us complain we simply don’t have enough time for. During the rest cycle, take advantage of the opportunity to dive into a good book. The topic doesn’t matter: it could be the latest best-seller from your favorite fiction author, a biography that’s been on your to-read list for months or a personal development book you’ve been meaning to read, such as “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason or “The Emigrant Edge” by Brian Buffini. Now that you have the time to read, take it and recommit to your personal development and growth.
Tip 5: “Include at least one thing you enjoy doing into your schedule each day.” –Coach Barbara Cunningham
The intention of the rest cycle is to recharge and often the best way to do this is do something we enjoy. However, many times we get so busy with other stuff that we put off doing the things we like to do. Instead of telling a friend or mentor we’ll meet them for lunch, schedule it into your day. Want to take a mid-afternoon stroll? Schedule it in. If you’re thinking of taking a morning pottery or music class a few times a week, sign up for it and schedule it in. When you schedule activities you enjoy into your day, you have something to look forward to. Not only will it recharge you, it’ll make you more productive in the long run.
Tip 6: “Review, Reflect, Recalibrate.” – Coach Melissa Winter
This is the perfect time for the three Rs: review, reflect and recalibrate. Review your goals and your progress toward them. Reflect on your progress: What have been your biggest successes so far this year? Have there been challenges you would have faced differently now that you have the wisdom of hindsight? Finally, recalibrate, meaning observe where you are at this point in the year and decide the right course of action to help you achieve your goals and provide a solid foundation for 2018.
Tip 7: “View the concept of rest differently: Write the “rest” of your notes (you know, the unused ones).” – Coach Tanya Bugbee
Another meaning of the word “rest” is the remainder of. Use the rest cycle to tackle “the remainder” of things. For example, each month’s Referral Maker Marketing Kit contains 50 personal notes. While there are some agents who complete those 50 and then some, many agents have a few note cards left over each month. Gather your remaining note cards together and start writing. Write a few to your clients and to the business owners you work with as well as the people who have impacted you or who play an important role in your life.
Tip 8: “Review your goals, set up game plan for the end of the year.” – Coach Scott Oppitz
Goal review is one of the most important tasks of the rest cycle. Take advantage of this quieter time to reread your goals, assess if you’re on track and devise a game plan to help you thrive through the end of the year. If you’re on-track to meet or exceed your goals, aim higher and outline what activities you need to do to reach them. If you’ve fallen off track, rethink your approach—what do you have to do to reach your goals by the end of the year? Don’t coast into the fourth quarter; use this time to create a solid game plan.
Take advantage of the down time built into the rest cycle to sharpen your skills, review your goals, refuel your energy and increase your motivation to finish the year strong. Registration for the third and final Blitz of the year, Finish Strong, begins in a few weeks. Join the interest list to be among the first to know when it’s time to register.
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