If you closely follow the footsteps of top producing agents, successful business people, and athletes you will soon realize that the one thing they have in common is personal self-discipline. Some will argue that talent is more important while others who have made it just by sheer hard work will tell you it was their personal self-discipline to persevere through the hard times that was their secret to success. I have witnessed both in my journey as a business person myself and as a real estate professional and coach.

I have worked with agents who have incredible talent and I have worked with agents who have persevered through the tough times. The single most important trait that I feel is essential to reaching the next level in your business is personal self-discipline.   You have to be able to control your time, your tasks and your emotions in real estate and without this trait it can be difficult at best.

I remember meeting a wonderful lady when I was selling homes, her name was Martha and she changed my life.   She called me to see if I could help her buy a home, I was excited to be of service. When I went to meet her I surprised to learn that she had never owned a home and she was 82 years old. She told me that when she was in her forties she tried to buy a home but was turned down for the loan because she did not have enough money.

From that day forward she began saving a little bit of every one of her paychecks and 43 years later she had over $300,000 saved up. She vowed to be able to buy a home with cash one day and she did. I was shocked to learn she had done this by putting the exact same amount of money away each paycheck for over 43 years. She was so inspiring to me because she only put away her coffee money but over the years it had grown into a huge nest egg. Martha was personally responsible for teaching me the value of personal self-discipline.

If you are not where you need to be in your business take time to look at your habits and how you deal with your own personal self-discipline. Do you do the things you are supposed to do when they are supposed to get done or do you keep putting them off? Do you continually procrastinate or do you forge forward even when you do not want to. Discipline requires you to do the things you may not want to do when they need to get done. It is hard work, it takes effort but the long term accumulative result can be powerful. Try doing just one thing consistently for a six month period and I think you will be shocked how powerful the results will be for you in your business.