Monday Motivation, 9.18.17

Written by: Ben Rogers

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

“Busy” = Out of Control

I am so tired of hearing people say they are “busy”. I’m tired of hearing myself saying I’m “busy”. Just about every marketing piece we have always states that “we’re never too busy for your referrals”, so why would keep saying that we’re busy otherwise?

I’ve been reading a great book recommended to me by an inspirational friend. The book is called Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss, a best-selling author and professional podcaster. Tools of Titans examines “The tactics, routines, and habits of billionaires, icons, and world-class performers”. This book is separated into 3 parts: Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. I’m currently in the “Wealthy” section.

The chapter I’m focusing on for this Monday’s Motivation is an interview with Derek Sivers, a person I had never heard of before I read this book. Sivers is most well-known as the founder of CD Baby in 1998, which became the largest seller of independent music online. In 2008, Sivers sold CD Baby for $22 million and gave all of the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education.

My favorite part of this interview was when Ferriss asked Sivers about his overall time management. Sivers said that:

“Every time people contact me, they say, ‘Look, I know you must be incredibly busy…’ and I always think ‘No, I’m not.’ Because I’m in control of my time. I’m on top of it. ‘Busy’, to me, seems to imply ‘out of control.’ Like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so busy. I don’t have time for this (expletive)!’ To me, that sounds like a person who’s got no control over their life.”

Ferriss then comments in the book to say:

“Lack of time is lack of priorities. If I’m “busy,” it is because I’ve made choices that put me in that position, so I’ve forbidden myself to reply to “How are you?” with “Busy”. I have no right to complain. Instead, if I’m too busy, it’s a cue to reexamine my systems and values.”

On The Rogers-Long Team, we are constantly reexamining our systems, our schedules, and our values. We meet twice weekly to discuss all of these things. But we, just like you, struggle at times with being “too busy”.

So, my challenge to those reading (and to my team) is to follow Tim’s advice. Stop responding to the question “How are you?” with “busy”. Are you really busy, or are you just out of control? Make the decision to stop presenting yourself as “too busy” to serve others to the best of your ability.

You can do it – just take a few minutes to reexamine your systems and your values, and start taking control over your life and your time!

If you’d like a copy of the book, I’m happy to share when I’m done.

Ben Rogers, The Team Leader of The Rogers-Long Team, has been in the real estate business since 2012. In 2014, he began The Rogers-Long Team with Kevin Long, which will produce over $25,000,000 in volume production in 2017. In addition to selling homes and leading the team, Ben records a monthly podcast episode for “The Bottom Line”, which can be found by clicking here. The Bottom Line is a Podcast that is short enough to listen on your way to work, long enough to provide information that helps you execute a plan to win, and motivational enough to encourage a comeback from any failures you encounter.