Learn What Is Holding You Back with John McGrath

Everyone has greatness within. Our potential is unlimited. However, what stops most of us reaching our potential is mooring lines. Our internal dialogue, our mooring lines hold us back and keep us moored to what we know.

The idea of mooring lines comes from Dr Fred Grosse. Mooring lines are a metaphor for the stories that we tell ourselves - the ideas we hold, and in some instances the excuses we make that hold us back from greatness.

Everyone's got a story. I grew up on the right side of the tracks. I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I'm a morning person. I'm not a morning person. I'm good at ideas. I'm not creative. We also have a story about the world - the world is a place of abundance, the world is a cruel place, it's unfair. I can't get ahead if I'm in this particular demographic.

The stories and paradigms we tell ourselves limit us and hold us onto the shore, so we never discover new horizons.

Dr Fred pointed out to me that if you're able to move through, shift your paradigm and your story, everything becomes a possibility.

When I coach, I always peel away the layers of the onion, so I can find what are the views of the world and the thoughts that are holding a person back.

I ask, ‘Tell me the reason you're not massively more successful than you currently are. What do you think is the reason for that?’ And what they come up with will inevitably be the power of their mooring line.

For some, it will be:

Well, I don't have the time to prospect.

I'm shy.

I'm introverted.

I'm this, I'm that.

The key for me as a coach is to find the mooring line, to loosen it and shift it around so the mooring line can become the foundation or the bedrock upon which the freer self is built.

So if a mooring line is - I grew up the wrong side of the tracks or I went to the wrong school, then I try and make that appear a benefit. During a coaching session, I can see the light bulbs go on with people, as they start to think about the stories they tell themselves, and they say, ‘You're right, that has been holding me back’.

Learning the things that are holding you back is the greatest game changer.

If you’ve been blessed, be a blessing

Life is about moments.

The Trillion Dollar Coach, Bill Campbell, was a legendary sports coach, who coached some of tech’s greatest CEOs - Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt from Google amongst others. One of his famous quotes is, ‘If you've been blessed, be a blessing’.

So it's a bit like pay it forward. If you're fortunate enough to be able to be living in Australia, working in real estate, and earning more money than most people have earned in a lifetime become that same blessing for someone else.

When someone comes back to me 10 years after they have done a course and they say, ‘Remember I was in a course you did, and I was in the front row and you said this, and you talked to me about mooring lines. And I went home and I wrote out my mooring lines and I decided to change and my life changed’. That's the greatest gift we can ever give. Forget dollars in the bank account. The greatest gift is changing someone's life.

Value talent and technology

Longevity is about winning the best talent and making the most of technology.

There is a war on for talent. Everyone's chasing kind of the same talent, or trying to manufacture new talent. So, the question is, for us at McGrath and for every principal out there, and even for agents that are wanting to build a team:

how do you make yourself more attractive to talent?

You need technology. So we must ask ourselves, how do we produce technology that makes buying, selling real estate both for agents and for customers easier? How do we meet, help grow, and bring across the best talent? High tech and high touch is the winning combination. You can't just have the talent without technology. And I don't mean you can have the technology without the talent. You need talent and technology.

Ignorance is a choice

If you started real estate today and you did nothing more and had no other exposure than listening to these 20 coaching tips, and/or then you went to AREC and listened to 22 great speakers, and then you went and did one of Lee’s courses - you would have more information than most people 20 years ago had in their entire life. And then if you go to YouTube, and then go to podcasts – 90% per cent of which are free – there is no excuse for not doing well because the availability and access to information and coaches is there.

The competition is heating up more than ever. If you're good, or even great, there is a responsibility and a pressure on you to keep growing yourself, because I've got to tell you, someone else is going to be nipping at your heels. But I wouldn't feel stressed or overwhelmed. I'd feel excited by that, because no one else in real estate ever in the world has had the opportunity that we all have today, so don't lose it. You know, get out there and listen to these things and take advantage of them and put them into practice.

Article sourced directly from Real Estate Hot Topics Library.