Lift Your Knee 6 inches

When I was a sophomore in college at Azusa Pacific University, I was on the track team. As a sprinter, I was fast, but not fast enough to qualify for the indoor national championships like my fastest teammates (one actually went on to win gold medal in the olympics).

While the qualifiers were in Kansas at the championship, the rest of us who didn’t qualify still had to practice. The only coach that stayed behind was the assistant throwing coach. He had actually been to the Olympics for his country earlier in his career. He was given the workout for the week, and told us to follow it.

On the 2nd day of practice that week, I was running on the opposite side of the track from the coach. After a couple of sprints he pulled me aside. He told me he noticed I wasn’t lifting my leg high enough when I was sprinting. At first, I didn’t really trust what he was telling me — after all — he was just a throwing coach.

But then he told me that if I raised my leg just 6 more inches, that my foot would come down directly below my body instead of slightly in front of my body, therefore lengthening my stride and accelerating my body.

I tried his technique. It was really just a small adjustment that I would have to mentally tell my body to do. I practiced this new method that whole week. I adapted to it and trusted that results would follow.

Well, results did follow.

The next couple of track meets I set new personal records in the 100, 200, and 400.

All that from a small adjustment. I had plateaued for so long, and then through a 1% adjustment my results catapulted.

I had failed to qualify for the Indoor Championship. And as a result I got coached up and improved drastically.

Fast forward to today —

Recently my clients and I were in the middle of a transaction. Everything was going smooth, until we learned that the HOA fees that were advertised on the listing, were actually higher.

We felt mislead, and hated for this to come up in the middle of everything.

What was the best way to handle this? Luckily I have a couple of coaches. I called my team leader Remy for advice. She had a good resolution, but then I remembered my friend Jon Foster said I could call him any time for advice. He was just like the throwing coach from track and field. He was able to give an outside perspective. Well, they both gave some good advice, and I went back and negotiated payment back to my clients. It was a win-win.

I read a lot about the real estate industry, locally and nationally. But I also read books and follow leaders outside of the real estate industry. There’s so much perspective that I get from other industries. Especially storytellers and marketers of all sorts. Even comedians can teach me so much on delivery of information.

Look for coaches who can see you from a different angle. They can give you a new perspective and lead you to increase your results.

#impactoftheday