Is it Time to Hit the Pause Button?

When is the last time you pressed the pause button for yourself? It can feel like a far-fetched option when you’re overwhelmed with work or trying to grow your business, but many times, it can help us move further in the direction we want to go. Mortgage professionals have demanding jobs, and it can be easy to get into the habit of never really disconnecting from our work. While that grind might feel productive, it’s almost never sustainable. If you want long-term success in the industry, pressing pause occasionally can be a helpful tool.

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Take the average workday, for instance, do you make time to decompress? On our busiest days, this might feel like an impossibility, but even a five or ten-minute break can be enough to reset and recharge. It can give you the additional energy and focus you need to power through.

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Our workdays in the mortgage industry rarely end at 5pm. We have to be available for our clients and work with their schedules — which sometimes means fielding calls after hours and on weekends. There’s not really any way around this, but we still need to be able to separate our work life from our personal life. Set some boundaries; maybe you have a hard cutoff of 7pm where you silence your phone and stop checking email. Or perhaps you give yourself one 2-hour window on the weekend to check in on work. Find out what works best for you, then stick to it. A successful work-life balance helps us operate at the top of our ability and it’s a little different for each of us.

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Stress is a real thing and can’t be avoided entirely — but it can be minimized. The next time you’re feeling stressed, instead of just plowing through (which often raises our stress level even higher), try hitting pause for a short time. Do something not related to work at all, even if it’s for just 10 minutes. Addressing stress before it takes hold entirely can be the difference between working stressed-out and at a lower capacity or regaining control and working in optimal state.

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Whether it’s a ten-minute break or a week-long vacation, identify what pressing pause means for you. You’ll be avoiding unnecessary stress, and giving yourself what you need to consistently function at your best.