Take a Quantum Leap in Production
By Michael D. Baker
You are capable of exponentially improving your performance. You have unlimited potential in your personal achievement, effectiveness, and ability to originate mortgage loans. Most originators have the ability to triple their loan production within the next 12 months.
What's really exciting about this is that I'm not going to give you a step-by-step process and ask you to work harder. This reminds me of the story about the fly that is trapped between the window and the screen and fights to escape. You hear the loud buzzing as the fly works harder to gain his freedom. Then you find the fly (and maybe several others) lying dead on the windowsill the next day. Should we tell the fly to work harder? Working harder exhausted the fly's energy and the fly died. So I'm not going to ask you to work harder, just smarter.
I am going to ask you to apply quantum physics to your mortgage business. Quantum physics is the science behind such technological breakthroughs including televisions, computers, lasers, space communications, and nuclear energy. Fred Alan Wolf described quantum physics in his book, Taking the Quantum Leap.
He stated, "(it is) the explosive jump that a particle of matter undergoes in moving from one place to another...in a figurative sense, taking the quantum leap means taking a risk, going off into uncharted territory with no guide to follow."
Physicists studying quantum mechanics noted that particles make these "jumps" without apparent effort and without covering all of the bases between the starting and ending points. You may be saying, "So what? What does this have to do with my mortgage business?"
Price Pritchett, Ph.D., in his book, You Squared, stated that quantum physics requires a major "rethinking" of such concepts as time and space and how human consciousness operates. Quantum physics also has staggering implications regarding you, your potential, and the power of your mind. To put it simply, as human beings we are going to have to reframe our ideas about everything around us when it comes to our mortgage business.
I'm asking you to be illogical for a moment (or maybe longer than a moment to allow a breakthrough in your thinking). I don't know about you, but sometimes I get impatient and tired of striving day to day to make only gradual and incremental gains. Sometimes I get tired of goal setting and routines. Sometimes I get bored with conventional growth. I have learned that it doesn't have to be this way.
It's time to skip some levels and quantum leap your mortgage business into a zone. You've heard the term in regards to athletes being in the "zone." The "zone" means they are unstoppable at that particular moment or game.
So how do you embrace this concept of exponential gains rather than incremental progress? You might compare it to multiplying instead of adding. Here are several methods to assist you in changing your way of thinking in order to invite more business in your direction. Don't worry. These methods are simple, energy efficient, and time saving.
Change the Rules
You can begin by changing your personal rules for success. You have to be willing to think about "what ifs." What if I did something I wouldn't normally do? What if I stepped outside of myself to shock or surprise someone, or everyone? What if I do something that would seem crazy to my family and friends? What if you put a tuxedo on, walked into your Realtor's office, jumped up on a desk, and started singing "I did it my way" and then asked for business? If I were a Realtor, I'd give you a loan right there on the spot just because of the courage it took to do that. Everyone respects and honors courage.
Think Outside of the Box
You must think beyond yourself and your business. You must think beyond conventional approaches. As human beings, we ordinarily go with the obvious. We fall into the habit of relying on behaviors that seem to have worked best for us in the past. When we take an approach that seems to be very serviceable and enables us to perform well and succeed, we become attached to it. We don't readily relinquish that habit pattern.
In fact, there's a tendency to follow our favorite approach more often, so much that we get better at handling things that particular way. The problem with this is that it causes a dependence on the strategies and tactics it involves. We resist new maneuvers because they make us feel awkward and at risk.
Embracing this concept won't work unless you're willing to break out of your routines in order to make the quantum leap. Even if your customary approach still holds promise for maintaining your present level of performance and growth, it may not help much if you want to reach higher achievement levels. If you continue to rely on those old routines, maybe even leaning on them most when your performance flattens out, you create a trap for yourself. Don't let old habits (even if they're good ones) stand in the way of taking this short cut to mortgage origination greatness.
Working harder isn't always the answer if you want to quantum leap. If the fly mentioned earlier would have stopped to think, he may have come up with the solution to just turn around and escape out the open door 10 feet across the room. He would then have quantum leaped his results with much less effort. But he didn't. He worked harder and died.
Stop and think about it. If you work harder, you may get a little more. What I'm talking about is exponential growth. If you closed 30 loans last quarter, quantum leap your business and close 90 loans this quarter.
This is important because sooner or later you're going to reach a point where you can't try any harder. It may be that your mental or physical resources are stretched to the limit and have reached the point of diminishing returns. I'm not asking you to discard persistence and self-discipline. I'm asking you to think beyond those virtues into a world that you may have never been. Do something in your business that you don't normally like to do or that you are afraid of and do it with all your might and see what happens. This risk will promote a quantum leap.
Learn to Cross Boundaries
Now it's time for you to think beyond what common sense would allow. Pushing boundaries is the key if you want your risks to pay off big. It's time to focus on possibilities instead of limits or obstacles. Move outside your own mental boundaries. A 10 or 20 percent improvement isn't the idea at all. That would represent only incremental gains. That might be an impressive performance in some situations, if there were unusual obstacles or a very difficult set of circumstances. But while such a goal might be challenging, it would not represent a quantum leap.
Don't get the idea that I'm saying anything is possible. I'm not saying that because it's really not true. But in some areas of your life, what is within your reach is enough to stagger the mind. You can triple your loan production or more. Far beyond that, you can turn up your performance to the second or third or fourth power. You can have mortgage power and quantum leap your business.
Most experts agree that people typically use only about 10 percent of their true potential. If we accept that argument, and even if there were no other resources outside yourself that you could bring to the situation, you still could do 10 times as good as you've been doing. You must suspend disbelief. You must manage doubt in an effective way. Your doubts are not the product of accurate thinking, but habitual thinking. Doubt does a lot of damage, so don't give it any mental space.
Here is where you need to be courageous. Risk a quantum leap in production or stay in the status quo. Which is riskier? You need to choose a different set of risks. Something is always at stake, anyway. You can only decide which risks to take. If you're going to triple your business within the next 12 months, you must move beyond the zone of familiarity, security, and comfort. I'm not asking you to be reckless or impulsive with your business. I'm asking you to simply move on an opportunity you've been ignoring. Abandon your excuses. Reframe the problem. Take a completely different chance. Risk believing in yourself. Make your move before your ready. It's like jumping in cold water-just do it! It's not going to get any warmer by standing there.
Test the Limits
Until you test the limits regarding what you can achieve, you can't truly know what your chances are. And the odds change in your favor when you begin to challenge them. Don't be afraid to get uncomfortable and don't be afraid to fail. There is not a superstar mortgage loan originator on the planet who doesn't have a whole lot of mistakes and war stories to tell. Get out of your comfort zone and face failure with honor while you learn and grow from your mistakes. Look inside yourself for opportunities and ask yourself if you're really living up to your full potential. If not, you must do something different that's beyond your own traditional thinking. Try it and you'll see what I mean. But don't just try it once and give up. You must give it some time and give it a chance to work.
The most important thing to do while using quantum physics to give you that quantum boost is to move before you're ready. Do not prepare for this. A person could make a career out of laying the groundwork to do something really big. A good plan today is better than a great plan tomorrow. While planning is important in many instances, it has little place in taking the quantum leap to greatness.
It's time to break out of the status quo and take your business to a new level. I challenge you to get the most out of yourself by applying a quantum leap approach to your business. Get in the zone.
Mike Baker is CEO of Business Development at The Mortgage Coach as well as a speaker, coach and author of Mortgage Power and Hire the Best…Be the Best! He can be reached at (949) 340-0706 or visit his web site at www.mortgagespeaker.com