It is no secret that success breeds success, so to keep the proverbial ball rolling, why not pour some fuel on the fire? A great way to do this is by celebrating your wins. Whether they are big or small, reward yourself as you make progress.
Why Celebrate Your Wins?
Making a conscious decision to celebrate your wins gives you an incentive to make that next offer, complete that next deal, or reach that next important milestone. By setting out a reward for yourself which is tied to a positive outcome, you’ll work hard knowing there is an additional reward on the line.
From a psychological perspective, celebrating your wins reinforces good behaviour. The act of celebrating when you achieve a set level of success helps to program your subconscious to strive for further success.
When we combine the conscious incentive of a reward with the subconscious success mechanism we are pouring fuel on the fire of success. Finally, by celebrating our successes along the way, we avoid the “someday trap” of someday when I have x, I will do y.
Wins to Celebrate
You do not need a huge win to celebrate. Part of the purpose of celebrating wins is to formally acknowledge the smaller successes as they happen. Each small success that moves us closer to our overall goals is worthy of celebrating.
Here are a few ideas of what you can celebrate as a real estate investor:
- Accepted offers & closings
- New investment partners
- Net worth & cash flow targets
- Other milestones such as 5, 10 or 25 doors
How to Celebrate
The most important thing when deciding how to celebrate is to choose something that is rewarding for you. Another important concept is to align the magnitude of the reward with the magnitude of your achievement. Buying a sports car each time you get an accepted offer could quickly lead to financial problems, but buying a sports car after purchasing your 50th property may be an appropriate celebration.
Here are a few suggestions to celebrate the small wins:
- Nice dinner with spouse, partner, or friends
- Bottle of fine wine or scotch
- Weekend getaway
To celebrate your bigger wins, you may want to take a well deserved vacation, buy a new toy, or treat the team which helped you achieve that success.
Whatever your goals in real estate, take some time to map out some milestones and set some rewards. The road to success may not be paved with gold, but you can toss in some fun rewards along the way to keep things exciting.
photo credit: Creative Tools
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
As a successful real estate agent in Southern California I could agree more. It is imperative that if you have a big win and sell a nice home and get a nice sized check you should celebrate. Since you’re not working for “the man” or a large corporation and don’t have bosses to bonus you and good offer you need to reward yourself. Take a luxury trip out of the country, buy a new car do something to acknowledge your success as a good real estate practitioner.
Hi Chris,
Taking some time to celebrate lets us remember why we’re working so hard in the first place. Top performance deserves top rewards right?
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew, you’ve hit a hot button here. No matter how much money we might earn, in my experience it’s been the small, medium, and monster celebrations that have generated the positive memories. And boy, do I have stories, as I’m sure you and others do too. Maybe you’d like to share some? I will if you will.
Hi Jeff,
As a young guy trying to save as much of my own capital as possible to funnel back into real estate investing, I’ve kept my celebrations minimal so far. After an accepted offer or closing I’ll usually spring for a steak dinner with my fiancee or add a nice bottle of scotch to my collection. Another fun way to celebrate is to host a BBQ for friends, just ‘cuz.
I look forward to celebrating some monster wins with some bigger rewards in the future! Your turn.
Cheers,
Andrew
I could not agree more. I have always celebrated no matter the size of the check. I have kept it simple.. A new pair of shoes. I am just a simple girl but it makes me feel good to do it.
Hi Sandra,
Even small rewards like a new pair of shoes will reinforce good behavior. As the wins get bigger the rewards can grow too
Cheers,
Andrew
Hi Andrew~
I agree. We need to acknowledge our wins. Even the small ones count!
If we have been reaching out to a prospect and get them on the third try, even if they tell us they decided not to buy a new home right now, we accomplished a goal and consider it a mini win.
We can celebrate by entering long term follow up in our data base and moving on!
Hi Judi,
Whatever your business and whatever your process, there is always an opportunity to celebrate. Rewarding your own persistence is a great reinforcement.
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew — My first real celebration was in my first year in the business. I was a house guy back then, and had listed a local house, which sold/closed for $18,500 — my first paycheck in real estate. Commission splits were epically different than today — my check was for $111.
I was ecstatic. Took my college girlfriend to a modest local steak restaurant. I was so proud to order their best steak, a filet mignon, which set me back $7.95!! To put that in perspective, that was about $1.50 more than I paid to fill my tank. 
For dessert, we went to Dairy Queen for banana splits. You’re laughin’, (Dad almost wet his pants when I told him.) but we were just 18.
It still ranks as one of my all time favorite celebrations.
Hi Jeff,
Sometimes the small celebrations are the best ones. A small step at 18 can be more significant than a bigger one later on.
Great story.
Cheers,
Andrew
Great post Andrew!! You know what’s been interesting for us as we do more and more deals … we get worse and worse at celebrating. We used to go out for a fabulous dinner when a deal closed and we filled it with a great tenant. Now we sometimes will stop and realize we just filled the third or fourth property since our last celebration. This year in particular we’ve come to realize that we don’t stop and pat ourselves on the back enough because we operate so much more mechanically the more deals we do.
One of our favourite ways to celebrate is to take a few friends out for dinner and treat them – without them knowing we’re buying. That is always such a fun surprise. We get a great night out with people we adore and appreciate and we get to surprise them by picking up the tab. It’s the most fun way to celebrate but we need to it more!!
As I am about to hit submit I realized that this year Dave did treat himself to new skis and ski boots though …. and a new car … haha!!! So maybe it’s me that doesn’t get enough celebrations!!! :p
New skis and boots sounds like a great prize — next prize . . . a week ski adventure in Colorado….
Julie, I recall you got a trip to the spa after taking the stage in Toronto so don’t give Dave too much trouble.
HAHAH Andrew – looks like someone has a good memory but seriously one spa afternoon vs ski boots, skiis, and a new car??!!! Are we really even??? :p
That’s true but I’m sure there are other things. Just make sure the next celebration is together
That’s awesome Jeff!!
{ 1 trackback }