“If there are no common values, there can be no image of the future.” – authors Phil Hodges and Ken Blanchard
What are your values? Your real core values?
Here it is, a new decade. What resolutions have you made and how many have you broken by now? I know that every year I make a number of resolutions such as:
1. Promise to return to Weight Watchers and lose at least 20 pounds.
2. Promise to go to the gym three times a week.
3. Eat healthier meals and cut out snack foods.
4. Read more books.
5. Be more attentive to my wife and my kids.
6. Be more prudent in my spending habits.
Do any of these sound familiar? You may have made the same ones in the past and even kept them.
I’ve been thinking back to a Friday night dinner at one of our best friend’s homes. After a sumptuous meal and great dinner conversation, we adjourned to the den and my friend and I had an after-dinner drink. He asked me a rather direct question: “Stan, what would you say are your top two core values?”
I thought for a moment and replied, “I think that first, I am a very generous person and second, I always want to share my expertise/knowledge.”
The discussion was brought about by my friend sharing with me that he’s had two troubling issues with real estate professionals recently. The issues surrounded the ethics and morals of two IC & I Realtors. He had been undermined by the listing agent and he had in effect “back doored” him by dealing with his principal buyer. He felt cheated by the listing broker and knew he had no recourse, as his buyer agent had no control over the listing brokerage’s actions.
From articles and books I’ve recently read, some of the consultants and writers have several core values that I thought I would share with you this month. Determining those values may depend on answering some questions about yourself.
How do you build your business? Do you have control over your finances? Are you an entrepreneur? How do you deliver your services? How important is your family to your lifestyle?
Answers to all of the above reflect your values. They determine many aspects of our lives, such as our tastes, our lifestyle, social and political values, and last but not least, our religious beliefs.
Maybe some of you hold these values to be untouchable and others consider them to be superficial values that one really cannot subscribe to on a regular basis.
Our values may change over the years, but here’s what I’ve discovered to be sacrosanct – the desire to be healthy, the desire to have kinship with family and friends, the desire to be content with my lot in life and lastly to be financially secure to the end of my days.
Are desires values? I think so. Because as the saying goes, “To thine own self be true.”
Values/desires create a certain fulfillment in our lives and by my sharing my own desires with you, perhaps we can all start out with a healthier outlook to 2010 than we were faced with last year.
By the way, I have rejoined the gym and weight clinic – not bad for starters! Wishing you all the very best in 2010. I hope it’s your best year ever.
Watch for my blog on www.activerain.com. I recommend this website; it is an enormous benefit to Realtors.
Stan Albert, broker/manager, ABR, ASA at Re/Max Premier in Vaughan, Ont. can be reached for consultation at stanalb@rogers.com. Stan is now celebrating 40 years as an active real estate professional.
Stan Albert, ABR, ASA is a consultant with Re/Max Premier in Vaughan, Ont. He can be reached for consultation by email. Stan is now celebrating his 45th year as an active real estate professional.
