Challenge Yourself, Challenge Others

You might remember…

Not too long ago, I wrote “Blog, Blog, Black Sheep.” here on AgentGenius, because I felt slightly overwhelmed by the talent I saw around me in reading other real estate agent blogs. I was feeling a bit “beat up” in a sense, even though I had tons of encouragement and overall, I don’t think I’m a bad blogger. What I did think (and will always think) was that I could always get better.

In a recent post on ActiveRain I asked the question “Are we getting away from our roots?” The question wasn’t really to the general public, but more to myself, but through it I learned something very important – that I needed to begin focusing on real estate related posts a bit more. I didn’t learn it because someone told me, but I could feel my thought patterns shifting and my focus getting clearer. All posts relate back to real estate, but I wanted to beef up my real estate facts, info, opinions, and advice. I just felt that I was blogging a bit too much about the fluff and not enough about the core of what we’re here for – real estate.

And so the journey begins…

In last week’s post, “What’s the next step?,” I alluded to some changes and some of them have been taking effect. I recently signed up with AltosResearch in order to be able to provide market data with ease for my readers. In doing so, I have found myself studying the statistics much more and getting deeper into the movements of the market. When you’re sitting in an office meeting and can throw out a few stats for the market, it always makes the broker feel good too.

And then came Darren Rowse of Problogger.net. I’m not 100% sure of how I came across him or how I heard about his blog, but he had just announced the “31 Days To Build a Better Blog Challenge” and I clicked through and read the post. What I saw was an opportunity to learn some new things, push myself to write more, and to focus my writing on specific tasks in order to train my brain.

It’s only Day 3 at this point, but I’ve already found myself pushing myself to my blogging limits (well, the limit for now – it expands daily). I like the challenge – knowing that I have something that I must do everyday. A path to success, a road to better blogs, a journey to bring new readers and new business. As I do each daily task, I think of new offshoots to each task and what each of those can do. Right now, my brain is bubbling over with thoughts and I’ve even begun writing notes for future blogs – something I hadn’t done before.

Accountability and encouragement.

One of the bloggers I read, Chris Somers, suggested some people on ActiveRain get together and do it together to create some accountability and to encourage each other through the 31 days. I thought it was a good idea and I enjoy Chris’ work, so it was an easy choice. While emailing back and forth, we created a group on ActiveRain and it has quickly become a hang out for those working the 31 Days Challenge. By coming together as a group, there are ideas bounced back and forth and you get to see a different take on any given task. Much like why we join Kiwanis, frats, BNI, Facebook, or Twitter – like attracts like. We, as human beings, are drawn to the group experience. As we come together, we borrow from the strengths of our group and make up for the weaknesses of others. We learn how to correct our mistakes through advice from others. When you feel you’re lacking, find others who might be able to help give you some guidance.

Challenging yourself is never easy, but the rewards are always worth it. Challenging others is easy, but supporting them is a bit more difficult. Give to them what you wish you could receive and you’ll build a stronger individual through a stronger group. I’ll be challenging myself for another 28 days and then I’ll find the next challenge.