Just like the New Year brings new hopes for getting healthier, losing weight, or quitting smoking, the brokerage industry also uses this time to set different types of goals. We reflect on volume and unit goals, examine the customer journey, fine-tune efficiencies and processes, and look for opportunities for growth and improvement.
We use our downtime to set up automation, implement a new CRM, build checklists, block time in our calendars, and prepare for a successful new year ahead. Many of us are hopeful and positive about the year ahead.
The Weight of Reflection: Survive and Thrive
But looking ahead inevitably comes with reflection on the past year, which for many may not have been a positive experience at the moment. “What went wrong?” is usually much longer than “What went right?” list. This can be especially difficult when colleagues are celebrating their awards and achievements. It’s easy to feel discouraged if you don’t achieve your 2024 goals.
As a result, many New Year’s resolutions are defeated before you even get started, simply because of mindset issues. It’s important to remember that the past few years in our industry have been tough for everyone, and if all you’ve achieved this year is to survive, then that’s an achievement in itself.
It’s important to evaluate where you can improve, but dwelling on what went wrong doesn’t leave much room in your mind to move forward positively.
Just like fitness goals, you’ll never see results in your career if you don’t recommit to it every morning when you wake up.
However, in business, just like in fitness, the initial excitement we feel when starting a new year often fades after a few weeks because we don’t see immediate results. But just like fitness, what we often overlook are the unseen gains and non-scale wins that set the benchmark for future success. The seeds we sow today are the crops we will harvest in the future.
Our brains are hard-wired for instant gratification, which can be detrimental to taking a long-term view, especially when non-scale wins are difficult to measure in a world driven by dollar signs. For those transitioning to self-employment after long-term employment, there is also a psychological link between pay and work completed.
We associate a week’s hard work with Friday’s paycheck, despite the fact that the work we’re paid for this week was done months ago. So when we’ve spent a month making calls, networking, marketing, etc. and our bank account isn’t replenished with what we feel is a fair representation of our efforts, it can be difficult to stick with it. enthusiasm.
Digging out seeds every day to see if they start to germinate won’t make them grow any faster, and trusting that the work you do will pay off in the future requires important lessons in patience and perseverance.
The challenge of starting over
For some people, setting new year’s goals can also bring feelings of anxiety. In an industry where the calendar year is defined by sales and revenue goals, there’s a strange mindset that everything resets on January 1st, as if we were starting from scratch.
We start counting from document #1 again, rather than viewing our business as a continuation of the business we have built in the past. It can be daunting to be faced with the idea that we have to start over and earn this status again.
For some, it’s about chasing volume categories, awards, badges of honour, and award travel goals. For others, the pressure is to meet lender volume targets, achieve status, receive efficiency bonuses, meet minimum document volumes, gain BRM access, and so on. There is certainly a lot of stress in our industry, although much of it is of our own making.
The end of the year has put additional pressure on already overstretched brokers due to a series of new government announcements and rules. Uncertainty about which lenders participate in which rules, which changes apply on which dates, who is eligible to comply with these new rules, lenders scrambling to implement policies, and a generally misinformed public knocking on the door wondering why we still don’t know the ins and outs of the policies they hope to take advantage of change. Always keeping an eye on all the strong bond yields, employment data, inflation announcements, economist forecasts and our crystal balls trying to decipher what might be happening in the interest rate market.
It seems like we don’t have enough on our plates anymore, holiday stress, kids’ sporting events, unused dental benefits booked before the end of the year, aging parents to care for, gifts to buy, parties to attend, gratitude to acknowledge, dinners to Cooking because, limited lawyer office hours, summarizing the final documents for the year, setting goals and the positive anxiety of being hopeful about the new year ahead.
It’s no wonder so many people are exhausted by this time of year. Burned out from endless to-do lists. No matter how much laundry you fold, there is always more. The dishes need to be washed again tomorrow. In our business, there’s always a fire that needs to be put out, there’s always a last-minute closing, or someone has created an emergency for themselves that we need to solve, usually on a Sunday night.
More projects need to be started or completed, more clients need to call back, and we feel like no matter what we do, it’s never fast enough, thorough enough, or helpful enough.
The Myth of Balance: Finding Time to Live
In self-employment, there is no real vacation time. We don’t turn off the computer on December 23rd and turn it back on on January 2nd, that’s not the way to broker. We didn’t give ourselves the time needed to actually disconnect and refresh before starting working on file #1 again. We’ve been worried about this for months. The work we put in today means, after all, a paycheck in the spring.
Self-care is sold as a commodity to cover up when we miss life. When what many of us crave isn’t something we can spend money on, there are things we can buy to relieve burnout. We fit spa days into our already busy schedules so we can maximize self-care in the time allotted. We create more work for ourselves by adding self-care tasks to our to-do lists.
We talk about work-life balance as if life is partly a task that can be accomplished through scheduling rather than letting it happen to us. Often, the lines in this industry are blurred. Going to the hockey rink with the kids means discussing interest rates with neighbors in hopes of getting their lease renewal papers. The conversation at the dinner turned into questioning the government’s housing policy. Work exists in our daily lives, our emails, our text messages, our Instagram feeds – always in the palm of our hands. Allowing ourselves to enjoy life without having to work constantly into our mental DMs may actually be the self-care we need and crave most.
I admit that over the past few years I have been so focused on achieving a certain status in my career that I forgot about life. I let friendships fade away and hobbies collect dust in my garage. Ironically, the more I focused on my career, the more burned out I felt. The more exhausted I am, the more I fail. The more forgetful I am, the more clients I annoy, the more mistakes I make, and the irritated I get with the people I care about. The things I was trying to avoid screwing up by paying too much attention became the things I was screwing up. We are constantly reflecting where our energy lies.
New year, new opportunities
This year, my New Year’s resolutions are more about life than work, and my brokerage goals reflect that. Be more grateful and positive about the things I do right rather than the things I do wrong. It’s about embracing true self-care, rekindling friendships, and ultimately picking up those long-forgotten hobbies.
I suspect I will find that when you focus on life, business success will come naturally. Success is measured in more ways than just quantitative rewards.
Personally, I’m excited to wipe the slate clean and close the door on a year where I feel like I’ve simply survived and look forward to a year where I’m confident I’ll thrive.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the long-awaited 5-year return!
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Broker Tips for 2025 Jill Moellering Mortgage Brokers New Year New Year’s Resolutions Opinion Self-Care Self-Employed
Last modified: January 2, 2025
