How to Take a Day Off - Kevin Ward

Hi there, it's Kevin Ward with yes Masters Real Estate Success Training, helping you get more yeses and more successes in your business and in your life. But you work too much. So today we're going to talk about how do you take a day off? Because the reality is you probably need a day off. Most of you, if you're watching this video, I, I bet you don't take days off consistently. And when you do, if you do take them off, you don't take them off correctly. So today we're going to talk about how to take a day off. Not only do how to do it consistently, but how to do it correctly, how to make a day off profitable, productive, how to make it count. Now, I'm not by that, I don't mean how to take a day off without really taking a day off, because that doesn't count. A day off means a day off working. Whatever you're, if you're in real estate or whatever job or your business is, how do you take a day off from that and make it really a powerful day off? And so let's face it, we are so, we got so many things going on in our world, so many things going on in our life that we run ourselves ragged and we don't take time to really recharge our batteries to really refresh and renew ourselves. And it's critical in a day and age when there's so many opportunities out there, there's so many things that we can do that can do to make money, but also that we can do for fun or that we can do that just engages our time. And I see people running themselves ragged. I struggle with it. People struggle with it. Real estate agents are notorious for working 24, seven are working seven days a week and never really disengaging from their work and taking that time off to recharge. So how do you do it? I want to share with you three steps today or three, three steps on how to take a great, fabulous, wonderful, awesome day off. So number one step, number one, clock out. And what that simply means is when you're going to take a day off, you actually need to take a day off, which means you completely clock out of work, you clock out of business. You get it out of your brain, out of your, you know, off your phone. You don't continually, if you're continually on your phone and you're answering text messages or you're checking your email or all of that stuff calling back into the office, that is not a day off. I don't care where you are, if you're with your kids at Disneyland and you're dialing back into the office or dialing back into the job, that's not a day off. It's not a day off for you and it's not a day off for your children because you're not there, you're not present with them. So when you clock out, that means stop being in your work and be present in the day off, be present in the moment. Wherever you are, with whomever you are, learn to be with them, learn to be 100% present. Here's one of the binds and I'm going to tell you the bind that especially real estate agents get in or people that are self employed that we get into. And that is if you're not productive when you're working, it makes it very difficult to enjoy when you're not working. So let me give you an example. Real estate agents a lot of times are not really productive because they're busy doing busy work. They're not busy doing the productive work that will make them the money, like lead generating, actually generating business, following up on leads and so forth. Because that can be unnerving. It's difficult talking to people, that fear of rejection, fear of getting people upset or whatever. And so I'm working, I'm working, I'm working, but I'm not doing the right stuff to make business, to make money. So now I feel guilty when I take off because I feel like I didn't work productively. So I feel guilty, I need to be back at work. Which really sucks when you're at your child's soccer game because now you want to be at your child's soccer game. But when you're at your child's soccer game, you feel guilty because you need to be working because when you were working you weren't doing what you were supposed to do. So now you make a decision to say, okay, I got to catch up on this work, so I'm not going to go to my kids soccer game or whatever else. I'm not going to take my day off because I got to catch up, I need to work. And so then you stay at work. And now when you're working, you feel guilty because you're not with your family, you feel guilty because you're not taking the day off. And so when take, when you're with your family you feel guilty because you're not working. And when you're working you feel guilty because you're not with your family. And no matter which way you Go. You're totally and completely screwed. That is not having a life, you understand? I mean, that's just not having a life. How do you get out of that? Well, one, it's when you're working, you have to work hard, be totally clocked in, be doing the things that will make you money, doing the right stuff, so that when you aren't working, you can literally actually clock out, clock out mentally, clock out emotionally, clock out physically from doing your work. So if you're a real estate agent, no mls, don't get on the mls, don't check your email. When you're doing that, you're putting yourself back in work mode. And when you put yourself back in work mode, the batteries aren't being charged, the day off is not being enjoyed. And you got to understand that. And there have been studies and studies galore proving that if you don't take time off to recharge your batteries, your battery capacity continues to go down. In other words, you just wear yourself down and you approach what's called burnout or wear out or whatever. It's just not. It's not a productive, it's not sustainable, it's not a productive way to live your life. So number one is you've got to have the discipline to say, okay, I'm not working today. I need to communicate that to the people that need to know. And then you clock out, number one. Number two, delegate out. Which simply means, because especially if you're a solopreneur, which means you run your own business and it's just you. If you're a real estate agent, for example, and you don't have a team and so forth, you've got to have somebody that can cover for you on the days off. So find another agent in your office, find an assistant or whatever, somebody else that can handle the stuff that needs to be handled on your days off, and let them know, here it is. And either hand them your cell phone, forward your phone to them, or put it on your voicemail. Hey, if you need immediate assist, call my associate so and so. Here's their phone number, and they'll be happy to help you with your clients. You just have to communicate so and so. I've got an 8. My associate so and so is going to be available tomorrow. If you need anything at all, they're familiar with your situation, they know about your house, whatever it is, and you completely, you've got to delegate it out so somebody else is taking care of everything so you don't have to worry about things falling through the crack, delegate out, clock out, delegate out. And then number three, get out. And what I'm talking about is when you have time off, learn to celebrate your time off. Learn to do something other than clean house or catch up on your finances or something that is totally not rejuvenating, that's totally not recharging your batteries. It's just more grind. You have to get out of the grind and go do something else. So get out, get out of the house, get out of the rut, get out of the routine, get out of the monotony, get out of the mundane, get out of the distraction, get out of all of the things that keep our life right here. And we're just like, because we got so much going on, get out of that. Go do something memorable. So go, go sailing, get out, go to the beach. If you go to the mountains, go to the country, go to the out to the woods, take a walk, go to a park, go see a mov. Go take in if you're married or if you're in a relationship, go with your significant other, take your kids, go do something cool. It doesn't have to cost anything. It doesn't have to be something expensive or extravagant, but it has to be something cool. It has to be something memorable. You want to do that because it's the stuff. Literally. Do you realize that every single week you could do something that you and your family would talk about for years, every week. But we get so caught up in the grind. We get so caught up in the monotony and the routine and the just that day to day, going through the motions, going through life, and we're just like this with what's next. And then we're just in distraction mode and all the stuff going on and we've got to break out of that. You want to break out of that so that you can that your life, you look back and go like, what did I do this year? I worked every day and even as I'm talking about this, I'm like, I've got to be more intentional about taking time that when I'm not working on a day is get out, do something. Take Julie, take my wife and go out and do something fabulous. Go do something that's just fun. Go do something that's memorable. Again, it doesn't have to cost money. You can go to a nice restaurant or you can go window shop and that would cost money. Or you can go to a movie that will cost money, but you can just go window shopping. Just go see some historical site, take a road trip, do something. Get out in your backyard and plant something even that can create a memory, right? Get a water hose. If it's summer and it's hot where you are, get your kids after school, go down to Target or something and buy one of those crazy slipper slides or some silly backyard water toy and get out in the backyard with your kids and get wet, get dirty. Go play in the mud with your kids or go play in the mud with your spouse. I mean, do something that, if you would do that, I'm telling you, when you take a day off like that, and physically and emotionally and mentally, you may be exerting yourself and you may be tired after the day's over, make sure you get enough time to rest and recover and so forth, so that the next day, or if you're going the day you're going back to work, you're not wasted, you're not bombed. But when you do something that's out of the ordinary, that's something that is cool, something that's a blast, something that's a little crazy. Go skydiving, go bungee jump, go climb something, go climb a tree. I mean, do something that a month later and a year later you're going like, remember when we did this? Oh, that was so cool. We should do that again. Oh, that was nuts. Oh, that was crazy. Oh, it was so cold, or it was so hot, or I thought I was going to die. Oh, whatever it is, whenever you have a moment like that, that's living, that's having a life, and all of us deserve more of it. So go get it.