Accentuate the Positive

As the daily grind of Property Management ticks on, we can find that Property Managers sometimes become very busy for a myriad of reasons. It could be the general tasks, the clients you are dealing with or even something like straying off course and not following your preferred week.

It is important for your own mental health and productivity that you take a moment once in a while to refocus and reconnect with both yourself and the tasks at hand so that you don’t become overwhelmed.

This industry, like most, can bring out the best in people or it can bring out the worst and in people. In our travels, we often have to contend with a variety of sources of conflict, whether it be from the clients or even worse, at the hands of ours competitors. Let’s face it, we live in a country where the wildlife is often trying to kill or maim us, let’s not also turn on each other. It’s good to remember that in the end, we are all running our own race and in Property Management, we all share similar challenges.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that for every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. It can be very difficult sometimes to focus on the positive when there can be so many challenges that are thrown our way, so we are going to look at five steps to keep as many of those 60 seconds of happiness as you can.

• Choose to be PositiveEvery day something goes on in the world that is much bigger than what may be happening where you are, it’s all a matter of perspective. Every day when you get up, you can choose whether to grab life with both hands and run with it, or sink into a puddle. It’s up to you to decide how you will do this, and look, there are some days that you may only have the strength to have a shower and change your pj’s. That’s ok too.

• Remove negativity from your lifeAs much as possible. Of course, you cannot completely control every aspect of your life and you will still have to deal with the yucky stuff from time to time, but it’s a good idea to deal with it, let it go and move on.

• Find the positive in your dayI have recently been shown something getting around the pages of Etsy called a gratitude jar. Now, I’m not saying that you need to go with all of that popping a note in the jar each day for something that you’re grateful for, but it is good for the soul, no matter how bad your day might get, to try and find the silver lining.

• Share your positivityPositivity can be infectious, so throw that stuff around like glitter. Everyone loves a shower in glitter and things that sparkle, right? Even if it’s just sharing a smile with a stranger in the street or checking in with your ship mates who may be having a rough day, to see if they are ok.

• Don’t assumeYou know the old saying about assumptions? It has something to do with a donkey? It’s not productive to assume that you know what is going on in someone else’s life. Kindness goes much further than idle gossip and the next time you expand your lungs to express something negative about a person, stop to consider if it is actually doing your own wellbeing any good. Focus on running your own race.

Remember that there will always be those who want to bring you down. Take a moment and a breath and remember the good things. Pull up your comrades in arms and remind them that when they are down, we are all on the same path to creating something great in this industry. Once we can achieve the positive and the great together, the negative nancies will fade into the background.

My grandmother always told me that no matter what life throws at you, tomorrow is a new day and a chance to start again. So, what will your tomorrow bring?

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Heidi Walkinshaw
Real+