“The biggest challenge in business and being an entrepreneur is not the competition, it’s what goes on inside your own head.” Barbara Corcoran

I’m a big fan of Barbara Corcoran. And she does have some great  – and simple – pearls of wisdom to share. This is one of those.

With my agents I often refer to those “voices in our heads” as our “gremlins”; those little creatures who tell us we are not good enough, instill those feelings of self doubt, and block our ability to move ourselves forward. What’s important to understand is that for any business owner or entrepreneur, particularly the real estate professional, the very nature of our business – the solitude – results in our listening to our gremlin more than to our true self.

You know who you are, gremlins! “I’m never going to be successful.” “That agent is so much better than me.” “I don’t think I can make enough money.” “I’m not going to get this listing.” And so on.

Sometimes, we can trace a particular incident or a particular client, to the root of our own gremlin. Sometimes, it takes one really negative experience and before you know it, our gremlin is telling us that every experience is going to be just as bad.

The first step in banishing the gremlins from your head is recognizing them. When you start to have those negative, self-doubting, I’m-not-good-enough thoughts, remind yourself that your gremlin is hard at work convincing you of these things. Some of my clients find it helpful to give their gremlin a name, any name. And then when that gremlin starts the tape playing in your head, call it by its name and tell it to take a hike!