You’re listening to Mindfulness Weekends with Bruce Langford. Today
I’m talking about confidence. I think confidence is like a tide going in
and out, in and out. This is how I used to feel anyway. Some days
pumped up, ready to go, feeling like the world was mine, other days, a
lot more on the opposite side. More like, a little discouragement
creeping in, a little frustration. You get the picture.
As
human beings, that voice in our head can do surprising things to our
emotions. In the last few years, I realize that more and more, and now
I’m ready for it. I’m in charge.
As I sat down just
now, I had a confidence flash. What I mean is, I thought of the word
confidence and a precise moment in time popped into my head. It was a
few years ago. I was in real estate. Not much was selling because the
interest rates at the time were high. I can tell you; I went through
some discouraging days in that profession. But I stuck with it, for
awhile anyway and I did my thing. One day a woman called the office, and
it was my turn to the take the call. She was calling about a specific
home. She’d noticed the ‘for sale’ sign went on the lawn, so she phoned
in right away. I chatted with her and made an appointment to show the
house on the following Saturday. After the call, I did my research. I
set up a time to show her the home, which was modest side split in a
pleasant area of town, not far from the west end subdivision of
Westmount, which was a highly desired area at the time. I also found two
other homes to show her, which in my opinion were quite comparable.
The
day came, and I realized I had some nervous excitement happening. I
wasn’t familiar with the term mindfulness back, then, I don’t even know
if it was used much, but I did know I wanted to be calm and collected
when I showed the properties. I remember sitting in my car when I
arrived at the office and deciding to take five minutes or so to close
my eyes, take some quiet breaths and think about good things. Thinking
back, I likely visualized this woman, buying the house, but after this
number of years, I’m not totally sure whether I was into visualizing or
not. I know I listened to a lot of sales training talks on cassette
tapes, and I learned a lot of strategies that I didn’t know till later,
would be considered mindfulness.
Anyway, I showed the
lady the houses, and the one she had originally called me about was the
third one. She was a quiet woman, with brown hair, kind of softly
flowing around her face. She explained to me that she had inherited some
money and had decided she loved this area, and it was in her price
range. She had seen a number of houses with an agent in another company,
but, she told me, she really didn’t feel comfortable with that
particular agent.
She walked around the home, casually
looking around in the various rooms. She said, I just like to get the
feel of the place. She’d go to the center of a room, give herself a
little shake, close her eyes and smile a bit. It was like she was
absorbing the vibes of the house. She told me, “This feels right. I want
to buy it. Can you fill out the papers for me?”
We
talked about an offer price and right then and there, I completed the
paperwork; she signed, and off she went with a big smile on her face.
“I’m so happy she said.” And you’re just the right kind of real estate agent for me. Not too pushy. You get me,” she explained.
I
had no idea a sale could be this easy. I felt an immediate rush of
confidence, joy, and satisfaction. She drove away, I gathered up my
papers and picked up my briefcase. I was so ecstatic; I felt light on my
feet as I walked down the driveway. Seeing that no cars were coming, I
started to run across the street to my car.
Right now I
can taste that exact moment in my mind. Suddenly, I was jolted into
reality. My briefcase went flying and landed on the pavement. I was
still holding the handle; it had broken off the case, and I was standing
there feeling a little sheepish, a little embarrassed. I qui