It's Go TimeHave you felt your commercial appraisal profession and possibly the overall country's change in mood lately? I think people in general are much more anxious and at times aggressive in this sour economic climate. I often like to compare physical challenges to my work. It seems to make sense to me. Then again I'm not the doctor in the family like my brother.
I signed up for a local event called Tough Mudder, a British special forces designed half-marathon with 25-plus obstacles. Think very cold water, lots of mud, really difficult things to climb over , and my favorite, a final electric shock obstacle. Truth be told, I really really hate cold water and getting electrocuted. However, the point to my comparison of this challenge and your appraisal career is to stay focused and weather the storm.
The following two comments are from some fellow teammates named Becca and Roy who send out an e-mail motivating the unmotivated. Many people are looking for reasons not to do this event and their message drives home the point, stick with it.
Becca says:
"Our brains are finely tuned compromise machines. They are designed to avoid failure and danger and avert risk. When we say we want something, our brains immediately kick in to assess the situation. It comes up with reasons we should not try something. It sounds very reasonable and logical when it does so. Our brains frequently make a lot of sense. But, tragically, our brains are not designed to make us happy. Happiness takes risk, courage, daring, chance and a fair bit of unreasonableness. When we are picking our goals in the gym, we can pick a reasonable target and insure our success. We can tell ourselves it would be dangerous or irresponsible to go for more. We can tell ourselves we are too old, too busy, too injured, too tired. We can pick something easily achievable. Or better yet, we can just not try to begin with. Our brains love that. Or we can choose something totally off the map.
We can tell everyone about it and we can risk looking "silly," "stupid," or "crazy." And which do you feel better about in the end? A successful, safe step that really didn't result in progress or something crazy that maybe didn't even work, but took you to a new place, both mentally and physically? How many choices do you make in the gym based on what your brain says is good for you? How many choices do you make in your life this way?"
Roy says:
"Your main problem is you think you've got a problem. You've been given the gift of adversity, my friend...and that's what reveals true character...how cool is THAT?! You should be excited about being able to be creative and figure out how to keep training and still be competitive; that's the gift...the journey of overcoming obstacles and becoming a better man in the process. The ego is the culprit here...nothing else. You could still be training with us and scaling or modifying the workouts, but you've gotten the silly mindset that if you can't go toe to toe then it's pointless, but you're missing an important point: your opportunity to inspire!
Yeah, you still show up and train, but by continuing to train with us it brings us up and makes us better people because deep down inside we all know that it takes guts to keep competing even when you know that your odds of winning are greatly decreased because of an injury...that's what true warriors do! Remember, the walls in your life aren't there to keep you from doing things, but to show you how bad you really want them."
So I leave you with the sage advice of Becca and Roy. Rise up to the challenge. Dust off the appraisal career equivalent of your shoes and get back to work. Improve the way you create appraisals. Automate the overall process. Train your employees in these new systems. Start leading. It's going to be a long race. Take baby steps. Do not bite off more than you can chew, but START today. See you at the finish line!
If you would like to join a discussion about this topic or Appraisal Best Practices contact Jeff Hicks
