In the big picture, I am responsible for a running  a boutique commercial real estate firm.  We have a brokerage division, an appraisal group and what you know me best through, our technology and productivity enhancement group.  Each is distinct, yet with planned crossover they allow us to offer personalized service more efficiently than most.  Clearly, because my name is on the door I have a responsibility to know what we do and to make sure we know why we do it.  To accomplish that end, I have to continually ask myself, what I really do for a living.  I suggest you try to do it too. 

It's really not easy for me to answer the question sometimes, what do I do for a living?  The problem is coming up with a single definition of "making a living".  Some dictionaries describe it as the means of maintaining life; livelihood - to earn one's living.  Others sources state it as, the idiom, which didn't appear in our language until the 1600's, best described as the ability to earn enough to support oneself.  I think most of us agree that just supporting life is not where we are at and that's why answering the question is both tough and a great exercise to repeat often.  Life changes.  Needs change. Wants change.  Everything changes.  All the time.  And for those reasons the question, "What do I do for a living?" should be a question we ask often.  Not in the way it gets asked on a form we fill out at a social or business event or in an online profile but asked by ourselves nearly every day. 

When I'm here writing to you, I'm solely focused on the process improvement part of how I make a living.  By writing this column every week, I provide a service to those of you who read it, I improve myself and my company through the research and implementation of many of the ideas and information presented and I'm fulfilling a specific marketing need our company has.  I've proven over the years that I make my living through leadership and the passing along of information.  I earn the best living.  I've defined it as helping others learn to use good processes and technology to streamline the real estate process.  Whatever that process may be, a lease, a construction project, a sale, property management, analytics etc., I take personal pride in being helpful and having my readers remember me when and if the time comes that they need the services our company offers.  I take a lot of pride in knowing that our industry - commercial real estate has made strides to implement the "right stuff".  Furthermore, the individuals who are a part of the big umbrella of this industry are better at making a living, however they define it.  

I have to stay intently focused on turning what I do into financial rewards--a paycheck.  Like you, it's a constant battle to align what I do with the living I want to have.  It's why I am so enamored with process and if you don't mind me saying so I think you should be too.  Define what "making a living" means to you frequently and then once it's defined, measure what you do against it all the time.  Making money is important for a lot of reasons.  For me these days it represents freedom to do lots of stuff.  I guess it always has. More important to me is  making  money as efficiently as possible so that I have the really valuable commodity, time to do what I want to.  It is a big motivator.

Having more time is a universal want and so getting more of it is the problem to be solved.  It's what people pay me or buy our software for.  So you can appreciate that when I see statistics that workers waste an average of six weeks per year (yep, 6 weeks), looking for documents and that it takes an individual an average of 64 seconds to regain focus after an email interruption.  This translates into approximately eight and a half hours per week of lost productivity.  I'll tackle the "looking for lost documents" in future columns, but I can give you a way to improve on what I call "waste by interruption".  How? The best way I know is to stay focused on the fact that you are supposed to be making a living, however you may define it.  So run what you do though the "Is this helping me make the living I've defined?" sieve.  Take time to make sure you're doing things when and how it works best for you.  A wonderful rule?  A secret to making a better living?   Start your day on your agenda, not someone else's agenda. When we let others dictate our agenda, we focus all our efforts executing whatever it is they need.  Meanwhile, we watch our own "this is what I need to do to make the living I want" to- do list take a back seat.  It doesn't mean we don't serve the needs of others.  If we don't do that we won't get paid, no matter what type of payment we want, money, love, or respect.  It means that we take responsibility to set our agenda towards delivering what it is we get "paid" to do.  It ensures that we are making the living we want.   

An easy to say, difficult to do, item to make your living more efficiently, is to stop reading and responding to emails  first thing in the morning like you're on auto pilot.  Of course you need to scan emails for any pressing business that you didn't have on your agenda for the day already, but don't get stuck "responding".  Instead, start your day by engaging in a revenue generating task - something that's going to put money into your pocket. Something that moves you towards making the living you've defined.   

 

I have an idea.  You have so many things you do, that if shared, would help us all make better livings so I'd like to involve you in this column more often.  When you read this column each week, let it be a reminder to send me quick snippets on what you've done.  Nothing fancy, just something you would like to share.  I'll take the time to write things up and call you if I need more clarification before I write about it. I'll be the messenger.  The "link" in this age of information and misinformation is that there's nothing as useful and powerful as tested information learned from peers.  Let's use combined information to change all of our standards of living!