When it comes to the Law of Cause & Effect, start with the Effect
You’ve heard a million times that running a successful business is a matter of consistent cause & effect. You shoot a video, and it gets a bunch of likes, and maybe some of them turn into transactions. You make your phone calls which leads to more deals which lead to more money. It almost sounds too simple, doesn’t it?
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Well, technically it is that simple when you run the right plays – it’s just also really hard and requires a lot of willpower.
If cause & effect were easy to recognize and control, there would be no suffering alcoholics in the world. They’d all say, “Taking this drink will cause negative effects in my life, and therefore I will not do it.” But we all know it’s not that easy, and doing the work it takes to be successful is the same basic concept.
In this blog, we’ll talk about how to achieve goals through your motivation; to keep controlling The Law of Cause & Effect even when things get hard.
Let’s dive right in…
What is the Law of Cause and Effect?
The Law of Cause and Effect is a fundamental principle in philosophy and science that states that every event has a cause, and every cause produces an effect. This law suggests that nothing happens by chance; rather, every action or event is the result of a preceding cause. In essence, it asserts a causal relationship between events, where one event (the cause) leads to another event (the effect). This concept is central to understanding causality and the interconnectedness of events in the universe.
How to Master the Law of Cause & Effect to Boost Motivation
Start with the “Effect”
This is the same thing as starting with your “Why.” Know what you want and picture it so clearly that you can almost feel it within reach. Get super honest with yourself about what you really want to create in your life, because that’s the only way it’s going to motivate you through challenges. Write it down. This is how to get what you really want.
The most important aspect of boosting motivation is knowing why you’re doing the things you’re doing and exactly how each action will serve you.
If you want to lift weights but don’t have the energy or motivation to do so, it’s probably because you’re thinking about the boring, exhausting challenge of lifting (the cause). Instead, you should be thinking about the healthier body and increased energy you’ll get (the effect).
It’s amazing just how many things people do regularly without ever stopping to question WHY they’re doing them and what benefits they will bring.
Make It About More Than Yourself
Who are the closest people in your life? Your husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, mom/dad, kids? What will motivate them to hold you accountable?
Notice, this isn’t the last step because we haven’t even talked about the actions you’re going to take. This is so important that nothing can stand in the way of it.
Write down four amounts of money you want to make throughout the year, a dollar amount to achieve by the end of each quarter.
Now, write down something that you will do for your loved ones if you achieve those desired numbers. Will you take the kids to Disney? Buy your mom a new car? Treat your partner to a romantic getaway or buy a new home?
Draw a Line from Actions to Their Corresponding Effect
Take the desired changes you want to see and the money you want to make and work backward from there. What direct actions will lead you to meet your goals?
- How many transactions?
- How many appointments to get a transaction?
- How many leads to get an appointment?
- How many hours a day are you working your lead gen?
- What lead gen systems are you running?
Take it all the way back to the first action. Use the plays that you know work or ones that are proven to work for other agents. For instance, the 2,300+ of our coaching members who are participating in my $100k in 100 Days campaign have sent the same text 375,000+ times because it keeps working over and over again.
Make sure that you can trace a line directly from your first action all the way to the end result. When you do this, you’re creating a followable SOP for achieving your goal.
Do the Same for Distractions and Harmful Actions
A big part of what I want to do here is to get you to see The Law of Cause & Effect in every action you take throughout the day so that you can stop yourself from falling off track even when the going gets tough and your defenses are down.
With that in mind, take a look at your common habits and break down the step-by-step effects they have on your life.
- Watching TV – staying up late – feeling groggy in the morning – not making calls – performing poorly during meetings
- Not exercising – gaining weight – loss of energy – health issues
- Going out to a bar – less money – hangover – poor performance
- Scrolling social media in the morning – being distracted throughout the day – forgetting things – slowed progress
Now, I’m not saying that you should never enjoy your life, but you need to be aware that even your smallest actions have ripple consequences.
Set Up Accountability
By now, you should know exactly what actions you will take on a day-by-day basis to achieve your goals and what can get in the way.
So let’s go back to Step 2 – those rewards you’ll give your loved ones for holding you accountable to your goal setting. Write down the number, the reward, and the daily actions it will take to achieve them. Then show that piece of paper to your loved one. Make it very clear to them that this isn’t a lottery you’ve entered; it’s a simple matter of cause & effect: “If I do all of these actions, I will make this amount of money and then you will get this gift.”
Even if your spouse or kids never cared about how many phone calls you made before, I bet they’ll start asking about them all the time now.
Remind Yourself Every Day of The Law of Cause & Effect
Take your own personal “desired effects” and post them on the wall of your office so that you can see them every day. Just take a moment every morning to read what you wrote, close your eyes, imagine it, and use that to motivate the actions you’re about to take.
And before you pick up the phone, shoot a video, or do anything on your to-do list, remind yourself of exactly what effect these actions will have in bringing your plan to life.
Ideally, we’d always understand the chain reaction that each one of our actions will set in motion. It takes consistent vigilance but trust me, it’s so much better than living life as a passenger through the chaos.
I hope this has been helpful. If you’re really serious about mastering your willpower and running actions that consistently drive results, you can find the proven solution with a Tom Ferry Real Estate Coaching Consultation.
We’ve helped scale the businesses of tens of thousands of real estate agents.
When you start with a free real estate coaching consultation, chances are we can help scale yours as well. Schedule yours today!
