When you become an entrepreneur, you can’t afford to be in a bad mood. Bad moods bring bad results.  It’s tough to get hard things done when you’re walking around like a mope all day.  And it’s also tough to generate new business, since people don’t want to talk to someone with a permanent scowl on her face.

It’s not easy.  Being in the real estate industry means having to deal with a lot of stuff that can make you want to crawl into a ball and hide from the world: deals that fall apart, buyers who end up hiring another agent, sellers who blame you for the state of the market.  It can be a hard slog.

But you have to stay positive, even if you’re not.  We could spend all day talking about the power of positive thinking, but there’s a simple trick that you can use to trick yourself just a little bit into staying more positive on a daily basis.

The trick is easy.  When someone asks you how you’re doing, say, “I’m GREAT!”

For example, let’s say you’re in the supermarket, and you run into a casual acquaintance.  She asks how you’re doing.  Normally, you would respond with something rote, and boring, and mundane, like “I’m good,” or “I’m okay,” or “I’m fine.”  Instead, let’s say you respond with a fervent, “I’m GREAT!”

Why is that so much better? For one thing, it’s much more likely to start a real conversation with someone. When you surprise someone by saying “I’m GREAT!”, their tendency is going to be to ask you why.  It gets them engaged, which is important insofar as you are in the business of trying to get people interested in talking with you.  Maybe you’ll start talking about real estate, and find out that they know someone who needs an agent. I’m not saying that saying “I’m GREAT!” will actually generate new business for you, but it’s a lot more likely than if you just said something boring like “I’m fine.”

More importantly, by saying “I’m GREAT!,” you might actually trick yourself into believing it.  This isn’t some armchair psychology hocus-pocus. Lots of studies show that people can change their mental state by the way they talk and speak.  If you slump your shoulders, you’re going to reinforce your lousy mood. If you keep telling yourself that it’s going to be a lousy day, then you’re likely to be right.  But if you stand up straight, or keep telling yourself that you’re feeling great, you can actually create a better mood.

So try it.  Whenever someone asks you how you’re doing, say “I’m GREAT!”.

It’s different, it’s interesting, and it might actually become true.

This post is part of a series of what I call the “36-1/2 Rules for Client-Oriented Real Estate Agents,” a collection of short takes on the CORE concept that I’ve developed over the years of discussing and teaching the system.  We’ll count up to the 36th rule over the next few months, and then the 1/2 rule.  You can get the full list of rules by clicking on the “36-1/2 Rules for CORE Agents” category on the blog – scroll from the bottom if you want to read them in order.