Much like New Year’s resolutions to get more fit, lose weight, or quit smoking, the brokering world takes this time to set goals of a different kind. We reflect on volume and unit targets, we look at our client journey, fine-tune efficiencies and processes, and look for opportunities to grow and improve.

We spend our down time setting up automations, implementing new CRMS, creating checklists, time-blocking in our calendar, and setting ourselves up for a successful new year of business to come. Many of us do this with hope and positivity for the new year ahead.

The weight of reflection: Surviving vs. thriving

But looking forward inevitably comes with reflecting on the past year, and for many, that may not currently be a positive experience. “What went wrong?” is often a far longer list than the “what went right?” list. This can be especially tough during a time when colleagues are celebrating their awards and accomplishments. If you didn’t meet your goals in 2024, it’s easy to feel deflated.

And as a result, many New Year’s goals are defeated before you even start, simply due to mindset. It’s important to remember that the last couple of years in our industry have been tough on everyone, and if all you accomplished this year was to survive—that in itself is an accomplishment.

It is important to take stock of where you can improve, but dwelling on what went wrong doesn’t leave much room in your mind for moving forward with positivity.
Much like a fitness goal, you will never see results in your business if you don’t wake up every morning recommitted to the cause.

Yet in business, much like in fitness, the initial excitement we start the year with often fades after a few weeks when we don’t see immediate results. But just like fitness, it’s often the unseen gains and non-scale victories that we overlook, which are setting the baseline for future success. The seeds we plant today are the crops we harvest in the future.

Our brains are hardwired for instant gratification, and that can be detrimental to seeing things through for the long term, especially when non-scale victories are hard to measure in a world driven by dollar signs. For those transitioning to self-employment after a long tenure as an employee, there’s also the mental connection of paycheques vs. work done.

We correlate a week worth of hard work to the payroll that comes on Friday, despite the fact that the work we are being paid on this week was completed months ago. So, when we bust our butts for a month making calls, networking, marketing etc., and the bank account isn’t being replenished with what we think is a fair representation of our efforts, it can be tough to stick it out with the same enthusiasm we started with.

Digging up the seeds every day to see if they’re starting to germinate doesn’t make them grow faster, and trusting that the work you are doing will pay off in the future requires a big lesson in patience and perseverance.

The challenge of starting fresh

The New Year’s goal-setting for some also brings a sense of anxiety. In an industry where calendar years are defined by volume and income goals, there’s a strange mentality that everything resets on January 1, as if we’re starting over from scratch.

We start counting from file #1 again, instead of looking at our businesses as a continuation of what we have built in the past. It can be daunting to be faced with the idea that we have to start all over and earn that status again.

For some, it’s about chasing volume categories, awards, badges of honour, and rewards trip targets. For others, it’s the pressure of meeting lender volume targets, achieving status, earning efficiency bonuses, hitting minimum file numbers, gaining BRM access, and more. The stresses in our industry can certainly be plentiful despite many of them being self inflicted.

This particular year has seen an extra layer of year-end stress added to already overwhelmed brokers thanks to a fistful of new government announcements and rules to navigate. Uncertainty of which lenders are participating in which rules, which dates apply for which changes, who qualifies for these new rules, lenders scrambling to implement policy and the generally misinformed public banging down the doors wondering why we still don’t know the ins and outs of the policy change they hope to take advantage of. All the while watching the all mighty bond yield, jobs numbers, inflation announcements, economist forecasts and our crystal balls trying to decipher what might happen in the rate market.

As though we didn’t have enough on our plates already with holiday stress, kids’ sports events, unused dental benefits to book before year end, aging parents to manage, presents to buy, parties to attend, gratitude to acknowledge, dinners to cook for, limited lawyer office hours, wrapping up those final files of the year, goal-setting and the hopefully positive anxiety of the new year ahead.

It is no wonder so many get to this time of year and are burnt out. Burnt out from the unending list of tasks. It doesn’t matter how much laundry you fold, there will always be more laundry. The dishes will need washing again tomorrow. And in our businesses, there is always a fire to put out, always a last-minute closing or an emergency that someone created for themselves that they need us to solve, often on a Sunday evening.

More projects to start or finish, more clients to call back and the sense that no matter what we do, it is never quite fast enough, thorough enough or helpful enough.

The myth of balance: Finding time to live

In self employment, there is no real vacation time. We don’t turn our computers off on December 23 and open them again on January 2, that is not the brokering way. We don’t give ourselves the time we need to truly disconnect and refresh before we start working for file #1 again. We’ve already started worrying about that months ago. The work we put in today means paycheques in the spring after all.

We are sold self-care as a commodity to mask when we are missing out on life. Something we can purchase to alleviate burnout when what many of us crave is not something we can throw money at. We fit spa days into our already busy schedules so we can maximize our self care with the most self-caring we can fit into the allotted time available. And we add the task of arranging self-care to our to-do list, creating more work for ourselves.

We talk about work-life balance as though the life part is a task that scheduling can achieve rather than allowing it to just happen to us. Often, the lines are blurred in this business. A trip to the hockey rink with the kids means talking to the neighbours about interest rates, hoping to secure their renewal file. The dinner party talk becomes an interrogation on government housing policy. Work finds us in our day-to-day, our emails, our texts, our Instagram messages—always in the palm of our hand. Allowing ourselves to enjoy life without work sliding into our mental DMs on a constant basis might actually be the self-care we need and crave the most.

I will admit, in past years I was so concerned with achieving a certain status in my business that I forgot about living. I let friendships fade and hobbies sit collecting dust in my garage. And the irony is that the more I focused on my business, the more burnt out I became. And the more burnt out, the more I fail. The more forgetful I am, the more clients I upset, the more mistakes I make, the more irritable I am with those I care about. The very thing I am trying not to screw up by focusing on it too much becomes the very thing I’m screwing up. We are a constant reflection of where our energy sits.

A new year with new opportunities

This year, my New Year’s resolutions involve more life than work, and my brokering business goals reflect that. More gratitude and positivity about the things I do right instead of the things I’ve done wrong. It’s about embracing genuine self-care, rekindling friendships, and finally dusting off those long-forgotten hobbies.

I suspect what I will find is that success in business comes naturally when you focus on living. And success is measured in more ways than volume awards.

I, for one, am excited to wipe the slate clean and close the door to a year I feel like I simply survived, in anticipation of a year where I am confident I will thrive.

Oh, and let’s not forget the long-awaited return of 5-year terms!

2025 broker tips Editor's pick jill moellering mortage brokers New Year New Year's resolutions opinion self-care self-employed

Last modified: January 7, 2025