Welcome to the fourth quarter.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve already played three quarters of 2026, but here we are. And just like a football game, everyone enters the fourth quarter with a different score on the board. Some of you may be having one of the best years of your career. Others may be right on pace with the goals you established back in January. And some of you may be looking at the scoreboard thinking, “I’ve got some ground to make up.”
If you’re in that last group, I have some good news for you: You don’t need a Hail Mary.
When a football team is behind in the fourth quarter, particularly when there is still plenty of time on the clock, the worst thing it can do is abandon its game plan and start throwing desperation passes down the field. Great teams understand that games are usually won by doing the little things well. Move the chains. Get the first down. Protect the football. Execute the next play. Then do it again.
I think there’s an important lesson in that for all of us as we begin the final three months of the year.
If you’re behind your goal, you probably don’t need one enormous listing, one miraculous transaction or some unexpected piece of business to suddenly fall into your lap. What you need are conversations. You need appointments. You need follow-up. You need to reconnect with the people in your database. You need to ask for the business. In other words, you need to keep moving the chains.
One first down doesn’t win a football game, but enough of them eventually gets you into the end zone. The same is true in our business. One phone call may not produce a transaction. One coffee appointment may not result in a listing. One open house may not produce your next buyer. But when those activities are repeated consistently, they create momentum, and momentum has a funny way of changing what the scoreboard looks like.
There are three months remaining in 2026. That’s a quarter of the year. There is still a lot of football left to play.
So, wherever you find yourself today, resist the temptation to stare at the scoreboard. Focus instead on the next play. What can you do today that moves you ten yards closer to where you want to be? Then tomorrow, do it again.
You don’t need a miracle.
You don’t need a Hail Mary.
You just need to keep moving the chains.
