My first real job, the first one actually on the books, was at the local IGA. I still remember the rhythm of it. You’d arrive, head to the lunchroom, put your stuff away, and before you walked out to the floor, you put on your apron. The apron is what made you a grocery clerk. End of shift, you took it off and went home.
Every job after that had its own version. A company shirt and a radio at the rec park. A tank top, a whistle, and a radio when I ran the waterslide (still one of the best jobs I’ve ever had). We know a doctor by the scrubs, a police officer by the badge.
Here is what all of them had in common. A clear line between on and off. You put something on to start, and you took it off to stop. The uniform was never really about the clothes. It was a signal, to everyone around you and to yourself, that you were now in it. And when it came off, you were out.
Real estate doesn’t hand you that line. Most agents don’t drive to an office anymore, and the uniform is whatever got put on that morning. The gold jacket, the Realtor pin, mostly gone. Sounds like freedom.
But lose the uniform and you lose the line. No trigger to flip you on, and worse, no trigger to flip you off. So you end up kind of always on. We like to call that commitment. A lot of the time it is just the absence of an off switch. And it costs you twice. Your health pays for the always-on, and so does your work, because nobody does their best thinking while half-working around the clock.
The uniform was never the clothes. It was the signal.
So build your own. It doesn’t have to be a jacket. Pick a trigger that starts the day, and more importantly, one that ends it. Change your shoes. Close the laptop and actually shut it. A short drive. A walk around the block. Something small and repeatable that your brain learns to read as on, and then as off.
As we head into the home stretch of 2026, here is the question. What is your uniform? And maybe the better one: what do you take off at the end of the day?
Scott
Scott Mills Coaching
P.S. If someone you know would find value in this, feel free to pass it along.