Gary Woltal's Blog

Many years ago motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen launched a book called Chicken Soup for the Soul that sold something like 2 million copies. It was essays and short stories that were inspirational in nature. Since that time if you walked into bookstores over the last ten years there have been so many spinoffs of that book it constantly amazes me. Not only imitators but even parodies of the books. Like the books for "Dummies" I think whole industries develop over one winning idea.

The point is people are searching for something. Something to make their lives good, whole, fun, inspired, fresh, exciting, worthwhile for all the breaths we take each day.

I contend from matching the right home to a buyer, that a home, the right home, is like Chicken soup. Chicken soup is great grandma's magic elixir for making you "feel better", and warding off the effects of that cold or flu bug in no time flat.

So what is good for the soul? Obviously good family, friends, security (as much as we can in this world), faith, health, a good attitude, etc. But also an environment called home, that is our shelter from the world. Find or make a home, a nesting place, that is your shelter from the world.

           A CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL!!

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by every moment that takes your breath away.

REALTORS and many corporate world types on occasion get together for a game of golf. Some times for charitable reasons, networking, the sheer enjoyment of the sport, or to take an afternoon or Saturday morning off.

Of many lessons about life that the game of golf can teach you one key one is about relationships with people. I'm talking about the golden rule here, true friendship, and love of neighbor. We don't hit this mark all the time but it is an ideal to shoot for.

It's under the category of treating people with unconditional love. It's about being non-judgmental. I call it

                     DON'T KEEP SCORE

For those who only have a rudimentary understanding of the game, oftentimes other than betting on distance of drives and friendly wagers on who will have the least putts to get the ball in the hole, there is the term "mulligan." Essentially if you are two feet from the cup, your buddies (ladies as well), give you the benefit of the doubt that you'd make that easy shot and you just claim the one stroke without actually taking the shot. In other words you treat people as if we don't keep score.

So too in life, with everyone we encounter, especially if you are non-judgmental, and a true friend you have no memory of wrongs. No memory of yesterday's hurts upon you, but strong memories of everything that was done well. You see the best and forget the rest. If only we could all practice each day not judging. Mother Teresa said, "If we judge, we have no time to love." When you find these true friends in your life they will treat you as this quote says:

"But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely.  Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

I am convinced when you see and feel this in your life, you will have experienced a little heaven on earth.

In consumating Real Estate deals oftentimes there are hugs of joy that the process has been completed, a new house purchased, the search is over, a new journey has begun, and perhaps friends have been made.

The gift of our touch is vastly underestimated. Depending on our culture and our practice and our upbringing some of us are the more touchy, feely types and feel more comfortable with hugs than others. But throughout life there will be times when you too will need hugs. Times when you are depressed or in grief. Give a hug to share a joyful moment. It costs nothing. Like a boomerang it comes back to you. Drew Barrymore said she wished she were an octopus so she could give ten people a day hugs. Practice another facet of love in the world. Give someone a hug. It will make you feel GREAT!

FREE HUGS

NOT A BEAR HUG BUT A LION HUG

Coca Cola had this catchy ad campaign many years ago that said if you drank a Coke, it was

           THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES

I am convinced from myself and watching others we need to FORCE ourselves to do this refreshment trick with technology every two or three years. My hard disk finally crashed on a laptop and I got a new one with the new Vista operating system. A friend's cell phone was going on four years old, falling apart, battery not lasting long, and he finally is going to get another one. A woman title company officer I know complained her first generation Blackberry PDA didn't have some kind of back space function and everyone in her office said she had the oldest model.

Getting new "updated" technology from time to time just feels good. You get refreshed. Quit being cheap and stodgy. Spend some bucks and REFRESH!!!

LIFE INSIDE A COKE MACHINE

In working with buyers many REALTORS point out the amenities of a house like the kitchens, closet space, backyard size and the surrounding area like the neighborhood and school district. All well and good. But buyers as they move from one phase of their life are buying more than just a house, a neighborhood, a city. They are buying a lifestyle. I call it

                           DESIGNING YOUR LIFE

All buyers do not come in the same cookie cutter mold. Sure there are similarities between first time homebuyers, parents with young children, empty nesters, retirees, etc.

But ultimately it is up to the individual or couple buying a home to determine what is important to them at this stage in life.

Just because you used to be a townhome urban dweller does not mean that is what you want to do next. If you have been a coastal resident is it time to live in the woods near the mountains? If you pursued high tech jobs in Silicon Valley is NOW maybe the time to live more in southern Illinois near family?

Think of your life as a range of color tiles. Each shade representing elements that you could pick from that have various amounts of importance to you. Maybe you do like that job. But it takes a 90 minute commute each way to get to it. Maybe a lower paying "acceptable" job close to home will free up two more hours a day to spend time at your daughter's soccer games. Weigh things when designing your life. I am amazed that people live in houses ten years and if you asked them they probably would say they hate their lives the way they are constructed. They need an overhaul of their color tiles.

It isn't about the nickel plated bathtub fixtures. It's being down the block from the bar where everyone knows your name, or the bowling alley where you are the anchor on the team.

It's ok to morph yourself into something different as you move through life. In your 30's maybe you were the California girl hanging out by the beach but maybe in your late 50's you'd rather being hanging out in a quiet inland wooded quaint town in interior Washington state sipping on a cup of coffee on a damp foggy morning day.

Think of buying a new home and moving somewhere as putting your life on a post card. What does that picture on the front of the post card say about where you want to live? 

As REALTORS we can't design that "next" life for you. We can ask some probing questions about the area we serve and best match up what a buyer is looking for in that locale. But step back and reflect sometime about designing your life.

Is this the time to move across the city, across the country, or MAYBE EVEN across the world?

I hear New Zealand is a very green place!

Make your life what you always intended it to be. Live your dreams.