Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 19, 2004

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 19, 2004　

Guardedly Exhilarated

Short Stories From 10 Years Ago – October 19, 2004 – I went to a real estate seminar today, for which I will get twelve credits, to be applied to my on-going education program for my licence renewal in 2006. It just so happened, and this was a great bonus, that the course was right up my alley in terms of content.

The material was on being Internet and WebSite savvy, and in light of my on-going quest to better my marketing, I was delighted to be there. Gabrielle, the course instructor, has been involved in the real estate industry for many years, and now spends her time training and coaching real estate agents. She happened to mentioned that one of the questions she asks her potential coaching students is “Are you an optimist or a pessimist?” I thought a lot about that today and realized that I’m an “optimistic pessimist”.

I know that sounds marginally confusing at best and schizophrenic at worst – but it’s true. For example whenever I see a police car behind me I immediately think I’m about to be pulled over. It may simply be a case of mistaken identity but I’m probably going to be handcuffed to my steering wheel while the officer checks his car computer for my vital statistics. If Larry, my Broker pages me, I think I’ve screwed up somewhere along the line and now I’m about to be thrown in the slammer. Is this rational? No!

However, in spite of this tendency to over-dramatization, I keep moving forward, working hard, endeavouring to be a student of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Oops – that’s American election fever at the fore front of my thinking. The point is, I keep trying to learn, in spite of my propensity to think about doom and gloom. When I’m not busy I start to worry about money, loss, ruin, bus shelters and gloom. So that is the pessimist at work – but before I know it, the jolly little optimist has jumped into the fray and she’s created new marketing materials and called clients to say a cheerful “hello”. Enough said – that’s who I am.

I’m way ahead of most of my colleagues with my existing WebSite and I want to streamline all my systems and have my entire business automated, efficient and top-of-the-line. I want my WebSite to be impressive not just good and I want it to convert prospects to clients while I continue to offer useful, topical and up-to-the-minute information to my clients. Should that be so difficult? I guess not but after today’s course I just wanted to crawl home and pull a blanket over my head and hide (maybe with a mug of Talisker and a good book) – but hide nonetheless. 

 Then in my spare time I should be hiring a professional coach, over-seeing my business plan, coming up with breathtakingly brilliant concepts for staying ahead of the competition and keeping the wolf away from the door. There is so much information to process that it seems unmanageable. It’s all too much! So once again I’m both over-whelmed and excited. This is a difficult combination. I’m feeling a bit like a jack-in-the-box or maybe a whack-a-mole would be a better analogy and I’m definitely the mole.

I don’t know where to start! The nut is the size of the Sky Dome and I’m chipping away at it with my tool of choice – a ball peen hammer. I either need a bigger hammer or a re-orientation of my thinking. Problem solving 101 says break the problem down into workable pieces and then tackle them one at a time. So – first things first – look after my existing clients and whatever new business is on the horizon. Then plan tasks and rate them on a scale of one to ten – ten being the most important.

Start to work on the most important item first. Okay – that’s finish my newsletter for the month. That’s doable. Then review my Web Site development options and work ahead on that plan. This does not need to be done in a rushed fashion. My current site can stay exactly where it is for another three months. I have time to do this right. I have money in the bank. I have a line of credit. I’m not going to starve. The Alphabet Boys are not going to be out on the street – albeit in a Mini.

I need to review what I’ve accomplished so far in my meetings with Larry and the plans I’ve been working on and then re-group. I’m a tad scattered – that’s all. I haven’t lost my focus or the big-picture. This project will take awhile. There is a learning curve and I’m at the bottom. That’s all. Deep breath – big stretch. A good sleep and I’ll be back! Yeah.