Breaking Through Your Barriers!

As professionals in the field of Real Estate, each one of us has had to break through our barriers! 

I remember when I actually enrolled in airplane pilot ground school at Boise State University and began taking flying lessons at Gem State Aviation to become a pilot back on September 9, 1975.  I had this dream for 20 years before I actually took the steps to break through my barriers.

My first solo flight without my instructor was terrifying!  My left leg was shaking so badly against the door of the plane that I thought I would break it!  When I was cleared by the FAA Flight tower to take off, I thought I would weave down the runway like a drunk driver!  Actually I rolled out straight down the runway and lifted off with a smooth transition.

I did several landings and takeoffs and my leg kept shaking!  When I secured the plane after my final landing I finally felt like I had broken through a huge barrier!

Breaking through that barrier was difficult!  In each step of my training I had to break through different barriers including how to correct stalls, coming out of spirals and all kinds of tests my instructor did for my skill requirements.

My long cross country solo flight of 250 miles across southern Idaho and back (500 miles total) on February 22, 1976 was in a snow storm!  The sky was white!  The ground was white!  Everything was white!  Back then I only had a compass.  I had no DME (distance measuring equipment) or any type of GPS System  I had to trust my balance with my instruments!  I had to break through the barrier of disorientation!    The carburetor of the plane kept freezing so I had to pull out the heater switch to thaw it out.  The RPM indicator looked like a windshield wiper going back and forth.  I had to break through the freezing barrier!

My Dad was fishing that day in the mountains and saw me fly over him while that plane was sputtering away!  He wondered who that crazy person was flying in that terrible weather.  I told him that I had flown over the rugged mountains that day and that was me!

Finally, on March 18, 1976, I passed my two hour flight check ride of wild manevers with an FAA flight tester.  At one point she turned off the engine and took the keys and asked me what my first response was!  I had trained and remembered the procedures for overcoming an engine failure!  I broke through the barrier!  I was awarded my pilot's license that day!

I am being tested and I must break though many barriers to complete my doctoral degree.  It is painful!  But you know the old saying:  "No Pain, No Gain!"  Ouch!  After the ouch comes the pleasure!  I would rather experience the pain of discipline rather than the pain of neglect!

Each one of us must break through barriers to grow.  How much we grow is up to each one of us!

As professionals in the field of Real Estate, what barriers have you had to break through?

Active Rain Success Story: A Refreshing Eagle Experience in The Rain!

My beautiful and precious wife, Irene, created a post today entitled An Outstanding Leader Reveals How to Be An Effective Leader.  She dedicated the post to Gary Woltal because he was interested in finding out how a particular leader would impact her from a previous post she wrote. 

Well, as most of us know, The Rain is a creative and connected community of some outstanding "eagles" who love to soar on the wind of inspiration from others.  Gary had just created a post today called Reach For The Eagle's Nest so my wife and I were soaking up his inspiration in The Rain when Margaret Rome called her on the phone and left a message.  My wife called her right back and they experienced a rich and rewarding conversation about her post dedicated to Gary.  Margaret and my wife discovered they were both NAWBO members through The Rain!  

That was the first time anyone in The Rain called her on the phone!  What a miraculous moment!

My wife and I both looked at Margaret's profile in AR and were astonished.  Margaret is a soaring eagle in The Rain!  Gary is a soaring eagle in The Rain!  What an Active Rain Success Story (X2)! 

This Active Rain Success Story is Dedicated to Gary Woltal and Margaret Rome! 

What a Caring and Creative Community!

I have experienced new ideas and perspectives today by exploring new treasures in ACTIVE RAIN today!  

I have seen some new blogs that are bold and beautiful!  The word pictures I discovered are very creative and compelling!

ACTIVE RAIN, you are the significance that you don't need to search for!  You are the success that you don't need to chase!  I am refreshed by your cooperation!  I don't see or feel competition! 

I feel rich and full.  I feel full of thanksgiving for all of you remarkable precious people!

You have invented and designed new horizons and created new capacities for challenges we all face!  You have revealed new paradigms of being and acting! 

YOU ARE A CARING AND CREATIVE COMMUNITY OF COMMITTED CONTRIBUTORS!

Loving Your Livelihood!

I recently went on a Ride-A-Long with two different police officers in Garden City as part of my final requirements for becoming an official Volunteer.  I think I will enjoy giving back and contributing to my community.  I discovered some interesting insights about these two men!

Both of these men were passionate about their jobs.  They both said that they loved their work and were not stressed.  They love to serve and help people and really want to make a difference.  They were kind, considerate and friendly.

How about you?  Do you love the field of real estate?  Do you enjoy helping people?  What do you love best about your work?  What kind of volunteering do you like to do?

Special Sensational Sweetheart

Today is my special sensational sweetheart's special birthday!  She was born in Peoria, AZ this day in 1954.  She moved with her parents and brother to Santa Ana, CA in the summer of 1966 when Orange County was still covered with strawberry fields!  She was the first family member to graduate from college in May of 1977. 

In January of 1977 I drove from Boise to Whittier, CA to stay with a cousin while I started graduate school in Anaheim.  I had never been to California, much less the Los Angeles area.  I dove into my classes, studies and research papers with excitement!

I returned to school in September of 1977 after working during that summer as a Camp Director for the Youth Conservation Corp in the remote back country of Idaho.  I noticed a beautiful young woman who I thought was a new professor.  She dressed with elegance and carried a professional brief case. 

My room mate introduced me to her and I was blown away by her beauty - inside and out.  I saw her in some of my classes and was awe struck by her.

In January of 1978 a friend of mine asked her if she wanted to sit at our table during a weekend celebration at our school.  To be exact it was Saturday, January 7, 1978.  She sat right next to me!  My heart almost jumped out of me!  I finally got enough courage to ask her if she wanted to come to our apartment on Monday, January 9 for a weekly get together.  SHE SAID YES!

When she came I was amazed.  The beautiful woman I had admired for several months was in my home!

We started studying together and just hanging out with each other for the next couple of months.  During the spring break in March my father invited me to go steel head fishing with him on the Oregon coast.  I flew up to Portland and had fun fishing with him for a few days. 

We drove across the state to Boise and for the next week all I could talk about was "Irene."  My sisters knew something I didn't know! 

On the flight back to Los Angeles I began to feel that she was the One picked out by the Lord for me!  When she picked me up I asked her if the Lord was speaking to her the same thing He was saying to me.  She said, "YES!"  We began talking immediately about our plans for our wedding!

We were engaged for a year and a half and married on September 1, 1979.  I had just finished my requirements for my masters degree a week before! 

Our Lord has blessed our marriage.  I keep falling in love with my sensational sweetheart more and more every day!  She is much more than I could have ever dreamed!  She is a wonderful wife to me and a model mother to our son Chris!

My wife is the most beautiful person in the world!  She is the wind beneath my wings!  She is creative, loving, gracious, merciful and passionate in life!  She honors me, respects me and loves me with her whole heart!  I would not be who I am without her.  She inspires me to the impossible!

I want to honor her as my best friend, my sweetheart and my life savor!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY SPECIAL SENSATIONAL SWEETHEART!   

Serving as a Servant

During the second half of June I was honored to be served by my good friend, Lt. Col. Don Eubank in California.  Richard, another friend from Springfield, MO were invited to stay in Don's house in Frazier Park, about 60 miles northwest of L.A.  We were there to finish up our last two week module of our Doctoral program.

Don graciously opened up his house to us to help us from paying a huge hotel bill in L.A.  Richard and I took our showers in the morning and Don had prepared either oatmeal, scrambled eggs or waffles (or a combination of some of them.)

Don was demonstrating to us what it means to be a servant!  But WAIT, there's MORE! 

His Dad, Don Sr., who is 78 years old, had dinner fully prepared every night when we arrived home between 7:00 - 8:00 each night.  Both of them are creative and excellent chefs. 

HOLD ON!  THERE'S MORE!  Don is an amazing servant.  He did not want any money from us for breakfast or dinner.  He just wanted to serve us!

THAT'S NOT ALL!  I rented a car for two days.  Don told us that his father wanted us to save money so he offered to let us use his Blazer.  Richard and I said, "No thank You.  You've already given and given to us!"

His dad really wanted to bless us so we finally gave in after much persuasion by both Don Sr. and Don Jr.

They saved us $1600.00 apiece!  This story is about THEM!  They were amazing servants to us.  Richard and I love to serve, but we recieved from THEM!

Being a Servant is a rare commodity in the United States these days!  For the most part, we Americans have created a culture of competition and emphasized that the smartest, richest and strongest person wins!

DON EUBANK (Jr. & Sr.) YOU HAVE REVEALED THAT YOU ARE GRACIOUS SERVANTS!  May we all learn from your example of SERVING AS A SERVANT!

What Does Fourth of July Freedom Mean to You?

Freedom - What a wonderful word!  Our Founding Fathers of the United States, including where I live in Garden City, a city within Boise, Idaho, had us in their hearts and minds back in 1776.  They chose to fight for freedom from the tyranny of England.  All of our courageous soldiers from that time up to now have given their lives to serve and protect us. 

Freedom to choose is a gift.  In fact, it's the greatest gift given to us.  How we use that gift is up to us.  I choose to love with my wife and son every day!  I choose to love others the way I love myself.

I  am choosing  to fill my mind and meditate on those thoughts that are the BEST, not the worst, the BEAUTIFUL, not the ugly and things to PRAISE, not things to curse.

Happiness cannot be experienced directly.  It is a byproduct of giving your time, energy and love to another person.

I feel that freedom is not doing whatever I want to do.  Freedom, to me, is serving others with love!

What does the Fourth of July Freedom mean to you?

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!  HAPPY FREEDOM DAY!

The Wrong Watch

On my recent trip to Los Angeles, I took the wrong watch.  I get nervous when I watch "Monk" with my wife and son.  They say I am just like him and I never understood why :)

Well, I had a "Monk" deja vu episode for almost two weeks with my wrong watch.  You see, it's a Casio atomic clock with a solar powered battery.  Apparently, the battery was so weak that it could not hold a charge.  BUT I did not know it!

So I put my watch near a window to soak up solar power because the watch indicator said "low charge" and wouldn't even display the digital time.  Just a gray blank screen.  Someone thought it was lost so they picked it up and left it on the receptionist desk.  I found it and explained my predicament.  The young man gave it back to me.

That night I hung it below the light in my bedroom.  I thought I could charge it enough so it would reset the exact time at 5:03 AM using the radio signal from Colorado.  It did not work!

Every day I was playing with that watch!  I put it on top of our SUV in the parking lot at the grocery store, hoping I could receive a satellite signal and lots of solar power. NOOO!!!!  That didn't work, either!  Why not?  My friends told me I was wasting too much time and energy and to just pick up a $25.00 Timex.

This frustrating experience happened every day for eleven days.

I gave a valiant effort to get a reset signal my last night.  IT WORKED!  The watch had enough power to display the time!  And it was reset at 5:03 AM on June 27th!

IT HAS KEPT THE CHARGE AND RESET ACCURATELY SINCE THEN!  Why didn't it function properly until my very last day there? 

I didn't know why "Monk" made me nervous and I can't watch the show.  I think I just got a CLUE! 

I also discovered when I returned home, that I had left my good watch at home and took the old duplicate watch instead on my trip, too!  BTW, My wife and son couln't stop laughing when I told them my tale....

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED A "WRONG WATCH" STORY?

DON'T MEASURE UP, TREASURE UP!

I have been out of touch with AR for a couple of weeks due to my doctoral seminars.  During the last two weeks I have experienced a deeper dimension and a richer reality that each one of us is a person who is deeply loved, completely accepted and highly valued as a MARVELOUS MIRACLE!

We need to learn to live from our being and the WHO and not from the whats.  Acceptance is not based on performance.  The whats should flow out of the who.  If we put the whats before the who and perform for acceptance we will experience insanity.

Living from our being means ACCEPTANCE = ACCEPTANCE!  JUST BEING is real LIVING!

One of my mentors, Dr. Wess Pinkham, took our team out on his beautiful yacht on Sunday afternoon, June 21, from Marina del Rey, near the LA International Airport.  The sky was blue.  The temperature and breeze were ideal.  We went up the coast to the Santa Monica pier.  He steered around a buoy with sea lions piled on top of each other several times.  They were laying in the sun relaxing and soaking up the warm rays of sunshine!

On the way back I was standing near the bow point of his beautiful boat and he told me that he loves the sound of the water splashing against the side of his boat.  He was living "in the moment" and I felt what he felt with him and the boat and the water.  I was BEING!

My friend Wess loves me!  I love him!  We enjoy the simple pleasures of life!

I love my wife and my son!  We love to BE with each other! 

I love all of you members of Active Rain!  You are amazing and astonishing!

DON'T MEASURE UP, TREASURE UP!

A Daring and Dramatic Dream!

Do you have a daring and dramatic dream?

A Daring and Dramatic Dream has just come true for me!  I finished my final two seminars in my doctoral studies this second half of June in Los Angeles.  That's a long way from Boise!  I flew out of here on June 16 and returned home yesterday.  That's also a long time to be away from my wife and son!

This has been a long marathon!  I have been in seminars during second the half of October, February and June for two years!  The past two weeks have been filled with laser focused and life giving (and exhausting) activity from 4:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day!  No TV, newspaper or Active Rain!  Just breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping and living doctoral work!

My dream began to be fulfilled in October of 2006.  I entered my doctoral studies in innovative leadership and creative conflict management.  Since then I have completed twelve four day intense, interactive, challenging and life transforming community building experiences.

Requirements have been overwhelming.  Pre semainar requirements have taken hundreds of hours of reading, reflecting and writing.  Each seminar consists of ten hours of dynamic interaction in a life giving community of eight amazing people in four consecutive days!  Post seminar requirements are also extremely challenging!

I have read thousands of pages of creative books, stories and research studies of what it means to live and grow in authentic community.  My many written reflection papers have been extremely challenging and transforming!

Out of sixteen students who started only eight of us finished the seminars.  I was given an opportunity of a life time to live with two other men who are strong, compassionate and creative change agents.  Don is a Lieutenant Colonel and Chaplain in the U.S. Army and Richard is a Creative Conflict Manager.  They have affirmed, encouraged and shaped me to be a more loving husband, father and friend. 

I am amazed that I completed these seminars.  Several times I wanted to quit because the challenge was far more than I could ever accomplish on my own.  With the encouragement of my beautiful wife and team members in my team, I have accomplished far more than I could have ever imagined!

Now I have the challenge of starting and completing my research project during the next few months!  Only twenty percent of those who enter this demanding doctorate experience finish their dissertations!

To fulfill a daring and dramatic dream each of us must have affirming, courageous and encouraging people to help us make it to the finish line! 

Active Rain is a community to help you break through and break out to fulfill your dreams!