My Most Essential Tool

In thinking about which tool I wanted to award the honor of being that one thing I really couldn't be successful without, I considered and discarded many fine pieces of equipment. They're all essential to some extent or another, in that when I need them, it's really good that they're there. But are they really irreplaceable? No, not really. It might be a pain trying to get by without my cell phone, iPad, the MLS, or many of the other things I use to do my job - but I could if I had to.

But I did think of one absolutely essential tool - and I know that I would be completely and totally lost without it.

But it's a problem for this contest. It isn't new, and it isn't really technology. But it is something I have become much better at using over the years. And it doesn't easily fit any of the contest categories:

• It is hardware, in the sense that it uses circuits and wiring - just not of a conventional technological nature - at least not yet.
• It is software - actually, in this case, I believe the term is wetware.
• And it's an app. It runs mostly in the background, and comes into play when I call it up, or sometimes totally on its own, and it's barely controllable.

It's my sense of humor.

Let's face it - real estate, and life, can be a complete bitch. It can take us down to the deep dark places where the sun never shines. It can ruin our mood and our day, change our normally pleasant disposition to something ugly, and make us feel terrible about ourselves and others.

But only if we let it. Humor is my first and strongest line of defense against bad acts, weirdness, incompetence, greed, corruption, laziness and those completely random things that come at us out of nowhere, apparently sent by evil beings for no good reason at all.

So when something bad happens, I rely on my sense of humor, and that usually works - behind the bad stuff, there's usually something funny, particularly if you have a taste for the absurd. If I can find a way to laugh at it, about it, or with it, it's going to be a whole lot less of a downer. And make no mistake - often enough, I'll wind up laughing at myself. It really helps to be able to laugh - it releases good endorphins, lowers stress, lightens the mood, and moves me to a better place.

Sure, it's got a learning curve, just like any good tool. You have to figure out what type of humor and how much of it you'll need, and you have to get the timing right. I'm still working on it, and my tech support - Mary - keeps telling me I'm not as funny as I think I am. But I don't know of anything else quite as effective.

Without my sense of humor, I'd much less effective - and having much less fun.

Mary & Dick Greenberg Elevations Real Estate LLC 106 East Oak St. Fort Collins, CO 80524 970-689-4663 www.maryanddick.com