I learn a lesson every day from my 4 month old.  If at first he can't grab that toy, he tries, tries again.  Just because daddy makes you mad one minute does not mean that you should still be mad five minutes from now.  My favorite?  You can get anywhere and everywhere with a little smile.

I was in the service profession from the beginning, one of the first people to work at the "new" Burger King in Rogers, Minnesota at 14 years old.  Yes, that Burger King that is now surrounded by so much other stuff it boggles the mind.  That Burger King where two years after they opened (no dates, I'm not dating myself here!) a deer dove through the glass windows in the children's play area.  (What a fun insurance claim that had to be!)  I worked restraunts, retail, hotel management, receptionist positions, and then finally landed in real estate.  I know that you smile and are happy and always joked that I had to "stretch my face back out of that smile" when I got home from work.

                                                                                        Image courtesy of ninjapoodles

While I'm pretty sure that my smile is hardly as captivating as a four month old's, I'm 99% sure that I can work on showing it off a little more.  Smiles do magic.

It's easy to not feel like smiling in this market, and I can completely understand that.  While my business has changed from motivating home buyers to pick that perfect house and announce to home sellers that we're in a multiple offer situation to mold disclosures, as-is where-is, and trashouts, I've seen some of the "magic" of our positions as Realtors lost.  We're bogged down with the cost of operation, the inflated costs of advertising and groceries, and the sudden "depersonalization" of what was once a friendly, all-parties-at-the-closing-table transaction.  Where are the days where two agents chatted about the weather and how each other's children were doing before closing? 

Whatever 2009 may bring, (and for me it's more and more REO's, I know that already.) I am determined to take it all on with a smile bigger and brighter than the years before.  There are many things that can bring us down right now, but there are also many things to be quite pleased about.  Those of us who are here and here to stay have each other, and we are far from a Titantic situation.  I know some people are jumping on the life boat and paddling away as fast as they can, but 2008 was a good year, and 2009 can be better! 

So what I'll remember in this next year, the number one line on my 2009 business plan; When you get up in the morning, remember - you're never fully dressed without a smile.

Photo courtesy of christinejwarner

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Addition - I was going through my flickr today, and I thought this picture fit this post very well.  Wish I would have added it originally.

This is my cat Henry, who quite honestly believes his life could not be any better than it is.  :-)