Last night, as usual in Wisconsin, it was crappy outside!  Sooo...I was so happy to have rented the movie Wall-E.  It is from the same group at Disney that came up with Finding Nemo, Cars, and The Incredibles....so I thought, hey, I am single guy..at home, Friday night...what the heck...Ill watch a kids movie! I am glad I did!  

I am not on Active Rain to give movie reviews!  However, I am a movie buff, and thought, based on the season, holiday, and spirit of the year, I would do a short blog on what this movie, and others have meant to me!  Moreover, HOW THEY APPLY TO THE HOUSING MARKET, both in sales, financing, and in life!

My mentor, Bill Sparkman said it best when he said, you gotta "Want it, Create it, and Live it!"  "ALL GOALS AND JOURNEY'S, START WITH DESIRE!"

Walt Disney once said, " All of our dreams can come true- if we have the courage to pursue them!"

THAT IS WHAT THIS MOVIE and MANY of the Disney movies are all about!  Courage in the face of overwhelming challenges! Courage to be different!  Courage to move forward when everyone is holding you back!  Courage to change!  Courage to be selfless in the face of selfishness.  Courage to stand up and be heard!  Courage to be bigger than you are.  Courage to love in the face of lovelessness.  Courage to LIVE not just Survive!

I have been to the Todd Duncan seminars, and loved them!  He even lectured me for one of my questions, and I still liked it! :)  I even bought his course!  Loved it!  However, I strayed away from the Life Lessons, becuz I felt they got a little too preachy!  I was wrong!  Did you hear that...I was wrong!!   I should have paid more attention!  Last night, laying in bed, watching a simple DISNEY movie, I got it!  I thought I already got it, but now I really get it!

This movie has it all!  It has a love story, it has a David & Goliath analogy, it has a "big brother" theme, it tells of what can happen if we don't watch out for the enviroment, global warming, mass destruction, rise of the machines, even the lyrics of the song choices struck a "chord" with me!  (sorry, about the pun)... but most of all......it gets a message across, LOUD & CLEAR!~    Appreciate the little things!  Dont under-estimate the smallest of efforts, gestures, or paying it forward!   WE ALL need to be trail blazers, not trail breakers!  We simply cannot be afraid to take chances!   TEAMWORK, and all of the other successories pictures now are coming at me full throttle in my head! 

Peter Gabriel (remember him from Genesis, and of "Shock the monkey" fame?)  Has an AWESOME SONG at the end of the movie.  Here are just some of the lyrics:

Did you think that your feet had been bound
By what gravity brings to the ground?
Did you feel you were tricked
By the future you picked?
Well, come on down

All those rules don't apply
When you're high in the sky
So, come on down
Come on down

We're coming down to the ground
There's no better place to go
We've got snow up on the mountains
We've got rivers down below

We're coming down to the ground
We hear the birds sing in the trees
And the land will be looked after
We send the seeds out in the breeze

Did you think you'd escaped from routine
By changing the script and the scene?
Despite all you made of it
You're always afraid
Of the change

You've got a lot on your chest
Well, you can come as my guest
So come on down
Come on down

Like the fish in the ocean
We felt at home in the sea
We learned to live off the good land
Learned to climb up a tree
Then we got up on two legs
But we wanted to fly
When we messed up our homeland
We set sail for the sky

We're coming down
Coming down to Earth
Like babies at birth
Coming down to Earth
We're gonna find new priorities
These are extraordinary qualities

Folks, our future is in front of us and STARING AT US FURIOUSLY!  We can make it a good one, we really can, OR, we can sit here complaining, watching it all go by, and in some cases, up in smoke!

Spend time with your family!  Take time away from work to appreciate the little things!  Help your neighbor, recycle, play board games with your family, listen to music more often, stand up for someone or something in a city council meeting, have the courage to walk away from an arguement, have the courage to embrace the future and what it holds!  These ALL apply to what we are doing today on AR!  It really does!  I think AR is group therapy!! LOL  You are always always always marketing YOU!!  Whether you are at church, out to eat, filling up with gas, you are always representing you, your family, your business, your belief system, and most importantly your future!

If you are reading this, YOU have extraordinary qualities!  You have already made it past one of the toughest times ever in our industry!  Look ahead!  Always be moving forward!  We have the power to change!  With a positive mental attitude, and a general sense of good will for your fellow man, we can do anything!  It is a great time to be in our industry, but only if you make it a great time!   

I don't know about you, but I don't want to survive, I want to live!

Darin- One Source Mortgage, LLC

"The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the

present, but a place created - created first in the mind and will, created

next in action. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are

creating. The paths to it are not found, but made, and the activity of making

them changes both the maker and the destination." 

-  John Schaar

Some other positive message movies I would suggest:  Patch Adams, Jack, Finding Forrester, or watch the ESPN special on John Challis!  COURAGE + BELIEVE = LIFE by clicking on the YOUTUBE Logo!