It's a fact of my life: Time is of the essence. Every real estate pro learns this adage when we embark on this career. But now, asI enter the last leg of my 7th decade on earth, I realize some things must that were important in previous decades are not nearly as important now.
I still need to make a living. But I also need to LIVE in a way that extracts the most possible joy from each day.
Real estate as a career came late in my life, after a previous business of many years succumbed to the economic crash in the mid-2000s. I’d always been interested in real estate investing someday, and so thought that becoming a licensed agent would do two things at once: introduce me to the business and provide a living when other doors seemed closed to me. And it happened that I fell into a niche that seemed a perfect fit, so it all worked out...for a while.
But there came a point in my real estate career where I felt as if the work had swallowed me whole and all the rest of my life was suffering for it. And I’d also reached an age and life stage where time was more valuable to me than money. The situation called for immediate changes.
I got my life back and my time under control by making an honest assessment of what I loved to do and what I hated doing, what uses of my time were most personally rewarding and which the most draining (meaning I wasn’t having fun doing them).
I also based my choice of what to keep in my life and what to eliminate by taking a hard look at my time of life, my age, and my resources, and how I could make the most of the time I have left.
Finally, I made peace with the fact that no one is great at everything, and everyone finds the most satisfaction in the areas of life where they know they can be comfortable and do well. So I’ve refined my business, continuing with the parts that I enjoy and excel at, and letting the rest of it go to those who love and do those things better.
I believe we were created to enjoy life rather than to just suffer it.
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