Change The Way You Look At Things

Change The Way You Look At Things

The universe has a funny way of delivering you a dose of exactly what you need, exactly when you need it.

Last week I went on my family's annual beach vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina.  As most of y'all may already know, I'm the newbie to the team, and spent the last year in real estate captaining my own ship (except let's be honest, it was more a single person kayak than a ship). Right before I left, my new (and awesome) team members reminded me to enjoy the vacation and do everything in my power to "check out" from any and all work related things.

Well, go figure, I had not even boarded my flight before buyers were requesting showings, inspections and appraisals were coming in, and offers wanted to me made. I immediately went back into work mode, making calls til my phone was smoking. After I-don't-know-how-many phone calls, I was having a conversation with our fearless leader, Denise Wisdom, who stopped me dead in my tracks and simply said, "You are on vacation. Go be on vacation. We got this." 

If you're a control freak like me, you know howhard that is!  To pass the torch when my entire real estate career [as a solo agent] I've been 100% "the chick in charge". I made a valiant effort.  You could say I "tried", and we all know that's a load of crap.  I was neck deep in my inbox every chance I got, checking in with the team on the status of things at least a few times a day.

It should be no coincidence then when halfway through the week a construction crew a few miles north of our beach house cut through a cable while digging, a.k.a. the main power line to the entire island. A cable so massive and so important, they suspected it would be days, if not weeks, before power was restored.

Total darkness.

I'm sure you can imagine the chaos that ensued:

WHAT?!  How am I going to check my email without wi-fi? Am I supposed to take a shower in the dark?  It's soooooo hot in this house!! What if a client needs to reach me and they can't because my phone dies?  Not to mention my favorite show comes on tonight!  I need to do laundry, I need to check Facebook, I need to charge my phone... and so on.  And so on.

You could feel the negativity across the island.  Everyone was complaining.  People were packing up and going home.

There's a class Keller Williams offers called BOLD, and one of it's infamous BOLD "laws" is none more so eloquently said than: 

Complaining = Garbage Magnet

The class works with us on maintaining a positive mindset.  How playing the victim is the most negative form of personal energy you can have, and finding an attitude of gratitude in every opportunity creates a high energy for you and those around you.

So, back to my current situation.  I am obviously no electrician, and I don't have a couple tons of cable lying around.  How do I make the most of my circumstances? What can this experience teach me?

Cue Denise's voice in the back of my head: You are on vacation.  Go be on vacation.

And that's exactly what my family and I did:  Opened up all the windows, and let the breeze in.  Laid out on the beach, chased seagulls, collected seashells.  Played corn-hole with my family as well as a few intense card games around the table (they cheated, by the way).  Took a bike ride with my sister, read a book. Joined in on the efforts to drink all the cold beer before it got warm ;)

No A/C, no TV, no wi-fi.  And you know what?  It. Was. Awesome.

Susan Scott says in her bookFierce Conversations(which, if you haven't read yet, you should) when you really want to engage with others, to "be here, be prepared to be nowhere else".  This was just one of many "aha's" over the course of our few days in the dark.  To soak in the outdoors and truly enjoy my surroundings.  Connect with my family, instead of connecting to my phone. Be present.  Why do we spend so much time looking for the perfect photo angle to post on Instagram instead of taking in the moment and making it an experience? Y'ALL, God has created some crazy and beautiful sh...stuff out there.  Just saying.

So the next time you take a trip somewhere, even if it's a "stay-cation" or an extended weekend from work, I challenge you to take time to truly unplug:

Turn off your phone and log off Facebook.  Run deep into some frigid ocean water and chase the waves until your lips turn blue. Crush some sand castles with a nephew.  Catch a frisbee with your face.  Get sand up your nose. Come out from behind the technology crutch we so often lean on and make the moment real. Be present.  It just might surprise you.

Author: Alyssa Rodger
Phone: 502-509-9558
Dated: August 9th 2017
Views: 1,746
About Alyssa: ...