Gary Woltal - Assoc. Broker REALTOR® SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

During this my "500th blog" post I got to thinking what this real estate blog posting was really all about.

Yes, it is about writing. For all of us it is about reading. But then again it was some more about writing and "commenting" on what was just read. I thought, FASCINATING.

Kind of like an ongoing chat from many voices talking to you and your one voice talking to them. How cool is that?

More importantly it was about people. Now I love people. So I think I am in heaven with this form of communication. It is most importantly about sharing. It is about community.

Across the Internet we go. We share about technology, new dogs in our family, short sales, the latest joke, experiences in our daily real estate or personal lives, deaths of colleagues, laughter, love, lost loves, political opinions, all sorts of local events, restaurant reviews, mortgage information, a look at inspecting a house, Feng Shui, rants, hijacked posts, high school graduations, empty nesting, photos of Porta Pottys, land for sale by oceans. discussions of movies like Forrest Gump, discussion of religion, the latest state cell phone laws, how to have the kids sell lemonade out at a table in front of your Open House, Staging ideas, and the list goes on and on with blogging here.

Sharing is all about learning and growing and fun and love and meeting many nice people.

I am here because of that, because we are

                         SO HAPPY TOGETHER

Buyers in real estate look at dreams as finding that perfect new place to live. Sellers have dreams of pocketing as much on the sale of a house and moving on to the next phase of their life.

But for all of us we need to not allow our dreams to be "deferred." Life and time moves swiftly along. We know at some point if we are lucky to get to old age what is waiting for us with diminished physical energy and mental faculty may be an old age home. Think of it as a lovely scene however you are greeted somehow to resting on a park bench. I think your dream of visiting the Taj Mahal may have passed you by.

So don't wait with your dreams. We really just need a little boost to not let life pass us by. Be proactive in working with your dreams. Re-juvenate them. Why? Because everyone deserves dreams in their life.

Here are some tips to get you back on track with dreams:

Journaling - write down your ideas in your life relative to categories of interest: places to visit, things to do, people to meet, activities to try, the kind of work you like, the kind of play.

Determine your core values, what is most important to you, pick three or four: Family, Faith, Autonomy, Leisure Time, Flexibility, Vacations, People, Charity, Home, Control, Money, Social, Honesty, Competition, Delegation, Serving, Problem Solving, Quality of Work, Security, Power.

Align your dreams with your values.

Simplify the environment around you - when thinking about dreams - get away, no TV, go to a quiet spot in nature or a restful place in your home.

Dream thinking is serious stuff. It requires your concentration.

Be brutally honest with yourself. Perhaps your old dreams (if you had any) are not where you are today. Be fresh. Be original. Be creative. Perhaps brainstorm on a sheet of paper without judgment. Then narrow it down to the dreams that are the most meaningful to you.

Dream thinking is hard work. But it should be what your life is made up of. Pause soon and do this work. Because time moves on and remember from that first picture up there. That park bench awaits you some day.

If you do the work up front now in building your sandcastles when you reach the park bench you will have nothing but smiles on your face.

Always think great thoughts about you and your life and it will allow you to climb to very lofty heights. The real riches in life are those found inside. Dream first. Then watch things happen.

With stress in the real estate world an ever present force I thought I would send out a reminder that there are definite effective ways to cope daily with this stress.

I think the clue is given to us in nature and also in our bodies. Look at the surface of the earth, our little blue planet. It is covered almost 75% with water. Our own bodies are comprised of something like 60% of water. The air? Lots and lots of water vapor up there along with the nitrogen and oxygen as gases.

What does this have to do with stress? Water is cleansing. Cleansing reduces stress. Let's look at

THE FOUR WATERS TO CLEANSE YOUR SOUL.

Physical Water - Nothing like cold, fresh, clean water.

It quenches thirst, aids digestion, assists with removing impurities from the body, and raises metabolism.

Drink plenty of water each chance you get.

Exercise Water - this would be in the form of sweat. Nothing better to cleanse the body and lower stress levels and make you feel good inside like vigorous exercise.

Emotional Water - Crying is good for you. That's right. Don't hold back. Sadness. Grief. A broken relationship. Tears of joy. Tears of being sentimental.

There is nothing more cathartic and cleansing than a good cry. Let it happen.

Old Yeller Dies. George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life's friends come to his rescue at the end. Your dog of 13 years dies. He was a family member for sure. E.T. appears to be dead in the movie.

A friend or family member dies. A child is born. The love of your life gives you the best Christmas present ever.

Let crying just be. Embrace it. This is probably one of the most cleansing things you will ever do in your life.

Relaxation Water - this is a very good one for homeowners. Your home is your castle.

Think warm baths. Think hot tubs. Think cool swimming pools.

Do you know how relaxing staying under water is for a brief time? You are just floating there, suspended from the world. Swimming under water is relaxing too.

Take every advantage to relax with the water with the sound of waterfalls to jets, from candles to fountains and warm water spas.

Visit streams, lakes, oceans. Listen to the sound of the waves or the lapping of water up against a dock.

These are ways to cleanse your soul with water. Reconnect with what the world is mainly covered with and what you are composed of. And let that stress you feel be washed away.

One out of a my thousand commenters recently chastised me that I wasn't writing enough hard core real estate material lately. I asked if he read the first hundred posts as I close in on the number 500? I think I must have hit critical mass since I know you can't please everyone all the time. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.

This is another one of those fun type posts. As a REALTOR, Stager, loan officer, Title Company worker, appraiser, inspector, or Feng Shui Consultant, what did you want to be when you grew up? Ideally you get one answer and think between kindergarten and eighth grade, your formative years.

I want to see if there is any correlation between helping professions, being a socializer, or someone who is good with feelings or analytical and good with numbers and today.

I'll start, now that I am a REALTOR in this phase of my life.

I wanted to be a veterinarian.

So drift back in time and

                      REMEMBER WHEN   and let me know.

I have always been a big fan of Abraham Lincoln and studied his biography and collected many of his quotations.

Abraham Lincoln Is Who You Need To Buy Your House.

A great reader. With Abe as your buyer nothing funny would slip by in your contract.

We are not enemies, but friends. At the closing table there would be no hiccups.

No slavery. There would be no such thing as accepting a subprime loan for your house.

Common looking people are the best. Your home would be bought by the masses of types of buyers.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. Harmonious with all parties.

Four score and seven. If you wanted to rent it out, only 87 yr old little ladies who paid on time.

Leave nothing for tomorrow. No fence sitters but decision makers only.

And finally a dreamer and a believer with

Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise.

A BIG BELIEVER he was, as we all should be, in the American Dream of home ownership.