Okay, on the 7th we should still be relatively strong on NYE resolutions  made a week ago, although I for one never said chocolate covered doughnuts were forbidden. Java in hand and laptop fired up, I’m just as susceptible to a pastry as anyone, so that leftover from Room In The Inn duty overnight Thursday/waste-not-want-not rationale works no problem.

That Charlotte is scheduled for 3″-plus of snow–on top of inch of ice that postponed our Men’s Club meeting last night– makes travel in the Queen City fairly hazardous, and opens up time for philosophy. I haven’t got an open house today, so java and a doughnut, knock out a blog, watch some football, that’s going to be legit.

Professionally speaking, I had necessary and significant talks with the BIC and Team Leader at my new office (KW- University City) on Thursday, handled all the paperwork and fees, made a quantity of phone calls and sent e-mails to let people know about the change. It won’t usually make a difference to clients where I set up my laptop, but in real estate, taking an opportunity to ‘touch’ someone is good. Even doing that overnight for homeless with RITI, talking to two long-time friends/hosts about why it makes a difference that they tell me how to reach others who have brought up the subject of down-sizing, moving, ‘thinking about’ a change, was a moment of awareness about my business worth sharing. (FYI– Statistics say once people mention it, the chances of next agent they talk to becoming *their* agent is in the mid-80s.)

That call from my genuinely dynamic boss/partner, Shaleen Young, on the 30th, asking whether I still wanted to work with her– and her documented passion and strengths in senior communities and with veterans being exactly what I want to focus on made a YES! easy– is the Good News I’ll be wrapping this entire year around. That opportunity was the first item I put on a new Facebook business page, which got 40 responses, making  clear another fact of business, about putting myself out there consistently.

Statistics show that once people mention it, the chances of next agent they talk to becoming *their* agent is in the mid-80s

January 22nd I’ll turn 60, and every time I’ve had cause to write that particular number the last couple months, there’s been a sense of foreboding about what it actually signaled. Old? Wellll… yeah, and was I actually *ready* for that designation? Mmmm… even with that knee requiring replacement propped up, will have to go with ‘not ready’. Like many people, those recession years took the heart out of what are generally the best earning years, although, as one brother pithily questioned several years ago (like when I was a mere fifty), “Are you planning on writing a best seller soon?” to make up for my earnings shortfall to that point.

Having just survived (an unfortunately too-accurate word) my first year in real estate, that call was a signal that I hadn’t made soooo many mistakes that I was irredeemably screwed. Giving appropriate thanks to the friend who put a particular Osteen book in my hands positively changed some negative attitudes, and confidence in the God-given talents I’d (almost) always believed in has been restored. I’m looking forward to putting my first sign on a front lawn, quite possibly even before that last day of my 59th year. Thursday night, when I serve up spaghetti and my terrifically moist-tasty meatballs for the crew at Fire Station #14- Cotswold— the crew that aided my Dad, and gave me another Christmas with him years ago– I’ll again be thankful for the power one phone call can have on someone’s Life.

If or when you get such a Quality Call, its not about resolutions, WORK IT!