Find your incredible moment today...

From the blog Jack’s Winning Words comes this quote -  “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”  (Carl Sagan).  Jack went on to talk about all of the incredible things that are happening or about to happen, such as commercial spaceflight, robotic surgery, and Amazon using robo-helicopters to deliver packages.

As I thought about it, I thought what about modifying the saying a little to read, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to happen for you.” If you go through life hoping for and expecting the best to happen, eventually they will. If you believe in people, in their basic honesty and integrity; you will not be disappointed most of the time. If you imagine and visualize the best outcome for whatever you are doing, it is surprising how many times you can make that come true. And, if you strive to find the silver lining in dark situations or the rainbow at the end of one of life’s storms, it is always there, waiting for you to find it.

 I keep a little compilation of quotes handy, in case I need inspiration for a blog post. A group of them are quotes by Robert Brault, a famous writer on optimism. One of my favorites is this one-

Optimist: someone who notices a tall hooded figure with a scythe trailing him and thinks, "Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not a stalk of wheat."

So, don’t be a stalk of wheat today. Be someone who takes every opportunity to find that incredible something somewhere that is waiting to happen in your life. You could just wait to stumble into it or you can look at everything in your life as possibly being that incredible moment and approach it with anticipation and enthusiasm. 

One of the side benefits of being in that mood and mode is that it is contagious and those around you will see it and catch it and everyone will be a bit happier and better off because of your attitude. Maybe that is he incredible thing that you are going to do today. 

But don't stop dreaming...

“The thing you have to be prepared for is that other people don’t always dream your dream.” (Linda Ronstadt)

Ain't that the truth. As I (we all) struggle through the current recession I find myself having to restart, re-energize and re-visualize (dream) what success will look and feel like, whether it is in real estate or in my other job selling office copiers/printers. People whom I call upon don't always share my dream (vision) of them happily buying a house or a copier/printer.

Right now I'm working through a campaign to sell new multifunction machines to real estate offices, which is something that I know more than a little bit about. I know where the savings are in those offices, but getting people to share my vision about how to achieve those savings hasn't been easy. Business people, especially small business people seem to be frozen into inactivity by the fear that things are still going to get worse rather than better.

The same thing is happening in real estate. People who want to move or maybe even need to move are holding off putting their homes on the market because they think that if they wait for a while home values will stabilize or maybe come back. While that eventually will be true, the timing on that happening is very much up in the air. In last weekend's paper there was yet another "We've hit bottom" article that quoted a hopeful local real estate broker as stating that he feels that the bottom has been reached in the Detroit-area market and that values will start back up soon. Having written such an article several times in the past, I'm now skeptical about whether or not we've hit bottom in Michigan. But, hey, one can dream. Right?

So, to paraphrase the words of another song - "Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow...it'll be better than before." Don't stop dreaming. Just be prepared to deal with the fact that not everyone else will be sharing your dream and that's OK, too.