Wow, am I proud of Virginia!
She was asked to be on the Fox Business channel this morning. What a great experience it was to walk into to a studio and seeing the buzzing life around it.
She looked calm, poised and her serene usual self. I feel she did a wonderful job and was spot on.
Here is the ETFTrends.com link.
Yes, it’s that wonderful time of the year where we can done long thin gliding planks under our feet and glide on snow, skiing season is here!
We went to Bear Mountain for the first time this year. It was a good experience. Nice to see you can go skiing less than two hours away.
The skiing quality was good. I liked the snow, packed to mildly packed. As usual, it was a little hard finding places where snow boarders wouldn’t slow us down or worse, bump into us. One of them managed to knock off Virginia. Too bad I wasn’t there…
I liked two run, the Wall and Olympic. They were short but fun. I had a great friend to ski with and we were matched as far as speed. I’m still trying to get used to these modern skis and just don’t like them. What is the fun of fighting to get your skis straight all the time? Is it all that fun always curving? I miss the days of long, fast run with sharp turns and gliding above mugles without feeling your spatulas are all over the place. There must be an in-between modern and old style skis. Hum, I’m going to send Volkl an email.
Wow, the last day of the year again… Of course, different calendars use different days, but there’s always something special about moments like these.
So a year in review would be perfect now.
Hum, Robert Weil Associates has closed doors. That is perhaps the biggest news for Long Beach as far as I am concerned. It’s the story of how fragile mom and pop shops are in our economy but how they ultimately drive our system. One the positive aspect of things, those amazing agents who have cultivated for decades a high standard of ethics and a professionalism above and beyond are now free to work with other teams and spread that knowledge.
I started my life dream, working with people while pursuing my spiritual fulfillment, I started my Business & Life Coaching. This is an amazing accomplishment. I felt I needed to be 100% perfect, having worked out all of my “stuff” before I could turn my attention and energy to others. I didn’t have to wait that long and even 75% of the way there is plenty to give back to the world.
Virginia and I have been married 10 years! In this day and age, this is pretty amazing.
As I look back at this year it was definitely filled with learning experiences. I feel I have graduated in a certain sense, onto a definite chapter of my life. Let’s call ACT III. I feel rather at peace but mostly, I feel I found a balance between looking out for number 1 while still being there for others. I don’t know if you can imagine the feeling, but it is amazing.
As I look forward to 2008, I am filled with hope for a better society again. I see great changes on the horizon and beyond the upcoming election. I see a year of great accomplishments for myself through my Coaching practice.
I notice less and less people are buying into the two party political silliness crammed down our throats. I notice people from both sides saying they will be happy with a change but are not sold the usefulness of the current opposition. What have they been doing these last 8 years? If they couldn’t do anything, are they really that competent?
Lastly, I feel real estate will take on another few more bumps until people stop reading the news and start living out their lives. You can’t let these people dictate your lives anymore. You can’t throw away your dominion over your lives to what the news says you should do and think. It just is a sad way to say you have no faith in yourself and worse, no faith in life. We are put here to experience and do things, not endure.
With these last few philosophical tidbits, I wish you all a Happy New 2008 Year, filled with Love, Light and Harmony. May all you need materialize. May you find the way to fcus on it.
I think I have finally found a working solution to continue not having a TV while still having access to quality programs, it’s called Miro.
Miro, formly called Democracy Player, is a program that goes online to search for TV shows, movies and any other content. You can search national and international TV channels, YouTube and pretty much anything out there. It presents itself like a modern age TV, with channels. You select what type of video you would like to see, Science, entertainment, etc and download it. You can view it later and save it to your hard drives.
What won me over is that I have been using it for years from way when it was a fledgling program to what I consider now a robust alternative to TV. I can watch National Geography shows without commercials (some shows have) and my favorite, NASA shows. You can even find public domain cartoons, movies and another one of my favorite, such as FastLaneDaily, and other car shows. All free!
The great thing about it is that is a discrete revolution. Take for instance FastLaneDaily, amongst many others. They are redefining TV content. Everyday, or so they review a car, any news and accept suggestions from you. There is a quick commercial in the beginning (that you can skip through, thankfully). Somehow, the Navy is big on commercials in this new media which is strange considering the type of people watching through this technology, as far as I concerned. Nonetheless, it is a quiet revolution. Barely a blip on the media radar, thank Goodness. It can mature away from public scrutiny and find more stable ways of bringing out content in a relevant way.
As far as I am concerned, this is the future of TV. I can access what I want, when I want it. I can chose what I want. I can skip any commercials that are not interesting. In the future, we will probably be able to rate commercials and buy directly, I assume but in the meantime, Miro is a great way to get quality content for free, letting me complete reign how and when I watch it.
Those Bose noise canceling headsets were all I needed to find relative quietness at home.
I love them and I have been wearing them constantly. I tried them while meditating. It was great. They cut down on a lot of static and ambient background noise. I wear them as I work on my laptop, it keeps me more focused.
I can listen to music with them and not get distracted by outside noise when there are quiet moments.
It really is a great idea. It makes everything more quiet. It’s perfect for quality time, perfect for Nick time, perfect for introspection. They are perfect with my other AKG 270 for high fidelity.
I know, just rambling.
New Year resolutions are always a fun topic whether at parties or in sessions.
How come we feel so stressed about them? What is this extra pressure we are adding on ourselves when resolutions are supposed to be fun and for our betterment?
I am someone who always looks for the most encompassing solution to anything. I look to go to the source so that I can do more instead of trudging through things, one by one. Instead of making a huge list of resolutions, I look for something that helps me either keep on the road or change course to a more suitable one. As far as resolutions are concerned, I have rarely made them… or kept them! What I do ask for and constantly strive for is better and clearer self awareness. With better self awareness, resolutions become easy. You don’t do them, you are aware of yourself and know what is “good” for you. It’s not a chore, it’s a good thing for you to do. It’s as simple as that.
So this year, if you are having trouble finding resolutions, talk to a Coach about it. If you feel you will have a hard time keeping them, talk it over with a Coach and see if there aren’t other more worthy ones. You don’t have a Coach, says you? What? Well, what are you waiting, contact me… 
Feeling guilty about taking a break defeats the purpose.
One topic I hear coming up with regularity is how we feel guilty when we take breaks, no matter how well deserved they are. How many times do we work hard, come to realize things about us, have great breakthroughs and feel guilty because we slow down for a few days?
It defeats the purpose of resting after hard work. I understand how we are always pushed beyond our comprehension of self care in this society but taking breaks are alright, AS LONG AS we are fully aware of it. Of course, I am not talking about justifying lounging on a couch for four days, over eating and watching TV. I am talking about a time for reflection. There is a difference between laziness, procrastination and taking a break. If you have worked hard at something, whether it be a project or self-realization, a break is a normal thing to do. It is important to slow down and digest the change. It is important to let it sink in and become part of you. If you continue to rush after breakthroughs, you are missing the point.
The holiday season is a great time to slow down and reflect. You have been working hard all year long, slow down and look back. Enjoy what you have done. Understand where you fell short but mostly, do it through being aware of yourself. As long as you don’t let moods, thoughts and feelings take you over without control, you can observe them as what they are, a by product of your personality, but not you.
Taking a break is a normal healthy part of life, as is recognizing what you have achieved.
Calculated Risk picked up on the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for Los Angeles. And prices have dropped by almost 9%.
To put things into perspective: After the peak in December 1989, prices in Los Angeles fell 41.4% over about 7 years, in real terms (adjusted for inflation)… In 1990, real prices had declined 9.3% during the first 12 months after the price peak. For the current bust, real prices have declined 12% for the same period.
We are far from those levels so far. However, the next few months should prove interesting as retails have been less then stellar with the holiday shopping and gas and food still take a big chunk out of individuals’ economy.
For those of you who are still confused between Coaching and Consulting work, here is a good post on The Coach Connection Blog.
For instance and as we have seen in this blog, Coaches:
Life Coaches are Equal Partners with their clients.
Life Coaches perform NO tasks on behalf of their clients.
Life coaching clients have virtually TOTAL control over the coaching process.
etc. There is a world of difference between the two and even though many people follow the dubious path to add “coach” to their title, coaching is mostly about letting the client find hers/his answers. It’s not advising or mentoring.
We were told agents would be replaced by online companies but we said not so fast…
And indeed, we were right. While I saw people laugh at traditional services pointing to the ease of use of online websites, it reminded me of the education technology revolution and the .com crash all over again. Some people never look at close history.
In the late 1980s, computers were appearing in education frightening many traditional teachers. I should know, I was there. Lucky, I am curious enough to wonder: “How could this help us?” but I never fell pray to the hype on how this would replace us. Replace a human being? Seriously! I don’t think in my life time. I started using interactive teaching methods and I came on top of my game, even giving me an opportunity to work in Japan.
When I started my IT consulting company in NY in the late 1990s, computers were growing in leaps and bounds but I maintained my attitude of how can this best help us. I never thought of how I could be better for computers. Bill Gates needs you, not the other around. I was offered stock options with my .coms clients which I thankfully declined.
Now as I look at the “new technological” revolution in real estate, it brings a smile to my face as I ask: “How can this new technology best suit my needs?” Notice the “my” needs? That’s what it is all about. How do you differentiate yourself from your competition? You find your uniqueness and work with it to bring better services not yet offered. Yes, that simple.
I am itching to work with enterprising Realtors who have the same mentality and are looking forward to the future thinking: “How can I best use this technology to adapt and succeed in this upcoming market?”
Remember what we hear in the news and what is being hailed as revolutionary tools supposed to replace agents should make you smile as you ask yourself a simple question; would I buy an $800,000 home online without looking at it or talking to a real human being? As with anything in life, the only one constant is that change never rest. How do you adapt this technology to make it work for you in real estate? Ask me that question… come on, I dare you! 
Oh, and here is the post that sparked this post. In a nutshell, those online company that laughed at traditional ones are also hurting. The moral of the story? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
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