"Allow Wonderment to Win"

I was recently speaking to a real estate Mastermind group. The discussion turned to what I feel is the biggest challenge we face on a daily basis: allowing courage and wonderment to win the battle with fear and self-doubt. Everyone in the crowd admitted, as we grow older and life continues to surprise and bruise us, how difficult it becomes to carry that mantra forward.

Real estate professionals face brutal market conditions right now. But they’re not alone. Our nation’s economic challenges have most Americans feeling battered and fearful. So what can we do about it?

In each and every Run to Daylight presentation the Comeback Coach encourages others to be limited only by imagination, not fear, in creating productive choices to the challenges we face. I love to quote Shakespeare, who 400 years ago said: “Our doubts are traitors that make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”

Fear of job loss, foreclosure and bankruptcy are real and present dangers given the current economic woes. What to do?

I have an idea. We can take a cue from a fifth-grade girl who recently reminded me of an effective way of dealing with change, challenge and adversity. This young lady was on our Good Shepherd Grizzlies volleyball team. She was also struggling with her serve. Determined to improve she called the coach – me – and asked if I would open the gym on a weekend afternoon so she could practice. She also, with her own allowance money, purchased a volleyball to practice serving at home.

She was determined to become superior to her former self. That determination paid off later in the season. The Grizzlies, just two points from elimination in the post-season tournament, turned to this young woman to serve. She executed perfectly, running off nine straight points in a come-from-behind victory. The Grizzlies would go on to win the consolation championship. It would have never happened without this young lady’s courage to transform adversity into her – and our – ally.

There’s a lesson in this for each of us. We all face challenges. It might be the economy, a relationship or our health. The venues change, but the strategy to deal with the challenge does not: take a cue from a fifth-grader and promise yourself this: refuse to become a victim of your circumstance, instead become of student of the experience.

It takes putting fear and self doubt aside and allowing wonderment to win!