I hope you and your family are doing well during this trying time in our world. It would have been very easy to write something overtly about the virus that shall not be named, but my hope is that this piece will serve as a short reprieve from the non-stop content coverage on the pandemic. So let’s get to it… My wife and I had a nighttime lying-in-bed discussion recently about which of the daily activities we were doing as a family brought fulfillment to our lives and which ones did not. This was an interesting exercise in itself and it drove a few changes in our family routines. I…

This post could just as easily been called “The Grind Rewarded Me” because honestly commitment, hard work, and patience are the three pieces of my story that most people can not readily see. I started my real estate career in mid-2005. I got my first client so easily: it was me and my wife Stacy. We bought our first home, this tiny townhouse in a DC suburb, in which we’d start our family. That same year I sold one other house; in 2006 I only did one transaction; in 2007 I did not sell a single property; and in 2008, I sold two. Most people might have quit after that…

This week is my 40th birthday!  I have not had the hang-ups that some people experience when turning 40. Although, I will admit I’ve been a little more introspective this week.  I think part of the reason I do not feel strange about turning 40 is because of my practice of gratitude. I paired that with some perspective and it has made me even more excited for my future. An exercise I engage in sometimes is to think about myself a decade (or two) in the past. Would that version of myself be surprised, excited, or concerned about what they were seeing in their future? In a strange way, I…

It’s Thursday again! What lens or point of view are you viewing your life through? Whether you realize it or not, this morning you chose to put on a set of glasses. Those glasses are tinting your view of the world – good, bad, or indifferent – and for some of us, we need to choose a different pair to put on. I would like to share a story with you. It is called the “Shark Bait” parable.  During a research experiment, a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank. As you would expect, the shark quickly…

I received a ton of email and Facebook messages in response to last week’s piece entitled Getting Healthy Ain’t Pretty. I appreciate all the kind words and I was humbled by the overwhelmingly positive feedback I received about my last few pieces. Please know that my face is looking a lot better!  If you hadn’t yet figured it out, I am on a bit of a Brené Brown kick these days. Earlier this year in a piece entitled The Importance of Vulnerability, I shared about Dr. Brown’s work and her book, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. One of…