Monday Morning Match is a quick post – maybe a quote, inspirational story or idea – intended to spark some motivation inside each of you so your week gets off to a fantastic start on Monday morning.
Walk towards the good life and one day you will arrive – Atticus
After a long, laser-focused week, I was exhausted.
I had been on the go since Monday at 5:30 AM when the alarm clock went off to begin my week. Some quick work in the office filled my morning before two short flights carried me to Iowa for a week of educating, engaging, and hopefully elevating all the people I encountered to finish the year strong and have a great 2019. I was blessed to have a long time friend, Stefanie Sersland, as my host for the week. Sersland is the General Manager of the Coldwell Banker Real Estate Professionals brokerage in Iowa City and she and their hard-working associates have been supporters of my speaking efforts for over ten years now.
Besides several days in Iowa City, I also spent a full day with Ben Wheeler and his team from Coldwell Banker Hedges Realty in Cedar Rapids sharing ideas and instruction on leveraging social media and technology as well as having a fun afternoon using lots of sports analogies to show the attendees how to “Get in the Game” and score big in real estate and have a ball doing it.
The weather was perfect for mid-October, the accommodations were outstanding, the food and craft brews from Iowa were excellent, the travel was even on time and smooth. As I walked in the door at 12:30 AM on Saturday morning, I was ready for a relaxing weekend. And that’s what I did.
After dinner on Sunday night, I turned off the NFL football game that was blaring on the television, powered down my phone, and grabbed my knit stocking cap. The sun was setting and the thermometer was dropping into the low 40’s. I was going for a quiet walk around my neighborhood simply to hit “reset.”
The brisk October chill hit my face and skin like a cool shower hits a hangover. I could hear the furnaces pumping warm air into to the houses around me while the din of evening traffic droned along the busy road along the riverside a quarter-mile away. A few squirrels scurried in the yards, scavenging for acorns and other treats to bring back to their nests high in the soon-to-be-leafless trees. Far up the hill, a resident and his leaf blower were racing against sundown while a dog on the next block was barking for the attention of its owner inside on the couch.
I walked slowly and didn’t think about work. I wasn’t practicing a presentation or editing a slide deck in my mind. The database of names and contact information will wait until tomorrow when the next week begins. I was just out for a walk. Nothing more than quiet steps at an easy pace. Other than a few birds chirping, a distant skein of honking geese and one neighbor idling softly down the street perpendicular to mine, it was just what the doctor ordered.
Today I will turn the page in my planner. There’s a new week ahead and it’s time to do it all over again. The battery is now sufficiently charged. The mind is clear and my heart is full. It’s time to build relationships, solve problems, and have fun.
All it took was a quiet walk.