I work in an office full of young, inexperienced real estate sales people. We have 18 of them and, to be honest, none have any more than 3 years experience and most are under 18 months. It's frustrating. I have been a Registered Land Agent for 14 years and have owned my own business for 5 of those. These days (due to being completely over working weekends) my role is Business Development Manager for the group of three franchises. We employ just over 70 people and I work with most of them day to day in addition to on-boarding new residential and commercial clients. It's a broad role affording me time-flexibility and scope to impart my experience as a real estate professional, business owner and manager.
Today I ran a small session for about a dozen staff on motivation and why each of them does what they do; Identifying their "WHY" I mean. In the course of the meeting we got onto gratitude and I was interested to hear what each of them was grateful for: Income, their BMW, not having to get their hands dirty at their job, air conditioning, Tinder...Hmm. It didn't fill me with much hope.
Anyway, the session ended but it left me thinking about what I am grateful for in life. I am not grateful for my vehicles, my home, my salary, my crypto-currency wallet, guns or anything of the sort. Not grateful at all. Respectful and thankful that I have the ability, work ethic and drive to earn those things for sure, but not grateful for them. I am however grateful for the most constant, amazing and inspiring thing in my life; My wife.
That's her to the right. Yeah, I'm punching well above my weight, I know...You can say it. Seriously though, when I was listening to those young people today listing their possessions as what they're grateful for all I could think about was how soon can I get home and spend time with my girl. She has been the most supportive, unselfish and dedicated person I have ever met. We got together very young and have been together now for just over 30 years and over 24 of those years as a married couple. (It took me 6 years to wise up).
Every day I attempt to show her how much she means to me and how totally lost I'd be if she wasn't with me. I don't mean because she irons my shirts or makes dinner, or because she earns more than I do and works more hours but because with her I only ever have to be myself. No acting, no puffery or posing, just the real me; The me most people will never see. I feel more alive when I am with her than at any other time. Whether we're exploring some corner of the world, in the car taking a drive in the hills, four-wheeling in the bush, shooting my long-range guns, making Mexican food or engaged in a weekend of Netflix and chill...I only ever have to be me and for her me being me is enough.
I wonder if those young people from today will ever have what I have; Is it even possible in this eHarmonised, Tinderised superficial and materialistic, 50% divorce-rate world in which we live? To be honest...Well, I don't really care I guess. Selfish? Yep maybe. I have what I want and will defend that to the death, mine or someone else's. There's no doubt about it.
People make choices every day, whether they know it or not. Cause and effect. Owning one's life, the success, mistakes, failure, good and bad times is the key to gaining the most from it. Every day I spend with my wife is a good day and each day is better than the last. Choose to be grateful and choose the right things to be grateful for.
Design and create your ideal life, don’t live it by default
@galenkp
It sounds like you met your wife when you were both very young. Another similarity...my wife and I dated through High School. Childhood sweethearts, really. Like you and your beautiful wife we have beaten every statistic life through at us. In a world rife with divorce and bad marriages, we're still crazy about each other. I'm convinced that happy marriages are made by happy people and miserable marriages are made by miserable people, or at least one of the spouses is miserable. It is always a pleasure to see a man and woman sharing a life together in a loving marriage. Offsets all the bad news we're bombarded with and gives us hope. BTW if your numbers are accurate your wife looks much younger than her age. Is it an Aussie secret?
Yep, we were young @dissfordents. I was 17.5 and she was a couple of weeks from turning 16. We were introduced by a mutual friend in 1987. In 1993 we got married, on the day of her 22nd birthday. I was 23.5 years old.
My wife uses an ointment made from the milk of a koala combined with essence of platypus, with crushed kangaroo eyeballs...Ok, so nah, nothing like that! To be honest she should look ancient considering she's had to deal with me for 30 years but she looks after herself and hasn't changed much really. She is vegetarian (don't hold that against her, she's not one of those annoying ones) has never smoked and doesn't drink alcohol, same with me really although I'll have a drink every so often, and I was only vegetarian for about two hours, the fad wore off pretty quickly between lunch and dinner that day. I don't know what the secret is to be honest.
Sounds like you and your wife have got a good thing going too huh? I often wonder what the secret to it is and have never really come up with an answer. Patience. understanding, passion, tolerance, honesty, humour, ebb and flow, give and take...All of those I'm sure, but it goes beyond that doesn't it.
Thanks for the nice comments bro. My wife would throw a fit if she knew I posted pictures of here. Have done it a couple of times...Never ended well once she found out. I'm not going to tell her this time...It's not dishonesty, it's...Well, yeah, it's actually dishonesty. Shh...
This just cracks me up. The first time I asked my wife out her mother said no, not until she turned 16. When we married she was 21, I was 20.
Pictures? I was thinking of doing a few posts, a three part thing like the domes, on the city of Lucca in Tuscany. My wife’s maternal and paternal grandparents were all born there so we spent a couple days in the walled city. Problem is, she’s in half the pictures. I had no idea I would be doing Steemit when I took them and used her for a subject. She tells me she doesn’t want her picture all over the Internet. We’ll see.
I find people’s stories fascinating however Inunderstand your wife’s reluctance to have her picture on the internet. I don’t blame her really. Maybe you could do a series of posts and simply use a stock image, giving the photographer credit? I use unsplash for stock images. I haven’t been to Lucca but have heard it’s a nice place. Hopefully you decide to do the the posts on it.
Thank you for this! It are the 'little' things in life that can bring so much joy and happiness in your life.
Resteemed because of this
I agree completely. We seek experiences in our life rather than possessions and although many experiences require resources to make them happen we never lose sight of what is the true value.
I guess everybody has the point when realizes that everything they wanted to have is substitute of happiness.
You can't talk it out of somebody. Even if I would tell myself 2 years ago, that going for some things like more money that i got by working more, sleeping less - I know I wouldn't listen to myself.
Sometimes you have to burn yourself to understand, that something is hot. We're all kids inside.
Listen to this great song, it opened my mind one day
Nicely said.
That's so sweet! It definitely is important to be thankful for what you have, and if that isn't around anymore, find other things to be thankful for. It can almost always be worse, so why not look on the bright side right now while you have it?
And being thankful for a spouse is probably one of the best things to be thankful for. They pick you up when you're down, stand with you in hard times, and help give you a reason for working as hard as you do. That's great that you two have each others back.
Have a great day!
We’ve been together for a long time and so know each other pretty well. We argue and disagree like everyone but we communicate very well generally and understand that a little give and take goes a long way.
Thanks for commenting with validity.
Communicating well is really important. You have to let your needs be known and trust your partner will respond in a way that will help you get what you need. They do the same and you respond in kind. That give and take makes it work!
Dang... Good job! Haha She is beautiful, no kidding! For not knowing much about you for too long, you do seem like a badass dude with the whole guns and Aussie life thing going.. You two make it work!
I am still young yet, but have found someone I know I can spend my years with in @kelsnm. We have this weird bond, one I dont share with anyone else, one that, like you said, I would defend to the death. I think its Love. That Love Love not just family love. Sometimes we even sit and talk about how different we are than other couples and what not.. I try not to think of it like that, just that I love her so much.
I do feel sometimes that my generation is pretty shallow in the personality department, but I found someone who has plenty of that in her too, so I want to hold on to her. I know you know and all that crap about the programming of the minds of the youth to be materialistic sexual deviants in television and music and blah culture.
FB and Tinder and what not has made everyone so heartless and shallow, it is a shame.
Haha, thanks mate, I appreciate the comments. We compliment each other and yes, I am lucky to have captured her interest and heart. It seemed easy to do I guess but maybe it was just that we knew we were right for each other straight away.
"Guns and Aussie life thing..." That comment made me laugh @biffybirdcam. I am a Business Development Manager for a large commercial and residential real estate company and wear suits to work. If only my colleagues knew what I did on the weekends huh? I love the outdoors life and my country so I spend a lot of my time engaging with it by off-roading, kayaking, hunting, hiking, shooting, travelling etc. I do that with my wife as well, except not the hunting part. She hates that.
If you feel you have found the one you gotta hang onto that, nurture it. Sometimes love creeps up like a rising tide and sometimes it comes on rapidly like a wave crashing onto the shore, there's no right or wrong way. There is just love, in its many different forms: Spouse, sibling, parent, friend etc...
As a young kid I used to feel some jealousy when people checked out my wife (then girlfriend) and my mum said to me once, "love is like a butterfly in your hand. Hold on to tight and you'll crush it, not tight enough and it'll fly away." She told me that when I was 18. Thirty years later she is gone but I haven't forgotten her words. I still feel a pang of jealousy at times but it's different now...I can't explain it. I guess I am comfortable in our partnership and the strength of our bond.
The younger generation have some challenges to face for sure. Narcissism, selfishness, materialism, impatience and a myriad of other things as well but in truth we all face those challenges which can creep in from time to time. I think people have to decide who they want to be and what they want from their life and then do the best job they can and doing it. Sounds simple, but isn't.
You hold on to that girl dude, in @kelsnm you have the most precious and irreplaceable thing.
Thanks for your comments bro.
If my upvote had more power you'd still get a 100% for that...
Sometimes your words bring a literal tear to my eye from the knee jerk emotional reaction i get from reading them. Thank you for your encouragement and all wisdom you confer to me, a stranger, but less and less.
You have such a strong positive vibe, full of love and knowledge and wisdom about you, man.
Omg this is so beautiful, she is just as lucky as u are :) thank you reminds me of the support i have and take for granted sometimes <3 love is precious :)
Thanks for reading and commenting. I feel we have captured the essence of life. We respect and honor each other and furnish our lives with experiences. We’re a happy couple.
Such a lovley post and believe I am punching too ahaha. Currently trying to wise up, going on 5 years. Our real estate agent made my girl cry. We had many issues(contract took over 5 months) Our property lawyer mentioned it was a very strange and unorganised sale. The most upsetting was when he promised to have the keys ready for us. We were so excited. He didn't have the keys ready and we had to wait the whole weekend for the keys, planned removals and moving was difficult. My girl is very patient and kind, so there was no reason for the agent to treat her in this way. I became fustrated, although his incompetence was a good thing, we payed less than what we should have, if he marketed properly;) One of my best friends is very compassionate, who worked in real estate, he is now very successful as a result of appreciating the right things in life :) He mentioned once some agents get the sale, they don't care about the client. I guess you get the good and bad in everything and some become materialistic. I am grateful for my family (fur babies included) and nature, especially the ocean :) Money doesn't purchase the finer things in life.
Thank you for reading my post. I feel that being grateful for the most important things in life is the key to happiness in life.
A feeling of gratitude is great for everyone but it always comes to each person for different reasons. I'm happy for you... For counting on the most important person in your life that could never be exchanged for all there is in the world.
I actually disagree with your statement about “Our relationship with every other human being priceless.” There’s some horrid people out there who don’t deserve to waste our precious air by living.
Still, if you are surrounded with wonderful people that’s about all you could ask.
@galenkp I couldn't agree more you nailed it
Cheers.
She's lovely on the inside, too :)
She’s the best. Too good for the likes of me and yet I got lucky. :)
I kept a grateful diary for sometime and my hubby was always on my list. I wondered if I should change it up daily but every morning I woke up and I was grateful for him so he was on the list.
Husbands are a pretty good thing to be grateful for, especially the great ones like yours...and me of course. :)
Yes of course. :) haha any husband who writes sigh a lovely part about his wife has got the goods.
You need to determine the all of difficulties, and be passion for your creative work, because all fresher need to learn about basic duty, you will overcome all the situation, also you are looking so pretty and magnificent
You have quite obviously not read my post. Please refrain from commenting until you have.
I’m a 48 year old man and calling me pretty is simply wrong on so many levels champ.
Desist.
Haha my hubby hates when I call him beautiful lol.. Your wife is very pretty though.
She is. I’m not. :)