Good Things Come To Those Who Wait…But How You Wait Matters!
Kim and I were married on October 11, 1997. I was 23 years old and Kim was…(Nope, I won’t tell you her age – Happy Wife, Happy Life). Prior to our engagement Kim and I had an understanding that we wanted to raise 2 children. That was it…2. Lord knows that children cost money. A lot of money! And although we were not poor at the time…I was making about 10 dollars per hour and she was making right about the same. So needless to say we lived very humbly.
We had no idea when we would get pregnant, we just knew we would. We never inhibited it either, and there was no shortage of trying (if you get what I mean). But for whatever reason we were just not getting pregnant. We setup a nursery in our new home in Florida and when we moved to South Carolina in 2001 we set up a nursery in that home as well. Still no pregnancy.
By 2005 we were both just weary and thought it may not be God’s will / intent for us to be parents. All testing revealed both of us were well capable of conceiving but time was not in our favor age wise. We started college that summer together to take our minds off the subject of pregnancy and concentrate on something else.
On January 10, 2008 at one of Kim’s final doctor’s appointments, the doctor looked and advised her that there was nothing else he could do for us. He could not figure out why we were still left childless. Kim also had some endometriosis that he thought should be removed as well as an ovarian cyst and advised that she should probably go ahead and have a hysterectomy. Kim was not having that. Talking about being distraught. It was horrific news BUT WE NEVER LOST HOPE.
On Mother’s Day 2008, we found out we were pregnant! On January 8, 2009 our first daughter, Leighton was born and we walked out of the hospital on January 10, 2009 waked out of the hospital with a brand new baby girl. Did you get that? A year to the day of being told we needed to give up and have a hysterectomy and seek alternative methods, we walked out of the hospital with a baby! A healthy baby girl.
And get this….one year and twelve days later we had our second child, Ryleigh on January 20th. Talking about a double whammy!
So what does this have to do with a real estate blog? EVERYTHING!
For those of you that are new(er) in the industry…there will come times when you will be saying to yourself, “Is this for me?” “Am I really cut out for this?” “Is this really what I should be doing?” In those times, STOP and remember when you passed your real estate test. Remember how good that made you feel. Stop and remember the happiness you had when the brokerage you were with took a chance on you and made you part of their team / family….remember that feeling! When (Not if)…when you become discouraged in this industry….KEEP ON. When everything in life is telling you to give up….KEEP ON. When your closest family members are no longer supporting you and your dreams…KEEP ON!
Now don’t hear what I am not saying! If you have found yourself checked out and you are no longer doing what you are supposed to do on a daily basis in this industry (i.e. contacting your sphere of influence, open houses, floor duty, sending your handwritten notes, etc…) then yes, you may very well have found yourself in a place where you say…this is not for me. That is okay…Real Estate is NOT for everyone. BUT…
If you are making a conscious effort every day to be doing your contacts, your open houses, your floor duty, your note cards….you are doing everything to keep in contact with your sphere of influence and adding daily to your sphere….wait! Wait with anticipation. Wait in faith that you too will see YOUR SUCCESS. When you get discouraged find inspiration by watching inspirational videos on YouTube…there are hundreds of them. Do NOT stay in the mire! Get UP and Get UP FAST!
Good things come to those who wait…but wait with the right mindset. Yes it hard. Yes you will want to pull your hair out…but WAIT! It is in these times of waiting that we learn some of our most valued life learning lessons. For me, that lesson that I learned was that I was NOT the one in control…
You can control some things in this life….but not everything. And for those things that you can’t control…you must WAIT.
Until next time ~ MLT
