Negativity…Beware of the Abyss

Westcoe Realtors, Riverside, California…Normally this blog stays on the path of real estate information, statistics, and concrete real estate issues…but for a quick moment, as the owner of this company, I would like to digress a bit from our usual path and “wax philosophical” for a moment.  I promise to be brief.

Unless we all plan to move to Mars and hang with the rover that is currently digging up dirt for NASA (see…we can even work in a real estate reference on another planet), there seems to be no way to escape the negativity that surrounds us like a new-born baby wrapped in a blanket.  Whether it be TV, radio, internet, cocktail parties, or ballgames, the airspace we breathe and listen to is filled with the drone of negativity.  Pick your subject.  Gas prices, food prices, cost of oil, of course the real estate market, interest rates, the falling value of the dollar, current flooding in Iowa, presidential politics (no matter who you like, at times, the process is disgusting and petty), etc.  You get the point…except maybe there is another point we can make.

Speaking only for my real estate agents, we have seen more distressed, hurt, damaged, and frustrated people this past year than I can remember in my 30+ years in this business.  Tempers are very short, and in the end, I tell my agents to remember one thing:  

STAY ABOVE THE NEGATIVITY AND REMEMBER WE LIVE IN A GREAT COUNTRY.

I know things are tight, and tough, and difficult…but it could be so, so worse…and sometimes we forget that as we get wrapped-up in our daily pace of life. Strictly as real estate agents, we try to be as helpful as we can with a very stressful home purchase or sale, even as the stress level rises as surely as the sun in the East.  But we try to remember that getting caught up in the negativity only breeds additional negativity, and pretty soon, if we are not careful, then we end up spinning down the toilet bowl of negative thoughts until it is simply too difficult to get out.

So…what to do?  Easier said than done, but simply try to avoid the negative people and information, and focus on the positive that exists everywhere if we take the time to look. 

It’s there in the faces of children in our neighborhoods, it’s there in the teachers who educate and work for far less money than they deserve.  It’s there in the face of the fire and police professionals who risk their lives daily for us (again for far less money than they deserve), and there in the wagging tail of your dog who only knows you are home and he is happy…and it is there in the actions of those military soldiers and families who sacrifice for us so we may have the right and freedom to voice our seemingly petty negative thoughts.

We at Westcoe are far from perfect, and of course there are days when we totally forget the above, and lose our perspective…but they do not last long…for in the end, we believe in this country, the right to own property, and each other.  We would never equate our profession with those who deserve so much more (see teachers etc. above), but we respect our own little slice of the world, and promise that when you enter, you will be treated with respect, kindness…and some of the positive energy that is seemingly so rare in today’s world.