Been a little busy lately...

And for the most part, that’s a good thing! A side effect, of course, is that being ‘busy’ can kill your creativity. I was just starting to get ramped up into a more creative phase of life, even if it was about 20 years behind schedule…. Then the phone started ringing. Right before Christmas, one of my listings endured a bidding war that went on for several weeks. A handful of buyers appeared and we started shopping, and then another bidding war broke out on my other listing.

A little digression here - my advice to anyone out there that’s house shopping right now is this: even though we are in a buyer’s market in most of the Chicago area, if you want a property, and we’ve determined it’s the location you want, a good buy and a sound property, play ball seriously. Don’t waste everyone’s time - yours included! - with really low offers, or shop around for houses you can’t afford, hoping for a killer deal. Properties in good locations that are priced fairly will still usually sell, and you’ll miss out. If prices on a property have been lowered to a range that makes them a real steal, you WILL have competition, so act like it. Rates are super low, and people that need to move are going to be out there looking. If you want something in real estate, as in life, take it seriously, act quickly, and make others catch up to you - don’t let yourself be second position. Second position will mean you end up having to throw more money out there in order to win, and you’ll make yourself look difficult to the seller if you take too long to commit or react.

Back to the task at hand…

and that task is striving to get back on the train of problem solving, learning, mental exercise, creativity, and expansion of opportunities. It is a challenge, for sure, to pin down those activities when you’re actually working to pay the bills, at least for most of us unlucky folks that aren’t already stinking rich and/or have free time in spades. I have a few other new 'jobs’ that I’m involved in aside from a really busy period of real estate, and in those responsibilities is where I’m learning the most about what stifles growth and what sets it off and running. What I’ve really become aware of recently is that ideas are like planets in orbit - we don’t really know how they originate, but once they are formed enough to be noticed and considered, they rely on gravity and momentum in order to stay in the system, possibly harbor life forms and develop weather patterns worth studying, etc. There will be asteroids and meteors hurtled at them, but as long as the momentum is fed, they keep experiencing sunrises. I’m learning that the momentum from ideas comes from people - from conversations, advise, questions, and most importantly, enthusiasm. Ideas LOVE people who also love ideas. The other day, I was at the makers pace I joined, at a new member lunch, and asked around at my table for some insight as to why a product i’m working on was hitting some walls. 5 total strangers spent the next 15 minutes throwing ideas for solutions at me while we ate the worst pizza i’d had in ages. I left feeling really recharged, despite the terrible pizza. Seriously there was more sugar and corn in that pizza than there is in your carnival churro…..

Conversely, ideas and creativity LOSE their momentum when they are up against the asteroid barrage that seems to originate from committees. When ideas and creativity are always met with ‘interesting….we’ll get back to you….’ then they wobble in their orbit. I am learning that I have no patience for this. I worship at the church of inquisitive thought, trial and error, and the search for beauty(luckily beauty is incredibly easy to find and has no limits, as long as you believe that something better is always out there) - the rituals of worship for me are all focused on actions: doing, failing, adjusting, succeeding, experimenting, and never ever throwing cold water on enthusiasm. Enthusiam does not mean that a person only believes that their ONE CURRENT IDEA is the only answer, it just means that there is excitement around the possibility that it just might be AN answer, and if it’s not, how lucky are we that we have brains and can keep trying??? I really think it’s important to be the one that jumps at the chance, that takes things one step further, that never ever ever ever ever accepts ‘well it seems to be popular’ or ‘its always been fine to do it this way’ as a legitimate reason for doing anything, but I want to practice that 10-fold when it comes to design and life choices.

As with a lot of non-sponsored bloggers, much of what I write is written for me as an exercise to get things sorted out, and organized on the page - I didn’t actually expect people to read most of them. However, recently I got an email from someone thanking me for my Two Moors Way posts, and that’s great! Now that i’ve gotten this dribble onto the page, thereby consolidating several unfinished posts from over the winter, I hope to be here more often, and there are lots of outdoor adventures to come and to write about! If this stupid coronavirus doens’t ruin global travel completely…..