I’ve recently written about my thoughts from the past year and some of my plans for 2012.  The domino effect triggered by last year’s festivities on this date took a little getting used to.  I’d become accustomed to a certain ritual of routines that were comfortable and productive for me.

For instance, I have found in the past that I’m most at peace and on point when I start the day on my own terms.  When I get myself out of bed early and take an hour or more to stretch, read, reflect, journal, and eat something healthy I get the day started on the most productive footing.  I’m proactive rather than reactive.  I’ve maintained that ritual for various long stretches of time over the past couple of years.  However, I largely got away from it last year.

It obviously started when my sleep cycles changed drastically having to stay up late to feed and attend to Madeline.  As a result, my default morning ritual became stealing as much sleep as possible before the human alarm clock in the other room woke us up.  Madeline has since progressed to sleeping through the night and I could have easily gotten back into my more productive morning habits.  But, then again it had become so easy to “sleep in.”

Alas, I’m committed to making some changes this year in an effort to regain my productive balance.  I’ve learned over time that resolutions and intentions are worthless if a corresponding habit is not formed around the ultimate objective.  Therefore my plan this year is to find one or two habits or rituals to focus on each month (30 day challenges, so to speak) that both support and help build upon the larger objectives and my three word focus (prudence, execution and edges).

The biggest focus for the first 30-45 days of the year is on planning and preparation.  There are multiple facets to that equation.  It starts with setting aside some time each Sunday night to look at the coming week and jot down notes and plans.  The other main component of the equation is how I start my day.  Knowing myself as I do, I figured it was in my best interest to revisit my personal time in the morning.

About 10 days ago I started getting up at 6am to create a new morning ritual.  Within the first couple of days I realized quickly how much I enjoyed it.  Over the past week I have gradually pushed it to 5:30am which seems to give me the optimal amount of time before having to go ‘pick up Madeline’ around 7ish so that Kristin and I can get ready to start the business day.

That routine includes:

• 5-10 minute stretch as the coffee is brewing
• 10 minutes of prayer and reflection
• writing down 5 things I am grateful for each morning
• 10 minutes of journaling the events of the day before (using this tool)
• 20-30 minutes of reading a good book
• 5-10 minutes to sketch a plan for my work day

This has been a really great way to start my day.  I look forward to maintaining this ritual through the remainder of the month so that it becomes a solid habit throughout the year.  After all, gaining an extra hour a day for year can have a major impact.

Photo credit, Flickr – rockinfree

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I’m most excited about this word and it‘s probably also the most obscure of the three.  What the heck do edges have to do with anything, right?  Well, despite the obscurity, I feel this word perfectly illustrates the idea that I am going for.  For me it’s a daily struggle to lift out of my comfort zone.  While I do not lack for self confidence, I’m well aware of my strengths and my weaknesses.  Too often I play to my strengths and ignore an opportunity (or need) to strengthen a weakness.  I’m sure most people can relate to that.

Sure, I push myself to be better every day but I’d just as soon retract into my comfort zone.  So, the word Edges reminds me to find a way to operate on the edges of my comfort zone as often as possible.  Hopefully it will push me past some of that internal resistance to try new things, make more mistakes, learn from them and accelerate my overall growth.  I love the fact that the definition I pulled for an edge is: a favorable margin, a brink or verge.  To me that signifies of place of endless possibility if I can only find a way to get there.  Who doesn’t want to find their way to a favorable margin?

So there you have it, those are my three words for this year: prudence, execute and edges.  I do have separate business and personal initiatives; goals I want to accomplish and habits I want to form.  But, when I came across this practice, I thought it was a great way to constantly remind myself what I’m trying to accomplish.  Collectively, these three words come very close to encompassing all of those goals and objectives.

Back to post: My 3 Words for 2012

Related posts:

1. My 3 Words for 2012
2. Key Word for 2012: Prudence
3. Key Word for 2012: Execute

It was quite difficult to narrow my selection down to only three words.  I was pretty satisfied with my other two choices but this spot came down to a tough choice between community (sharing) and a word like execute.  One of my goals this year is to share and get more involved in my various on and offline communities.  Ultimately, execute won out.  I was looking for a word that encapsulated two things.  First, something that built upon prudence in defining focused production inside of a structure that has been well prepared and thought out.  Second, a word that meant – FINISH.

I’m sure I’m not alone in stating that far fewer of my yearly intentions come to fruition than I would hope.  Each year, I look back to find that I’ve fallen quite short of my plans and intentions but usually it’s not for lack of effort.  Typically it’s for lack of consistent enough focus and drive to see a project or idea through until the end.  Or, like Seth Godin likes to say, I don’t ship it.  This year, I want to simplify the ideas, carry them out fully and ship the product or service.

Here is a link to a talk that Seth gave about “Quieting the Lizard Brain.”  In it, he discusses the concept of Shipping.

Back to post: My 3 Words for 2012

Related posts:

1. My 3 Words for 2012
2. Key Word for 2012: Prudence
3. Quieting the Lizard Brain by Seth Godin

I chose the word prudence for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, I find that many of my frustrations in general come from periodic difficulty discerning between what is important & impactful and what is urgent or convenient.  As a self employed individual, I am almost always the architect of my own day – both a blessing and a potential curse.  That flexibility means that I am constantly faced with decisions that could either lead to a very productive day or one where the clock strikes four and I think to myself, did I get anything worthwhile done today?  I’ve had plenty of both.

Having fought this battle for a number of years now, I understand that it all comes down to recognizing the seemingly insignificant triggers and choosing to make the right decision or in other words, exercising prudence and discipline.  I consider myself a pretty driven person but my energy is not always channeled down the most prudent path.

My first reaction was to choose the word discern or discernment.  Either one would have been appropriate.  However, I settled on prudence instead because it also seemed to embody another or my personal initiatives this year – to waste less.  My desire is to waste less time, money, energy, food, and use my best judgment in eliminating the unimportant.  I thought the definition, “shrewdness in the management of affairs and resources” perfectly aligned with exactly that tenet .

Back to post: My 3 Words for 2012

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Today, I want to turn the page and focus on the new year.  In actuality the new year is already a couple of weeks old and the plan is taking a more definitive shape.  As I spent a little bit of time looking back on 2011, including the business and personal plan that I put together prior to the year, I was immediately struck by how complex it was.  Its no wonder that the overall structure of the plan was abandoned early on.  The whole irony of that situation is that prior to the year, one of my focuses for 2011 was to simplify.  In some respects I did.  However, my initial “plans” for 2011 were anything but simplified.

This year, I’m taking a slightly different approach – the 3 words approach.  This is something that I borrowed from Chris Brogan who is a well-known and publicized business, media and technology voice.  If you are not familiar with Chris, I’d recommend poking around his website, perhaps following him on Twitter and at the least, reading his post about using 3 words rather than complex and vague resolutions.  Chris adopted the 3 word approach years back as a compass to guide him in all facets of his yearly journey.  Seeing how I wanted to find a way to simplify my purpose for this year, I’m giving the strategy a test drive.

What I did was first analyze the hits and misses from 2011 to figure out what areas of business and life I wanted to see the most improvement.  Then I made a list of habits to support those areas of interest.  I followed that up with a list of 10 areas or so that I wanted to focus on business-wise this year.  Using those 3 lists, I started to jot down some words that might encompass various aspects of those general purposes.  It’s easy to just spew out 3 words like focus, enjoy and grow.  I mean, who doesn’t need more of all three of those in life?  Actually, as I first started this exercise, I thought I had my three immediately.  However, as I sat there and really looked at what I’m trying to accomplish and what each word actually represented, I came up with 3 slightly different variations that I like much better.   These 3 words will serve a lens through which I view almost everything I do and decisions I make this year.

My Three Words for 2012

• Prudence
• Execute
• Edges

Click on the links above for a more detailed explanation for what each word means to me and why I ultimately chose these three.

Photo Credit, Flickr – stockerre

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First off, things never quite slowed down for me at the tail end of 2011 as they have in the past.  I was steadily busy for the entire year including the last couple of months.  That is a good thing, believe me.  However, it did not afford me the time I would normally have to sit down, reflect of the year and hash out a new plan.

The second reason I’ve put off writing an actual plan is this.  I had a front row seat in 2011 to watch my seemingly well laid plan fall be the wayside and without even the slightest thud.  I spent a lot of time in December 2010 planning out how I wanted (thought) the upcoming year would go.  And well, let’s just say things didn’t necessarily go according to that plan.

Don’t get me wrong, 2011 was an extremely impactful year.  A great year in fact.  2011 was by far my best year in business, to date.  It was also a year of monumental personal growth and change.  That being said, that elaborate plan that I put together before the year started collected a lot of dust after about February first.  2011 was a year of major transition.

I’m the kind of person that likes to be in control.  If you know me well, you know that to be true.  The introduction of my baby daughter, Madeline, into what had become a comfortable and somewhat seamless routine threw me for a bit of a loop.  She came in kicking and screaming (literally) and at that point I knew we were in for a wild (and joyous) ride.

In a general sense, I felt like I was in the driver’s seat of my own car, the car was going 100 miles an hour and I could not get a hold of the steering wheel no matter what I tried.  I was just along for the ride – and that’s okay.  I learned and grew a lot.  Sometimes we have to take our hands off the wheel to gain proper perspective.

It was a year of tossing aside old routines and adapting to new ones.  Adaptation is hardly ever easy but that’s life and it does happens.

If I had to label my experience in 2011 in three words, they would be: growth, transition and momentum.

Growth & transition for reasons already mentioned above and momentum because I’m blessed and pleased with the way things started to roll once I got my feet under me and I’m hopeful and excited about the direction I’m headed at the start of the new year.  I look forward to continuing that journey here with you.  The following post will detail my focus and 3 words for 2012.

Photo credit, flickr – Tree Leaf Clover

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However, as much as I enjoy that part of it, come about December 27th each year, I flip an internal switch and I’m ready to move on.  The week between Christmas and New Year’s I become incessant about wiping the slate clean and getting rid of things.  I don’t know what it is exactly but for some reason I feel like a hoarder after Christmas.  I’m sure it has something to do with recent acquisition of new things.  I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I’ve taken it easy for about a week and a little bit to do with the fact that I’ve exercised very little inhibition in regards to my overall consumption of all things Christmas – sweets included.  I get to the point where its like, “okay, time to get back some structure and discipline.”  Out with the old and in with the new.  Apparently I’m not the only one.

The first place that starts is usually my home office.  In a half day’s time it transforms from work space to war zone – piles of papers, binders, books, electronics.  Its my way of sorting through what I need to keep and what I can shred or toss.  My wife smirks, rolls her eyes and calls me predictable.  Perhaps I am, but I’m just ready to purge and start the new year fresh.

Last year, the project took on a life of its own as I decided to go paperless.  That week long project required weeding through stacks of files and binders to figure out what needed to be scanned and what was just clutter.  It helped reduce my paper load by about 80%.  This year, I made one more pass through my “binder” cabinet in hopes of purging the bulk of what was left.  Confession: I used to print everything.  Come across a good idea – print it. Recipe I might want to try – print it.  E-book – print it (which completely makes zero sense).  As a result, over the past 4-5 years I have accumulated a lot of paper.  With Evernote that is no longer necessary.  Now its just digital clutter – but that takes up a lot less space.   I think I’m finally down to about 2-3 binders of the most important things that will eventually be scanned into digital files whenever I get the time.

I made a big trip to Goodwill last Saturday with clothes, dishes, unneeded Christmas decorations, household items, old electronics and a bunch of other miscellaneous items that were left in my wake.  It felt good – a nice first step to success in 2012.

Did you know that January is National Getting Organized Month?  Makes sense.

Additional Articles I’ve Read Recently . . .

Getting organized in January.

Getting Organized: What Benefits Will You Discover?

Photo credit on Flickr, derekGavey

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I’m sure that not all cartoons link back to the original source. My apologies in advance – Merry Christmas.

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Does it make sense to try to sell during the Holidays?

To answer that question let me first ask, how long has your house been on the market?  If you originally listed your house during summer and its s-t-i-l-l on the market when December rolls around then I’d have to say no.  It doesn’t make much sense to continue to try and chase the market.  I’d advise you take it off, enjoy your holiday, let it season a bit and put it back on the market in the spring.

If you are just listing your house during the Holidays (I’ll call the Holidays late October – December) then it will depend on a couple of factors.  If you have the luxury of waiting until say next April to list the house then you should strongly consider it.  But, in some instances it might make sense to list for 30-60 days (at the right price mind you) and see what happens.  Below is a general pros and cons list to consider.

The Pros

• Generally speaking, prospective buyers out looking to buy during the holidays are more motivated and serious.
• In some respects, your house probably never looks better on the inside than it does during holiday time.  A nicely decorated home for the holidays can evoke something in the emotional buyer.
• Overall you have less competition (inventory).  The number of houses on the market in October, November and December is roughly 75% of that for peak months (77% for 2011).
• Most buyers understand that schedules get hectic during this season and should be mindful of providing ample notice for showings.  As a result, you’ll likely experience fewer spurt of the moment (stressful) showings.

The Cons

• In general, there are fewer buyers “out there” looking.  You will likely have fewer showings but as mentioned above, there will also be fewer tire kickers.
• It can be a hassle shuffling in and out for showings during holiday (family time).  Having to contend with potential inclement weather is never fun.
• Your grass and landscaping could be dormant.  Flowers are deceased and everything takes on a gray hue.  Curb appeal may be lacking.  Sometimes it’s a good idea to include a picture of your home in full bloom on the listing as well.
• Buyers know they have a little extra leverage – less buyer competition could mean tougher negotiations.

One other factor to consider is what price range you home is listed in.  I don’t know this to be a fact, but my educated opinion is that would-be-buyers in the lower price ranges are more liable to be focused on saving their money for Christmas gifts and other expenses that come this time of the year.  They are less likely to be worried about saving money for a down payment.

These are just some of the most basic and important positives and negatives to weigh your decision.  To answer the question about whether or not it makes sense to try and buy a house during this same time period just look at the statements above from the opposite perspective.

Photo Credit to: Ms. Phoenix (flickr)

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Twitter has made me a better Realtor and Ill tell you why.  I don’t particularly mean that in the context that you might think.  I’m not implying that I’ve “gotten” a bunch of business from having a Twitter handle.  I know there are many Realtors and business professionals who only care about (and often don’t always understand) the ROI of social media; Twitter in particular.  For me, the “I” is definitely time invested but the “R” is not measured directly in dollars and cents.

I can say with some certainty that I have never closed a real estate transaction (though I did come close once on a lease) as a direct result of meeting someone on Twitter.  But, that’s not what I’m getting at because that is not my primary use or purpose for Twitter.

The reason I enjoy Twitter and ultimately the reason I believe that it has made me a more knowledgeable, creative and skillful Realtor is that it is a community centered around sharing.  Right up my alley.  Confession: I’m an information and education junkie.  I have found the Twitter community to be full of smart, savvy, helpful people who come from all walks of life.  Particularly I’m talking about other top producing Realtors, affiliate providers, coaches and technology experts in all parts of the country who have directly influenced me.  Keep in mind, I do not have personal relationships with many of them, nor do I even “know” 99% of them.  Yet, on a daily basis these people share and debate best practices, innovative approaches and interesting articles about other people doing the same.  The coolest part about it is for the most part, the motive behind sharing valuable content is not self serving.  Rather it’s sharing for the sake of helping the fellow man.

Sometimes the scope of information shared on a daily basis is mind boggling and its tough to keep up.  Still, there is no way to and no need to put an ROI on the wealth of knowledge and interesting ideas that can be accumulated just by listening to others on Twitter.  I have Evernote notebooks full of great information that I have already implemented or plan to implement to make my business more efficient and my client service more compelling & valuable.

With Twitter you are perhaps only seconds away from being introduced to the next person who could have a dramatic impact on the way you approach something in life or business.  All in 140 characters or less.   The framework of sharing and @ messaging opens up an entirely different cycle of communication.

I don’t expect everyone to “get” Twitter and in all honestly its not for everyone.  However, I do believe that this community will only continue to grow stronger and faster than other outlets.  I believe Twitter will become the go to communication resource for the younger and more mobile consumer.

Stop by and listen.  Follow me if you want – @ Ryan France.  I share (tweet) and retweet about my business, sports, random musings and whatever else I find interesting and humorous along the way.

If you are on a Twitter participant already, do me a favor and retweet this.  Thanks

Photo credit to: eldh (flickr)

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