Trying to Figure Out What's Going On

I can hear them right now.

As I sit here in my home office writing this note, I can hear my kids bickering.  For those of you who don't know, I've got 3 children.  An 8 year old boy, a 6 year old girl, and another girl who is 4.

"I'm never playing with you again."

"Let's go play at our school."

"Don't touch my piece of paper."  (This from across the room about a piece of scratch paper.  The girls proceeded to tear the piece of paper in half fighting over it.)

"You want to draw with me?"

"I'm going in my room and never coming out."

Conflicting voices can affect your attitude.

The voices of my children are driving me crazy.  Are they happy?  Are they sad?  What in the world is going on up there?  I find myself getting madder and madder at them.  My attitude is having a hard time keeping up with the chaos. 

Here are a few of the headlines I've read this week:

"Home Sales Expected to Decline 23% this Year"

"It's Not As Bad As They Say, The Real State of Real Estate"

"Nation Doomed to 2 Million Foreclosures"

"Economy Expected to Recover By Mid 2008"

And just now, on the National Association of Realtors website, I read these two headlines:

"Improvement in Mortgage Market Bodes Well for 2008"

"Mortgage Problems Continue to Hamper Pending Home Sales"

I just heard my wife scream in exasperation.  The chaos of conflicting voices saps energy, distracts from what we need to be doing, keeps us from answering the real question.  The real question is not what's going to happen, but is, "How can I succeed right now?"

I needed to shut out the chaos and just get to work.

I just closed my door.  My focus is right in front of me on this text.  I needed to stop listening to the chaos, so I could think about what I'm doing and not what might happen.  Today, right now I can provide great customer service to my clients and potential clients.  I can think of ways to market that I've never considered before.  I can build my business while it is hard, so that when the market does recover, whether that is in 6 months or 2 years, I'm at the top of my game.

Now is the time for the cream to rise.  Don't worry about all those voices; just provide excellent customer service now, and you will benefit both now and in the future.