Colin's Motivational Mondays

What's Your Mission? About a month ago an awesome friend of mine shared this picture above in a text message to a few of us guys that are in a men's group that meets every couple of weeks and it has stuck with me ever since. Seeing those words along with the picture immediately reminded me of something that my High School English teacher (Ms. Langford) use to say quite often. "Birds of the same feather flock together." There are many other sayings that are along the same lines, but these have always stuck out to me.  I feel that I am surrounded by some incredible people that have made me and are helping make me into the best version of myself I can become. I am very grateful to have them in my life. I think about where I started on my journey and those that have invested in me along the way as well and the gratefulness keeps swelling up and overflowing.  These relationships have pushed me to discover and seek after my "Wh...

November is National Homeless Awareness Month   As many of you know I serve on the board of HomeAid which is a local non-profit organization that's mission is to  build new lives for homeless families  and individuals through housing and community outreach. An initiative that we are running from now until November 19th is "Spread the Warmth". It is a blanket drive so we can partner with local shelter providers to help keep those that are homeless warm this winter as the temperatures drop. One blankt makes in huge impact on one person & if we call chip in one then the ripple effect can be truly wonderful.  There will be drop off locations in Placer & Sacramento County to make it easy to participate.  The main drop off location will be at the HomeAid office which is at: 1536 Eureka Road in Roseville.  My office will be a drop off location as well at:             ...

I wanted to write this after reading a few articles about Real Estate Professionals that narrowly escaping threats at their vacant listings or meeting new buyers that hadn't met yet.  Many of my friends are in the industry, so the threat really hit home. It is important to simply exercise caution and take a few steps towards ensuring your safety. I found this info-graphic of a Top 10 Best Practices that I thought was really helpful, so I wanted to share it.   If any readers have tips that they use please share them! Below are a few that I came up with.  Carry pepper spray on your key ring Allow your buyers to walk into the home first, so that you follow them Keep the front door open or at least unlocked 

  "The greatest strength we have is  the team around us." I was thinking about this last night and wanted to share a few thoughts.  On a team you can be the best individually at your position, but without a strong team around you, the labor doesn't reach it full potential.  Having a team that works together as a strong and cohesive unit is something special.  Having the best around you raises the bar that you set for yourself and you achieve greater things that were once thought to be beyond your reach or reserved for someone else.  Never take for granted the people around you, they are the most important...period.  Communicate goals - Share Success -Share Struggles Never stop engaging, learning or doing the small things excellently Have an amazing & blessed day! ~Colin

As I woke up this morning I was just simply happy. It's not any different of a day than most, I just think that my perspective is changing a bit. I've come to realize that I am truly, truly blessed and I believe that most of us really are if we boil it down. A new little saying that I have when something "bad" happens is "Well, that's a first world problem." I don't mean that in a condescending way at all, it's just that in the whole scheme of things, problems in my life that come up pale in comparison to what is out there in the world. I hope we all life a life taking it into perspective and never forget to be thankful for all of our blessings, keep smiling and striving to reach our full potential. All the BEST! -Colin “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”  ―  Abraham Lincoln http://www.vevo.com/watch/tracy-lawrence/its-all-how-you-look-at-it/USDWV0400031

The Golden Rule I was thinking about this the other day when a friend came to me who had been frustrated. She was telling me about how someone had treated her poorly and was feeling really hurt. She said that it was out of nowhere and that it was the first meeting with the person. All I could think about is if The Golden Rule was actually live out in life that it would truly eliminate all the hurt and pain that is inflicted on one another. It's so simple, yet lived out it seems to be rare. This may be due to when kindness happens it not shared, but when evil or hurt happens it is shared and usually on a larger scale. My hope with this is to start each day reciting Matthew 7:12 and hopefully with that as a beginning it can resonate within me and be prevalent in my life. If that is the case I hope that it is contagious to those around me as well. It's not a big change in direction, but even a few degrees of change make a large impact on the destinatio...

"Be beautifully YOU. Everyone else is already taken." The above line is a little saying that I have been telling friends & family for years. I am a believer that we are all beautifully & uniquely made.   Sometimes in life we worry more about what others think about us than what we think of our own reflection in the mirror. We act or say things that we think others want rather than what we do. Sometimes at the pressure of others or at other times with just pressure we put on ourselves. I know for me, I really struggled with being a people pleaser saying 'Yes' to really anything that sounded good. I would run myself down and then realized that if I didn't take care of myself then I really couldn't take care of other or responsibilities that I agreed to. It was very freeing to finally get to the point in my life where I could simply say 'No' to request and not feel bad about it. I looked at it as giving others the opportunity to step u...

“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” ~  Ralph Waldo Emerson This Sunday at church we were all challenged for the next 30 days to write down 5 things we are grateful for daily, with the catch that we can't us the same thing twice. Me, being the math nerd that I am did some quick mental math and realized that I will have to come up with only 150 things that I'm grateful for. This seems way more manageable to me than I first thought. I mean, if I can't come up with 150 things that I'm grateful for then I must be living my life with blinders on. I feel truly blessed in life, no matter what my circumstances are once I look at the big picture.  This is going to be a fun journey and exercise for me and if you're up for the challenge I encourage you to join in. Just think ...

"We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own."   ~ Cesar Chavez   These last few weeks I have been reminded a a few things that I feel are huge in living a full life that stays healthy. First, I am blessed with a truly amazing family that is big, loud and always around. We are a little loco at times and that's what makes it even sweeter. I know some people aren't very connected with family and my heart goes out to them. I know over the years many of my family has been that one to welcome in others that didn't have a family and they have become part of ours. It's truly special.  I'm also blessed with a great group of friends. We have had soo many shared experiences throughout life that the bonds have just grown stronger over the years. I truly believe that my friends are an ext...

So as I was relaxing this weekend camping with friends and hanging out with family I was reminded of how much I truly enjoy the little things in life. The fact for me is that I believe the little things are much larger in true significance. As I thought about this more I was reminded of a quote that was sent to me a long time ago. I found it on-line & have pasted it below. The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. • We spend more, but have less. • We buy more, but enjoy less. • We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. • We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. • We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too...

Time is the the only thing that I can think of that we all start the day with the same amount of. Some people have more talent, money, creativity or energy, but we all are equal when it comes to 24 hours in a day. How we spend those 24 hours is 100% up to us. How many times to we find ourselves saying "I wish I had the time to _____." The truth is that we do have the time to do whatever that "it" is, is just that we haven't made it a priority or a high enough priority to let something go in order to cleave to the new. There could be a myriad of reasons that you either aren't letting go of something currently or making time for something that you say you want. There is no need to go into that, though I think one of the biggest reasons is fear. I've always thought fear isn't a bad thing at all, it's just a matter of how much control you allow fear to have in your life. Fear is present in battle, before public speaking and many other things. I bel...

So I have seen this new year (which I can't believe is already half over) as an amazing revamp for me personally and professionally. Personally I believe I have become more self aware, expanded my vision & am happy with the reflection in the mirror every morning. Professionally I was secure enough to walk away from a job that was secure in order to achieve what I wanted. (We should all enjoy what we do as we spend a lot of time doing it) We are never 'stuck' in a situation, it's just that at times the only way out is a big risk or my be uncomfortable. Don't get me wrong, I loved all of my co-workers and consider them family and the industry was and still is great, the company was poorly executing therefore I couldn't deliver the service levels that I felt my customers deserved. After taking three months off recharging, doing volunteer work, spending more time with my family all the while growing a sweet beard I was ready to get back into the industry t...