I’m not sure if it’s a blessing or a curse, but, either way, I have an extensive set of interests and a wide range of pursuits, a benefit of which is that I'm rarely bored. I often have a hard time relating to folks who say they’re bored or that they don’t have anything to do.

Being wired this way has its perks, but it does come with some drawbacks. I often have a hard time deciding what to do next, and it can be challenging to find the time to enjoy everything I want to do.

As a result, I have stacks unfinished books.

Mountains of unfinished projects.

And a list of other projects that I’ve yet to start.

For years, I’ve wished that the days were longer. I imagine you have, too, but no matter how it's sliced we each get the same 24 hours...

Yesterday my wife, Julia, and I did our yoga practice together. We’ve been doing yoga together for several months now, and I always look forward to it.

As I edited the video so I could submit it for GRIT, I commented that I always like doing the yoga videos because, with us in sync, they tend to look pretty cool.

“OMG,” she said, “I was barely moving! I wasn’t doing anything like you.”

I can’t stand it when she says stuff like that…

As we wrap up the first week of this month's #GRIT, Julia joined me for a workout. Ryan Bragg and Teresa Chaney Threadgill are killing their first month, Robert Bell is back for #2, and Heather Reagor is on her 5th or 6th month if I'm remembering right.

On the inside, we talked about seeing inconvenience as an adventure which reminded me of a while back when my phone rang and a former client was on the line…

With that simple phrase, I’ve assured myself that I will exercise every day in May.

The first step in each GRIT session is to announce your commitment to the work, and it’s done by writing that phrase.

It’s not, “Maybe.”

It’s not, “I’ll try.”

It’s not, “We’ll see how it goes.”

It’s “ALL IN.”…

A while back, I mentioned an upcoming therapist appointment to a friend of mine.

“Therapy?” he said? “Like a shrink?”

“No, dude. Marriage counselor.”

“Uh oh,” he replied, “trouble in paradise?”

“Well, not really, we like to…”

He cut me off…

Today I took an online class about Short Sales. You might remember that after the Great Recession in 2008, Lloyd Trimble and I got heavily involved in short sales, and for a couple of years, it was our specialty.

We knew the process well, which allowed us to help a lot of folks avoid foreclosure. Because we knew it well, we were invited to speak at several conferences and often consulted with other agents to help them.

As Covid-19 wreaks havoc on the economy, I expect a housing market correction that will be followed by an increase in short sales as mortgage forbearance programs come to an end. It’s been a while since I’ve had a short sale transaction, so I figured the class would be a good refresher…

Like most everybody else, I’m busy. A wife, five kids, small business, side hustles, and a strong desire to seek challenge and adventure means that my plate stays pretty damn full. I don’t have a lot of time to waste, and yet distractions surround me.

Phones pinging.

Emails buzzing.

Text messages beeping.

And…calls coming in.

But here’s the thing: 90% of those calls should be emails or text messages, not phone calls. And most emails and text messages are non-urgent.

So I fixed it - I set my phone up so that it does not ring…

The April round of GRIT is almost 2/3 over. Who's thinking about joining me next month?

Today, we consider entrepreneurialism.

I’m an entrepreneur. I own a small business, I invest in real estate, and I have a couple of side hustles.

It’s been 15 years since I held what most people would call a “real job.”

Most of you already knew that.

Here’s what most of you didn’t know: you are also an entrepreneur…

Story Athlete GRIT April 2020, Day 15. We're over halfway done.

When people ask me about GRIT they almost always have the same first two questions.

Q1: Are the workouts hard?

A1: Yes, but scalable, so you can totally do them. We have young and hold, athletic and obese, strong and weak.

Q2: Do I have to write?

A2: Yes. But you don’t have to post it publicly unless you want to.

More often than not, the writing is a bigger source of resistance to giving GRIT a try than the workouts. I find that a bit funny because the writing is way, way easier than the workouts…

For the longest time, I hated that phrase. In my way of thinking, it was total cheese-ball stuff reserved for the kind feel-good self-help books targeted at middle-aged people who didn’t really want to change. People who wanted to feel like they were doing something besides waiting around to die, but who didn’t want to actually do something to change their circumstance or trajectory.

And, like so many other things in my life, I was wrong…

On Day 2 of Awesome Facial Hair, which is day who-the-hell-even-knows-anymore of the quarantine and Day 11 of StoryAthlete® GRIT for April I made a startling discovery which is revealed in the video. Julia's been telling me, but I wasn't hearing it.

All jokes aside, the Covid-19 situation is creating big problems for a lot of people. Along with the death and sickness, we’ve got millions suddenly unemployed, unable to pay bills, and unsure of what to next.

It’s terrible, yes.

But it’s also an opportunity…

Yesterday was day 10 of April's round of GRIT. Sundays are stretchy-stretchy days so the dog joined me for yoga. We're about three weeks out from the start of May GRIT - hit me up if you're thinking about joining us and have questions.

If you've been following, you know that each day there's a principle upon which to reflect and write. It doesn't have to be lengthy - some folks write just a few sentences. I tend towards the longer side - here's mine from yesterday which addresses a problem that we'll end up having in the post-corona real estate market…

It’s been about two years since I started regularly posting stories on Facebook and, if nothing else, it’s taught me that we are all the same.

Of course, we have the same needs - food, water, shelter - the things we require for basic survival, but surviving and thriving are two different things.

A great many people pass through this world, having managed only to survive with each passing day being merely a struggle to make it to the next…