By Datta Khalsa, Broker
There is a classic Zen parable where a master asks his student to fetch a jar and some rocks, which the student collects and brings back. The master then has the student fill the jar with the rocks and then asks him whether the jar is full. The student answers “Yes, the jar is full.”
The master asks the student to reconsider his answer and has him go get some sand, which he has him pour into the jar to fill the spaces in between the rocks. The master then repeats the question, to which the student responds, “Yes, now the jar is most certainly full.”
To this, the master responds by producing another jar filled with water, which he pours into the jar the student brought and fills the remaining spaces between the rocks and sand. He then affirms to the student, “Now the jar is truly full.”
Our local real estate market, particularly during the timeframe since COVID arrived has mirrored this parable, in that every time we feel like the prices can’t get any higher or our clients can’t afford a higher interest rate, or things can’t get any busier, they reach another level. And in the process, people somehow find a way to make things work despite the mounting challenges that face them and the market presses onward.
These forces have stimulated me and other active agents in our area to grow and adapt to meet the increasing demands of the many responsibilities we navigate in the course of a typical day. As the saying goes, if you want to get a difficult task done, give it to a busy person. But how does a busy person get things done?
Amidst the daily race to respond to every one of the emails, texts and voicemails you find the time in between the times you are doing other things to fit those communications in so you can maintain an acceptable response timeframe to effectively address each one.
Each of these relationships is either an obligation or honor to have and a bond that must be nurtured and maintained in order for each situation involved to have a positive outcome. These relationships run the full gamut from your clients to your tenants, landlords and vendors, from your employees, co-workers, colleagues to your business partners and investors, from your friends, family and pets to every other individual you are in any way able to count as relying upon you to meet their expectation.
Your skill in setting priority of tasks, as well as having an effective team with a good system of delegation and effective calendar management is crucial when you are managing high stress situations and negotiations on multiple fronts. And if you are fortunate enough to sustain a fulfilling career, you find you are able to avoid burnout and actually embrace the busy-ness of it all by reveling in the sheer variety of tasks and situations you handle in the course of a typical day.
As the saying goes, pressure is a privilege, and if properly managed it can be hugely validating.
