Thereโ€™s always something to howl about.

Going to ground, clearing cobwebs, finding balance: I’m back in the saddle again.

I know when my life is out of whack when I lose things. I’m a great organizer, but not on a day-to-day basis. Daily, things pile up: Paperwork, bags of unloved clothes for Goodwill, the experiments in microbiology that grow in my refrigerator. Day by day, things are no longer where they should be and I’m misplacing those pesky emergency medical forms for school, or a magazine article I wanted to blog about, or a receipt for a lamp that I want to return. Then, quite suddenly, or so it seems to me, I’m losing big things: My camera! A credit card! A potential client! Danger! Danger! Now it’s time to stop and regroup, and so I’ve gone to ground for a few weeks.

I love the term “gone to ground”. It’s usually in reference to the hunted burrowing into their holes to avoid being killed, and that seems appropriate to my situation. I wonder what rabbits do when they go to ground. Do they tidy up a bit? Take a nap? Make more rabbits? I was spinning my wheels, overwhelmed by unproductive minutiae and unable to accomplish meaningful (income producing) work, so I took some time to refocus my attention.ย  The bad news is that my staycation lasted much longer that I thought it would. The good news is that I accomplished much more that I thought I would.

All refrigerated biology experiments have been duly noted and concluded. We now have a remodeled bathroom, and our household files have been purged and tidied up. Both kid’s bedrooms have been cleaned and sanitized. One high schooler started the year uneventfully, and one has finally finished high school (we hope) with an indifference that is matched only by my frustration with his public school experience. Closure. Moving on.

Brad Coy felt stuck. I was spinning my wheels in unproductive navel gazing but didn’t realize it until things disappeared and I got buried. I needed to take the time to focus on a lot of little things which piled up to a really big thing which was standing in the way of me getting anything done.ย  I went through the piles and files of real estate flotsam and jetsam: Organized, purged, shredded, filed, rinsed, repeated. Time away from anything lets me get back to it with fresh eyes and new insights. I can see where my work is suffering and I can see different methods of strengthening weaknesses.

I have online and offline real estate systems that I want to combine into something that I can really work and that really works for me. I want to do a better job of lead management. I want to get a new theme for The Brick Ranch that reflects a new focus and allows me to do a better job of providing information to consumers. I need to get back in touch locally.

And whaddya know? As quickly as I switched my focus back to things that matter, my business has begun to sing. Not an opera perhaps, but a quiet little tune, perfect for humming to myself…

I’m back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

Ridin’ the range once more
Totin’ my old .44
Where you sleep out every night
And the only law is right
Back in the saddle again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin’ to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again