Morning Reflections with LauraJo
I’ve been thinking about something lately. About how long I can sit with something, thinking about it, before I actually do anything with it.
Does that sound familiar to any of you?
As I was thinking about this, it took me back to late August 2020.
I was at my desk working late, because that’s what I did, when a thought popped into my head.
Hey, it’s COVID. People can’t go in for classes. I wonder if they’ve put the real estate licensing classes online. No driving, no set schedule.
I stopped what I was doing, went to the Arizona School of Real Estate website, and pulled it up.
And yes, I was right.
COVID was doing what COVID did. And I was doing what I always did, which was working late, managing life, trying to hold myself together, working 60 to 80 hours a week, late into the night.
I had a good salary. I had a good job. And I absolutely had no time left over to wonder who I was outside of who I was being for my work.
But in that moment, something changed.
I can look back now and know that I wasn’t really looking for a real estate career. Something else was emerging.
What I was really looking for, underneath working all those hours, being busy all the time, and being tired, was some sign that I could still do something different. That it wasn’t too late. That I wasn’t so stuck in this rut and this commitment that I couldn’t find something that brought me joy. That was fun.
That there was still a LauraJo inside of me somewhere who didn’t want to just work. She wanted to find other things.
I remember going to talk it through with my husband.
Am I nuts to be doing this?
And he was just his loving, supportive self and reminded me that I could do whatever I set my mind to doing.
So I signed up for that licensing course on September 1st.
I finished it in two and a half weeks. I studied, passed the school exam on a Saturday, and signed up for the state exam the next day, Sunday, September 20th.
I still remember standing outside the testing center waiting to go in, listening to people talk about coming back for their second, third, even fourth attempt.
These were experienced Realtors who had licenses in other states, and they were talking about how difficult the Arizona exam was.
One of them looked at me and asked how many times I’d taken it.
I said, Oh, this is my first time. I just passed the school exam yesterday.
And they laughed.
Well, good luck. You’ll be back.
And I said, No. I’m going to pass it.
Then they laughed some more, like I was clueless about what I was getting myself into.
Well, guess what?
I passed.
As I came out of the testing center with that piece of paper that said I’d passed, I went and got in my car. Because it was September, for heaven’s sake! It’s still really warm—hot—in September here in Arizona.
So I was sitting in my car with the air conditioning on, cooling off.
And I remember sitting there thinking:
Oh my gosh. I can still do hard things. I can still commit to making something happen and actually follow through on it.
Something shifted in that moment.
I think what was happening is that I had been thinking about change for a long time, but not actually doing anything about it.
And I still notice that in myself sometimes.
There’s this space between knowing something and actually moving on it. Taking action.
Because I didn’t end up selling real estate.
What I ended up doing was rediscovering myself. Rediscovering who LauraJo is and what she wants.
Who am I?
I needed to get to know myself because I had lost myself over the years.
That question is what this space is about.
It’s not because I have the answers. I don’t.
But it’s because I’ve learned there’s something powerful about being willing to ask the questions.
As one of my daughters taught me, get curious.
So maybe that’s the place we begin here today.
Just with the question. Not a plan, not an answer, but with the question:
Who are you? Underneath it all, who are you?
You don’t have to answer that yet.
I don’t think that night changed everything, but it changed something.
I’ve been thinking about how many of us are sitting in that same space, feeling a gentle nudge, a yearning, where we know something, but we’re still just thinking about it.
What’s something you’ve been thinking about but not actually moving on yet?
Don’t answer that question.
Just ponder on that and notice what comes up for you.
Make it a great day!