The Path With A Heart
I saw the movie “The Peaceful Warrior” the other night. A friend recommended it to me. I had started to read the book, “The Way of the Peaceful Warrior” a long time ago but somehow just wasn’t able to get into it. I didn’t go out of my way to look for the movie, but it kind of popped out at me at Blockbuster. Upon seeing it, I remembered my friend recommending it. I watched it more out of curiousity than anything. I didn’t have high expectations. After all, I had already seen “What the Bleep” and “The Secret” - so what would this offer that those didn’t already give me? But I was dead wrong! It is very different from those movies and the story is quite compelling.
Several aphorisms are demonstrated throughout the story. The one that struck me the most is that it’s the journey that makes us happy - not the destination. How often do we struggle and work to reach a particular goal telling ourselves that if we can just accomplish it - maybe it’s to reach an ideal weight or a fantastic level of income - THEN will we be happy. Only to find disappointment once the goal is accomplished. Nothing has really changed: we’re still who we were before we began the process. Oh, we may be a little thinner or a little richer (you can never have too much of either), but we’re still the same person inside that we have always been.
I think the reason it was so cogent a lesson for me is because of the experience I have had the past 2 years of deciding to close - and then actually closing - my real estate office; picking up the pieces of my shattered ego and trying to discern with wisdom the way forward. I have spent many a restless night wondering where do I go from here? Did I do the right thing? Do I go back to “just” being an agent? And what this movie made me realize is that, as Carlos Casteneda’s mentor Don Juan told him, the only path that serves is the path with a heart. Having my own office was not a path with a heart - not for me. The journey did not make me happy. Where the path led made no difference because the journey itself was not happy.
I’ve recently cleaned up the last of the debacles associated with closing the business. The path behind is finally a closed book and I can now devote my full attention to the path ahead. What has always been true for me is the fun of “doing the deals”. It’s like playing Monopoly on a grand scale. And every single transaction is different. For me, selling real estate, “just” being an agent, is my path with a heart.
“All Things With Exuberance!”
mary!
