At our lending company, Local First Lending, we go to the properties and meet our borrowers when it makes sense. It allows us to not only see the house or building that we are landing on, but also gives us an opportunity to be in a relationship with the borrower and to give some suggestions while learning at the same time. What area of your life and/or business can you do what most people are not willing to do?

Something that I find is a common trait and the most successful people I know, and that I have also found to help me succeed and grow in the same for the people that I’ve led that have found success is being extremely coachable. There a lot of different things that can be said about what it means to be coachable, but a few points that come to mine are: - Be quick to listen and slow to speak - Listen to the advice that is being given without growing defensive and/or defending yourself - Be willing to put into practice quickly what you learn - action , action , action - Once you realize that what you are currently doing needs to change, change it immediately. Don’t require yourself to be told or shown over and over again.

Thomas (our 16 year old son) said something to me the other day that I haven’t stopped thinking about. He said one of the reasons making decisions quickly is so powerful is because indecision takes energy. Even when you’re not actively thinking about the decision, it’s sitting somewhere in the back of your mind taking up space. I thought that was pretty insightful. You’re not always going to make the right decision, but indecision has a cost too.

If you talk to my wife, kids and anyone that really knows me, they will tell you that I am never satisfied with where I am … meaning I want to get better everyday. With that being said , over the past several years I have also made a very conscious effort to take time to look back and celebrate the growth that has occurred over the past week, month , year , decade. I have also made a conscious effort to enjoy the present moment. I encourage you to reflect back on your growth and celebrate your growth and also to “stop and smell the roses”… soak up and appreciate where you are right now and who you are doing life with.

Yesterday, my beautiful wife and I celebrated 18 years of marriage. We started dating when we were 18. Pretty wild! There are so many things I can say about it, however, the main thing that I want to say in addition to how extremely blessed I am to be married to my best friend is that these past 18 years haven’t been easy. We have had so many good times and we have had so many, very challenging times. What got us through those challenging times is our love for each other, God, and the fact that we made a commitment to each other and we agreed that there is no back door to our marriage. Marriage is one of the foundational commitments I have made in my life and I use that as a foundation and example for myself to the other commitments I make. Of course I’m willing to make adjustments when I realize that a commitment I made doesn’t make sense however, I always have to ask myself, I want to not follow through with this commit commitment just because it’s hard or because it doesn’t make sense.