Monday Morning Mojo: Ride or Get Run Over!

By Tom Tognoli, COO & Founder
, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

When you woke up this morning, were you fired up and excited to improve…find a way to do it different…do it better…be innovative…change? So many people fight it…trying to stay the same and play it safe because things are okay and it’s working…they don’t want to rock the boat, take risks, and ruin a good thing.  Unfortunately, if you don’t look for a better way…trying to improve everyday, you will wake up one day and everything around you will have changed and it will be too late…it will seem like it happened overnight without warning and what caused your success in the past, both personally and professionally, will be the cause of your demise.

Change is an exciting thing.

When you just let go and don’t fight it the opportunities are endless and everything will just flow…if you resist and fight, you are in for a battle filled with disappointments and hard work that don’t produce much of anything.  It is like standing on a railroad track trying to stop a train going 100 mph…you just can’t do it…its not possible.  So, you can jump on the train and enjoy the ride, or get run over…it’s your choice.

Life is like a roll of toilet paper

By Tom Tognoli, COO & Founder, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc

Where does the time go?

This past Friday I turned 50. I feel great and don’t feel 50…however that is supposed to feel, but it is still hard for me to wrap my head around. I feel like I am maybe in my mid 30’s, but 50…no way. Where does the time go? I am sure most of you reading this can relate.

Now…don’t get me wrong…it’s all good and I am good with it. I am blessed with so many amazing things…a great family, I live in the most amazing place in the world, I am healthy, my family is healthy, I am happily married and I have two great kids, I live in a beautiful home, have great friends, and have helped build a great company, but how in the world did this happen? How did I get to be 50? How did it become 32 years since I graduated high school? How have I been married for 22 years? How has it been over 12 years since we started Intero? And how in the world did my boys get to be 16 and 14? All of you with kids totally get this.

Walk the Dog

 By Tom Tognoli, COO & Founder, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc

This year I want to

• walk 500 miles
• exercise 125 hours
• burn 50,000 extra calories
• finish 10 books
• pray regularly and give thanks for the blessings in my life
• spend time every week with my wife just talking about life, our family, our dreams and our goals
• be less stressed
• lower my blood pressure and cholesterol level
• have more energy at work and with my family
• be more patient
• make more money
• be in better shape
• lose 10 to 15 pounds
• live longer
• significantly reduce my chances of getting sick
• see my mom and dad 3 to 4 times a week

…that’s all.

Sounds pretty daunting, doesn’t it? What would you say if I told you that it can all be accomplished by spending 30 minutes 5 times a week. I am sure most of you are skeptical.

One of my commitments for 2014 is walking our dog 5 times a week after dinner. When I decided to start doing it, I did not do it for all of the reasons above…I just knew our dog needed a walk and I knew it was better for me to go for a walk than sitting on the couch watching sitcoms all night.  So far I have been pretty good about doing it. Most of the time Lynn and I walk Ryder together, but sometimes I do it on my own listening to a book on tape, inspiring music, or just thinking. Guess what? If I am just consistent about doing my 30 minute walk 5 times a week, I will accomplish all of this…really! If you don’t believe me, or even if you do, there is a great book I recommend you read or listen too….The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson.  The Slight Edge is all about the monumental impact of doing a little something consistently.

Monday Morning Mojo – My New Year’s Commitments!!

By Tom Tognoli, COO & Founder, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc

Today marks the first full week of a New Year and the day that most of us roll up our sleeves and get back to work and school. It is our opportunity for a fresh start on whatever it is that we want to accomplish in our F5 (Faith-Family-Friends-Fitness-Finance). We all just need to remember that it is the beginning and not the end. We need to pace ourselves or we will crash and burn. Don’t let what happened to your last year’s resolutions happen again this year.

I think it starts first with not making resolutions. I am not a big fan of resolutions because they never seem to stick and most of the time they are these big pie in the sky things…they are hopes and prayers. It is why our resolutions are typically the same each year. Try something different this year…make commitments not resolutions. A commitment is just that…it’s not negotiable. I would rather see people make smaller commitments they know they can keep than making big audacious resolutions that very rarely if ever stick/work.