The Benefit of Being Unreasonable

Today is just one of those days. You know the kind. The sun greets you in the morning with a smile. Every stop light is green on the way to the office. The weather’s gorgeous. Life is generally wonderful.

Its days like today when I wonder why every day isn’t so perfect. When this happened today, everything clicked.

Two weeks ago I had a meeting with my business coach. This guy has a strange knack for taking complex situations, concepts, problems, etc. and making simple sense out of them. So when he heard me complaining I received a pretty simple response.

“Stop complaining and start being unreasonable.”

Sounds simple, but I was a little confused. What does being unreasonable have to do with my employee frustration, difficulty with title issues or lack of motivation to get to a workout? Directly, there’s no connection. But indirectly, the connection couldn’t be more important.

We can “be” anything we want to. We can be happy, excited and optimistic. Or we can be frightened, reserved and skeptical. The key is making the choice.

In the past, I’ve allowed who I am to be influenced by the circumstances of a given moment. I’ve allowed myself to be the product of my experience. By choosing to be unreasonable, I’m freed from this trap. My experience becomes a product of who I am.

So for the last two weeks, I’ve been happy for no reason. I’ve been excited about nothing in particular. And I’ve been optimistic when moments look darn right bleak. I’ve been unreasonable – choosing to be who I am and want to be, with no specific reason or influence.

I know this is a Real Estate investing blog, and this article doesn’t really fit that description. But the real goal for any income stream is to be able to live the life that we want and choose. Everything just seemed to click today.

If you’ve had difficulty being who or what you aspire to, don’t forget to be unreasonable. It’s the simplest way to be you.