Mellowing Out

Days until pitchers and catchers report: 35. Oh come on! You were secretly wanting to know.

I have spent the last week fulfilling my 2012 resolution: clean out my office. After a coat of paint (butter cream), it looks pretty wonderful right now. I tried to post pictures, but my aptitude for technology is akin to my aptitude for belly dancing and pole vaulting.

My office has been the source of a lot of stress over the years. And--dare I say it--there may be something to the whole Feng Shui thing. Paper paralyzes me. Overwhelmed, paper stacks up around me, waiting until I have the stamina to file. I am told it is psychosomatic by a pedantic someone who doesn't appreciate my overwhelm for the true handicap that it is, and instead finds my inability to handle paper as contributing to clutter.

Even after I took out the piles of paper (which are now sitting in the garage still waiting to be filed), I found other aspects a bit disheartening. My office represents a different time in my life. For example, I found brochures and marketing paraphernalia that was once used in our Accidental Business. There was a time when I had so many applications for rental homes that I sent out postcards, telling applicants I would let them know when capital became available. I found some of those postcards.

I found a lot of things that were once used when we were growing. We aren't growing any more.

Somewhere in time gone by--I realize now--I mistook "not growing" for "not thriving." Our company is no longer in the toddler years, needing constant attention. When I read back to my blog posts from years gone by, I am astounded by how much time was taken up by little things. When did I find time for anything else? No wonder we stopped growing! I didn't have time to manage and grow (and the housing collapse didn't help either).

If our business were human, it would be fair to say we are no longer in our early years. It has successfully transitioned into the mellowed existence of young adulthood. We no longer need the daily hand-holding, but instead need the philosophical conversations and the examination of values to help us blossom into full-blown maturity.

We have some of the daily issues still taunting us: vacancies (two right now), late rents and crazy people. That probably is standard with all rentals. The big picture isn't changing too much either: pay the bills, grow the equity. But I hadn't sat back until this week and realized my Accidental Business has grown. It is a constant changing entity that doesn't need the myopic management it received before.

I didn't realize how grateful I was for this transition until now. It is time to move on. My business did this years ago. I am just now catching up.