Perseverance Is A Superpower

Someone I know well has been working hard on an enormous, daunting project for a very, very long time.

The project was ambitious. The predictable obstacles were many. 

The romance and the vision of the outcome was compelling, though, and it was clear that there was only one thing to do: 

Embark. Begin. Make it happen.

Years have gone by. Obstacles have been surmounted. AND, new, bigger obstacles have emerged.

Some of that time, the objective was clear. The necessity of the next task was evident. The will to do it was unquestionable. “The Way” was a no-brainer.

And some of that time, the failures were all around. The futility was apparent. The temptation to give up, ubiquitous. The voices of the naysayers and the resigned … they drowned out everything.

In those times … when despair rules … that is when we reach deep.

And hey, let’s get real. Sometimes in those dark moments, we continue because, well … the alternative is just unthinkable. I mean, we can’t see the Promised Land, but we don’t have a better answer, so we keep going.

This person I know well, this loved one, has seen, today, a turning point.  A transformational place where all past efforts have combined to create a new reality. What was once merely a static display, a dream, has become What Is. The predictable, almost-certain future changed into something else again, something entirely new, a future that wasn’t going to just happen. 

There will never be a return to what was before. An egg, once cooked, is never going to be uncooked. A person, once transformed, will never go backwards.

What am I trying to say, here? It’s this:

There is part of us that wants change. The status quo will not do. Something must alter or we won’t go on.

There is also a part of us that craves predictability, and safety, and stasis. 

These two aspects of our being are both essential. And they must be reconciled.

There is a place we reach for, for the strength to go on, to do the next right thing when all the evidence says we are wasting our time.

Perseverence.

Perseverence is a superpower.

We may not all be world-class, brilliant minds. Hell, the law of large numbers says few of us are. 

We may not all be Picasso. Or Shakespeare. Or DaVinci. It couldn’t matter less.

What matters is that we keep showing up. That we persevere. 

“But, Preston, I have given up so many times! Obviously, I lack what it takes.”

To which I say: Yeah, me too. Felt that. Many days. Sometimes it’s a moment-by-moment thing.

Just keep showing up. Again.

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My older brother and his wife bought a boat. The idea was that they could live inexpensively, and retire now from their careers of 25+ years, and travel, and explore, and get off the ground to discover something new – a new life, a new reality, something new within themselves.

They did their homework. They looked at boats for a long time. They bought an older, affordable, fixer-upper of a boat. They moved aboard. They hauled out to make some repairs and get the old girl seaworthy. 

They found problems. Big ones. One after another.

That was almost 9 years ago. For 9 years they lived out of the water on this boat as they worked it out and tackled one problem after another. Summers, falls, winters, springs, stuck in a boat yard. Ups and downs? They had them. Black periods of despair? They had them. Challenges with no solutions? Many times. Stress? Don’t even go there. Sometimes, the dream, the life, just looked like it couldn’t happen.

Last month, on the highest, full-moon tide of the month, they put their ship back in the water. And their world changed. The boat is not complete, there is more to be done – but it floats. It runs. It can leave the dock, and they can experience life aboard for the first time … a foreshadowing of the life to come, this time of their lives they envisioned from the outset. 

Overnight, the never-ending, fixer-upper, black-hole of a project became something else. It became the dream made real.

They did not live happily ever after. There is no such thing, except in fairy tales. New problems come along. Things break, things wear out, rust never sleeps. New people, places, and things – even wonderful ones – are disruptive and require adjustment and growth. 

Isn’t that the story of us humans? It’s … kind of what we do.

Perseverence is a superpower.

This post is copied from my other website, prestonlarus.com, which is for my professional coaching business.

Spotlight on Sarabay Coves Condominiums

You can spend a million or even much more on waterfront property that has deep water dockage — and if you’ve got it to spend, why not?

But what if you don’t? There are plenty of places where you can spend wage-earner money and have access to the same water as everybody else — like Sarabay Coves.

Sarabay Coves is in the northeast corner of Sarasota Bay:

From the street, it’s just north of the Sarasota-Manatee county line and accessible to both areas. The airport is a 10-dollar cab ride. The address, in case you want to play around in Google Maps or Google Earth, is 1714 69th Ave W Bradenton FL 34207.

66 condos in 3 buildings (parking at ground level and 3 stories above that) with a swimming pool, club house, and tennis courts. Sale prices are in the high 90s and low 100s for a 2 bedroom, one-thousand square foot condo. Monthly condo fees will run around $450 a month and that includes all maintenance and insurance except what’s inside your condo (or your boat).

The DOCKs, though, are where it’s at! Dock a boat up to 42 feet, draft to 5 feet, for just $1.50 per month, and just walk up to your condo when you’re done!

The last time I checked, a slip of that size at Marina Jack in downtown Sarasota was $500 a month — and you have to share the bathroom facilities! Hmmm.

All of the condos have screened lanais. The view will depend on which side of the building you are on, with the best ones facing west toward the Gulf — but even those are affordable. If you can live with one facing town to the east, the price will be well under $100,000. Every now and then a 1-bedroom unit becomes available as well, priced commensurately lower.

The view to the west looks over the rooftops of Trailer Estates, a long-established manufactured home community. I’ve heard people express that as a drawback, but I have a different view(!): each homeowner in Trailer Estates owns their own lot … and that means it is highly unlikely that a developer will build some huge high-rise to block your view of the sunset over Sarasota Bay!

All in all, Sarabay Coves is quite a little secret hideaway for boat people.  To see what’s available right now,  either drop me a line or search the MLS at my site http://www.oursarasota.com.

2012: My New Year’s resolution is early this year

It’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by without me posting on this blog … or Facebook … or LinkedIn … or pretty much ANYwhere. Embarrassing. Someone said that life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, and I guess my own example supports that thesis.

Faced with a long gap in writing, a variety of thoughts crowd in … none of them really conducive to picking up the pen/keyboard again. Excuses, reasons, justifications … all the way on down to doubt, recriminations, self-loathing … good God, man, better get a grip!

A recurrent theme in those mental meanderings is, “What can I write about?” Something interesting, something engaging, something useful to readers? Truth is, it better be interesting to me first or it won’t get written, I suppose.

The professional practice of real estate is a lot about focused research on a particular area/neighborhood. One cannot be an expert on everything, everywhere, but it is possible to achieve a 90th-percentile level of knowledge of any neighborhood in a fairly short time, and we realtors do that all the time, as the need arises in order to serve a customer. The results of that research can get tucked away in a file cabinet for future reference but I think it’s more useful to plaster it up on this blog instead. It’s fun for me, it’s good information and it won’t get lost in my filing cabinets this way. So periodically, I’ll add another “Neighborhood Focus” blurb. That’s my New Year’s resolution, a little early this year.

Naturally, since boats and waterfront is on my mind much of the time, that’s where the “Focus” will wind up most of the time. Aw, gee.

Stump Pass one fine day

Sometimes you just gotta do …

… what you gotta do. Sunday it was pretty cool here still,  but we were driving across the Ringling bridge and the water looked so good we just had to go boating. By the time we got out, the sun had gone down a little further and the wind had come up a little more, so it was not quite as balmy as we had hoped!

We’re coming in New Pass, and that’s the Sarasota skyline behind Cynthia. In the lower right corner is my foot with some new Vibram Five Finger footwear. Like going barefoot but with a little protection on the sole for those of us that have to wear shoes for work every day and so don’t have the tough feet we had when we were little! They feel great, and I expect they’ll feel even better when the weather warms up about 10 degrees.

Waterfront for $110,000

You wouldn’t think it’s possible … but it is!

I actually went and viewed this one yesterday … a 1/1 manufactured home in Trailer Estates, Bradenton FL … just a few minutes from my home office.

It’s on a deep water canal with no bridges to the bay. I know it’s deep because there is a sailboat docked opposite this unit.

I’ve never lived in a trailer, but I’ve lived aboard a boat, and I’ll tell you: A trailer, er, manufactured home, is more spacious. That’s ’cause it’s rectangular, you know, no pointy ends or graceful curves. It also has a real bathroom, real municipal water and sewer, never gets barnacles, and never sinks at its mooring.

Think of a trailer with dock space behind it as a boat slip you own, with an extra little dwelling where you can keep some tools and a washing machine!

Anyhow — it’s cool in an old-Florida, low-overhead, unpretentious sort of way. Not for everyone, to be sure — but one way of living the waterfront dream on very limited bucks! Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.

FEMA rules for additions to exisiting waterfront homes

So you want to buy a waterfront home — one that was built prior to the latest hurricane codes. It needs updating and an addition to the building would be nice too … Not so fast.

Please, before making an offer, know what you can and cannot do with that structure! Start by calling the local Zoning department and asking lots of questions. For example, the cost of your new permitted work may not

A slice out of time

The old Ruth Louise, in photos from the late '50s - early '60s. Am I just a nostalgia freak, or are these older boats uniquely handsome?

I have a waterfront listing in downtown Sarasota that was owned by the same family continuously from about 1946 until recently. I attended the estate sale held there today, and an old scrapbook of the owner’s was for sale. A couple of pictures caught my eye, and I asked to have them. The Ruth Luise, named after the matriarch of the clan, is shown here, and I believe the body of water is Whittaker Bayou, just down the way from the house. In other photos, she was shown with the Clewiston locks in the background – these are in central Florida, separating Lake Okeechobee from the waters leading to the Gulf of Mexico. Apparently the owners got around a bit in her. When I was a boy, boats like this were common. Now that they are scarce, I can’t help but feel that something precious has been lost.

Some “Ins and Outs” of condo insurance

So you have a unit in a condo association, and part of your monthly (or quarterly) condo fee goes for insurance — so your troubles are over, right?

Well … not so much (and most of you know this), because the condo insurance doesn’t cover the inside of your unit. You have to purchase your own policy for your interior and contents.

What most folks don’t know is the “Ins and Outs” of that insurance and what to expect in case there is a loss, so let’s fix that. Spending a few minutes asking a few extra questions of your insurance agent and making sure you know what

New condo insurance law is causing indigestion

Effective January 1, 2009, condominium unit owners are required by state law to carry insurance, and condo associations have the right to purchase it bill the unit owners. This has hundreds of calls flooding in to state representatives’ offices from angry condo owners. Insurance can cost from $1,000 to $5,000 a year depending on

I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor …

“I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor; Believe me, honey, rich is better.”

 — Sophie Tucker, American singer, 1884-1966

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor, but whether money is abundant, I’ve always been a do-it-yourself person. I’ve paid others to do what I was capable of doing lots of times, because I was too busy with other things, or not interested enough to take it on, or just lazy. Quite often, I experience that those who should be able to do a better job than me (professionals, for example) actually do not, and I wind up wishing I had done it! Maybe this has happened to you?

Now, I’m not talking about cutting my own hair or changing my own oil … I’m just saying that