REAL LIFE WEEK - Lessons Learned from a Week of Debauchery

After spending a weekend in Aruba at a Ritz-Carlton hotel, Lars tells us some lessons he learned from a week of (pre-meditated) debauchery. 

First and foremost: Consistency. Here at Real Estate B-School, we have been singing the praises of consistency for as long as we’ve been around. Now, one of the things we may think is that setting a goal and consistently making progress towards that goal is good, and it is. But one of the things I think we can challenge ourselves to be better in is remaining consistent after the fact - if your goal is to lose 20lbs, you’ll be consistent until you’ve met your goal - but then what?

Don’t lose the weight just to put it back on again. Pick achievable, but open ended goals that you can measure, but don’t necessarily have a designated stopping point if it’s a goal you want to remain consistent and push towards. Consistency is the difference between a challenge and a commitment. 

We also have to get back on track after slippage. Instead of looking at what’s in front of you and pushing off responsibility until a good starting date, focus on getting right back on track after you slip a little. Don’t throw away your progress because of a little slip up or a mistake. Instead use that as a motivator to get right back up on your feet and don’t lose any more ground. 

There’s a book called Eat To Live by Joel Firman that talks about how plant based food is the way to the highest levels of health. For the next 30 days, not to be confused with what was mentioned in consistency above, there will be a trial of this style of eating - all this to jump start getting back on track.

The final lesson from this week of debauchery is that health just feels better. The long term benefits of upkeeping your health severely outweigh the temporary benefits of debauchery - whether you choose to eat, drink, binge-watch, or indulge in anything you find satisfying but ultimately know is unsustainable and bad. 

This, of course, isn’t without its own parallel in business. Whether it’s financially, morally, or otherwise -  staying on top of your game in leadership just feels better than letting yourself fall off the wagon. Even if it’s just measuring your net worth and keeping on track of it - staying aware proves itself again and again. 

We all only have one shot on this earth, and we need to make the most of it. Do your best to love and serve others with everything you have.