Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The Michael Hatfield remax team presents real.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Estate and more Bay area real estate is different than all of America. And why? What's up with buyers? What's on sellers'minds? How is the market and much, much more.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Now here's your host, Michael Hatfield. Welcome to the real estate and more show. We are definitely about the the more in our show's title today, it falls from your tree or it doesn't. I awoke at 04:00 a.m. This morning feeling a little bit like the Grinch, maybe just a little bit cranky. I didn't particularly feel badly, but more just like pulling the blanket back over my head and murmuring humbug. The problem is that it is not a proper attitude for a realtor like myself to possess. I have property to show, greetings to drop off, appointments to go to and research to do. But then it hit me, this incredibly powerful but yet very old concept. Even before coffee time this morning, I began to ponder a valuable thought recalled from this week's guests and friends who reminded me of this very concept. It was then I knew that even before my feet hit the floor this morning, I would be practicing saying the words, this is the most wonderful day that has been given to me. I will be thankful for it and do whatever good things I can do for others this day. After all, until a person learns to be grateful for what they have, they cannot receive the wonderful things they would like in life. Let's take on this topic this morning and take a moment to carefully listen to some very smart people who have good to say on this very topic. This is our holiday Christmas show. You are welcome here and thank you for listening.
I said just the other day to well known radio personality Pat Fatucci. With all of the heartache in the world today, what can one do to keep a smile on his face and ask him for his thoughts? What does the word gratitude mean to Pat?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you what. We are blessed in so many ways. First of all, just being in this country, when you look around the world and you just see all the anger and hate and just mean things going on, and we look down the street and we see a peaceful, quiet treeline street, I mean, how much more grateful can we?
We've lived life for a couple years now, Michael, and we know good times and we know bad times. And our bad times are not nearly as bad as some of the things we've seen that some folks are unfortunately in the middle of. And so we've got so much gratitude towards just living in this area of the planet. And I think God's blessed both of us. And I'm sure a lot of your listeners, Michael, feel the same way.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: I have to agree with you now, looking, you're a very positive kind of guy. And even when things are kind of not so great, you always take the positive side of things. And I think that's been a very good reason to have the success that you do. I think it's one of the driving forces. What can you describe as a life changing event? Or was it one of those things where you're in the tank and just kind of learning it over time? What actually has caused you to feel happy in your heart?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Well, I think when you wake up in the morning, Michael, and your feet hit the floor, you make a decision that moment if you're going to be optimistic or pessimistic. And I guess one of the life changing events for me, sadly, I lost two sisters to cancer at a very young age. One was 44 years old and one was 51 years old. They were happily married. Each had one, had one child. And my mom, who just died a couple of years ago, really taught me a lesson. And it was such an epiphany for me. And she said, this is God's wish. And here she is losing two of her daughters. I'm the only surviving child.
She was much younger back in those days. She died at 94. So imagine burying two of your children and saying, pat, this is God's wish. And she was, frankly, very positive about that. Here I am, a basket case.
My life was crumbling in front of me with losing two of my best friends.
Mothers are incredibly strong people, and at that moment in time. And there was nothing more moving to me than my mother's attitude towards losing two of her precious children. And so to me, that was my epiphany, my turning point, if you will. My life changing event that really tested my faith in God and my faith in living. And it was a pretty moving experience.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Mike, I can imagine there's not much more that can happen to anybody than to have to go through the loss of two sisters like that. Two best friends.
I think people of older vintage have a lot. Maybe they have a really great attitude that it is God's wish. It's that we don't control every little thing. We don't control when the engine in our car blows up. We don't really control everything. What do you do with that extra worry that you can do nothing about? What do you do with that? Well, you have to give it to somebody somewhere, somehow. And for me, I know where I go with it.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah. For me, I retreat into prayer. I'm kind of a prayerful guy and I say my prayers every day. And I'm thankful that I've got a great family, I've got great friends like you and Nancy.
Look, life is never perfect. There are always issues.
I think God kind of tests you when he throws you a curveball and he's looking to see how you react to perhaps a bad day or a bad event.
And you've got to look at the positive side and understand we're all being tested from now and now and again and staying positive during very difficult times and whether economy is bad or there are health issues in your family or a friendship goes sour or somebody doesn't treat you well, doesn't treat you with respect, I think it's how you react to all those negative things. And guess what? You're going to have them. Everybody has them. Life is not full of roses and chocolate candy every day. And it's how you react to those bad days, those bad times, those bad events that kind of defines how you handle yourself in everyday issues.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: The country artist Toby Keith was riding around in a golf cart with Clint Eastwood, and this has been years ago, but it's a good story.
And he said to Clint Eastwood, he says, clint, how do you stay so vital and healthy, know more of advanced age than most people? How do you keep doing it? He was actually making a movie at the time, and apparently Mr. Eastwood said, I refuse to let the old man in. I don't let the old man in. And so fast forward to a few years back. Toby Keith gets ill, very seriously ill, terminally ill. And he sits down and he writes a song called don't let the old man in.
And he is, despite his illness, he is very positive. He's came out and has performed it and it's went to the top of the charts and has made a mark. So perhaps people should take that viewpoint, be grateful for what we have and don't let the old man in.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty interesting story. And Harry is what, 95 plus and recently producing movies and we get a lot of nasty stuff in this world and you've got to put your shield on and grease your back and let it all slide off because no one is insulated from some bad stuff. We're all going to go through it. We all have our time in the barrel. And how you come out of it, I think, is a real testament to God's blessing.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Is there some person in your life other than God, whom you would credit your positive, grateful, and thankful attitude.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: To tell you what, my wife has taught me to be even grateful and appreciative, and we all get hung up and lost in the shiny objects that we get distracted with. But she has a way of centering me back, and I'm grateful for her vision and for her testament to just staying positive and not being critical.
She's got a great attitude, and she's taught me patience.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Pat shares that he lost both of his sisters at young ages, and he recalls those heart wrenching times as being pivotal for our next guest.
I am convinced there are walking, talking miracles on this earth today. You are to meet one such member of this elite club of miracles. I asked Michael to share his story with us and asked to hear how this one event has changed his entire reality. Hi, Michael.
What does the word gratitude mean to you, and are you a thankful person by nature?
[00:11:09] Speaker C: Gratitude for me is being conscious of blessings, gifts, or desirable things and events in our life that weren't necessarily earned.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Are you able to describe a life changing event or some other person's act of kindness towards you that has warmed your heart or made you feel grateful, perhaps even changed your outlook on life?
[00:11:34] Speaker C: The brightest point in my life recently was a couple of years ago. I wrecked a motorcycle at an extreme speed and injured myself pretty well, shattered my pelvis, broke ribs, displaced my wrist pretty considerably. So now I've got a bunch of metal and screws putting me back together. But there are dozens of reasons why I shouldn't ever have walked again and much less reclaimed everything and more that I had physiologically prior to the accident, I'm grateful for that. Every time I go for a run or engage in martial arts or do something and remember where I had been and what it was like to sit in a wheelchair or go through that process, I'm grateful that it's come back together.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: So it definitely is a higher power, and I think in some people's cases that they connect with that higher power and they generate their own lifestyle of energy from it. Would you say that that's something that is possible with you?
[00:12:44] Speaker C: The higher power was absolutely critical for the entire process.
The moment that I became conscious of being alive again, laying in the road and in the ambulance and then into the hospital, I was conscious of a higher power within me, and that despite everything that the medical professionals were telling me, I was going to be okay. And it was a surreal experience.
And again, something that I'm extremely grateful for because it solidified a faith that I already had in a way that it's just something you can't get in any rational way.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: I was left out between the exit to two of the Caldecott tunnels with cars whizzing by me at high speeds in the dark, and I wasn't hit again by someone else after sustaining the actual accident. And it would seem to me that you're an actual example of what a miracle can be. Is that right?
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Oh, certainly, yeah. Again, there are dozens of reasons why I should no longer be in this world, much less fully functional.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: What do you do to perpetuate that with other people? Because what you discuss is something that is very useful for the lives of other people and very helpful for the lives of other people. What do you personally do to say, hey, I'm grateful?
How do you do that?
[00:14:22] Speaker C: First of all, you have to be interacting with a person that is open to hearing, whatever your perspective may be. Many people prefer to revel in their dysfunction or their wounds or that kind of thing. And those folks, you allow them to live their life as they please. But the people that are receptive, you can tell them your story, and they can realize that whatever thing, in this case, physiologically, that they may be struggling with, they can find a way to solve it, they can find a way to heal it. And it doesn't necessarily have to come from a rational, a reasonable direction. It doesn't have to be a doctor. It could just plain be placebo or their belief in God that can heal them.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: What you tell your mind to think is definitely going to affect your outlook.
[00:15:16] Speaker C: It's going to affect your entire reality. And when you're aligned with God, it's beyond powerful, it's limitless.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: So you're crediting God for your survival and you're crediting God for your gratitude.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: It wasn't me that plucked me out of the other world and put me back in this one. I mean, yes, absolutely.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: Thank you, Michael.
Fellow Nevada colleague Erin opens up about her journey to what matters in life.
[00:15:46] Speaker D: Hi, Michael. Thank you for having me. Gratitude to me means being appreciative for the people and the opportunities that have been put in my life and that I've been given.
[00:15:59] Speaker E: Has there been any single event that has really opened your eyes? Or do you feel like you're that person that's taken experiences from around you and it's developed? Or how did you get here to where you wake up in the morning and say, it's going to be a wonderful day, it isn't going to be a bad day. It's going to be a wonderful day, and I'm going to do what I can for others to make it just as wonderful. How did you get there?
[00:16:26] Speaker D: Initially, I think it was just something that came naturally to me. And then I was given an opportunity to do a leadership class last year with the state of Nevada, and I was kind of pushed into doing it, and it really changed my perspective on giving and not expecting anything back in return in regards to being a leader. And a lot of our leaders give, and they do it to lift people up and not to expect anything back. And it's definitely an event in my life that changed my perspective and made me a lot more thankful for the everyday things. I started a gratitude journal, and at first it was a little challenging. You're like, okay, what am I grateful for? And then you realize there's so much more to be grateful for.
[00:17:30] Speaker E: I had a young man in here just earlier, and I asked him what it meant to him, and he says he feels grateful for God. And this came as a result of a life changing event where he hit the back of an suv on a motorcycle at 85 miles an hour and lived to tell about it. He was one of those little miracles, and he realized from there he had to draw some gratitude and look for all the things that he does have instead of the things that he doesn't have. Because there's a lot of things we don't have. We don't have Elon Musk, we don't have his fortune. We don't have all of this other. But we do have health, and we do have a lot to wake up to and know. How wonderful can that be? So if you possess an attitude of gratitude and thus thankfulness, what personal actions going ahead do you anticipate that you'll do? What are your thoughts? Aaron?
[00:18:33] Speaker D: Well, I agree with the last person know. Just waking up and having our health and our life and our friends is a lot more valuable than having a pocket full of money. I know I have investors and people who have a lot of money, and they're not happy. So we might not have Elon Musk's finances, but I think sometimes you don't necessarily need that or want.
So one of the big things that I'm going to do this incoming year is community outreach, volunteering in our community, and just helping people of all walks of life, whether they need a little bag of water in a toothbrush and socks, because that seems to be a big thing around here, is people need socks and hats. So just having like a go bag in my car for people on the side of the street that might need it, to volunteering in our community, to different organizations to help our community just become more solid and better and help those in need. I read a book called Giver's Gain and it's all about giving and it's not to get something back. It's more because it makes you feel better internally and you see the world in a different light. When you give, you just naturally it comes back to you. And not that you expect anything back, but I was on the board of a domestic violence advocacy center and I was at the home, the safe house, and one of the ladies came up to me and I was kind of at a point where I was debating on, is this really worth it or not? And one of the women came up to me and said, you saved my life and the work that you do and me being able to come here, you literally saved my life. So it's like those moments where it's just heart wrenching and I'm just cleaning up a storage room or I'm just. But to them, I'm saving their life. So I think just those little things in life make a big difference to other people.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Thank you, Aaron. We're going to take a very short break. Be right back. I'm Michael Hatfield. City team is a credible organization that actually cares for human beings who are poor and are hungry. City team provides food, clothing, shelter and humanitarian services in three Bay Area cities as well as AIDS. Those who are in serious need of a hot meal, please donate what you can spare to city team so they can serve holiday meals to those in dire need. They're able to serve a meal for just $2.49. Yes, just $2.49. Less than a cup of coffee. Help sustain another human being by gifting to city team. Any amount helps. And between now and December 31, any donation you make will be matched by a fellow generous donor. Go to cityteam.org Christmas to help with your important gift. We can make a difference. Go to cityteam.org slant Christmas. That's cityteam.org slant Christmas.
[00:22:05] Speaker D: This is an unpaid endorsement by the.
[00:22:07] Speaker F: Michael Hatfield family for another human being in need.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: And now back to our show.
How actually do people become really nice people with a warm, heartwarming grace towards others? I have lad and Linnae to share their thoughts. Gratitude.
[00:22:28] Speaker E: What does it mean?
[00:22:29] Speaker G: Well, I'll tell you what. I gave this a little bit of thought when you and I chatted last time and it's taking a moment to reflect on how lucky or blessed you are when something good happens, large or small, and to appreciate how or why it happened that way too.
[00:22:48] Speaker E: Absolutely. So it's like an event maybe occurred in your life or was it just a mental process that you came to? What do you happens?
[00:22:57] Speaker G: I feel everything happens for a reason, whether it's promoted by myself or by my doings or Linnae's doings or just by nature of people. I think it's just the way it should be. Everybody should be helping each other, helpful in one way, or love the other person as much as you can.
[00:23:21] Speaker E: Yeah. Sometimes I think setting that attitude requires practice. One of our guests that was just on the show said that every morning you have to get up and say, I am grateful for what I have, not for what I don't have. So if you possess an attitude of gratitude, every day you wake up and say, I feel a little, no, I'm not going to feel that way. I'm going to feel great and I.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: Feel pretty good today.
[00:23:49] Speaker E: You change that whole attitude.
[00:23:53] Speaker G: Well, one thing I found out is there's always people that wake up on stay at the sunnier side of bed. And I always take each day if the sun's going to shine, it's a good day. And that really sets the motion for me to walk through the day making the best of everything I can make.
[00:24:09] Speaker E: I believe that when you're kind to someone else and you give in a nice way, that it does tend to come back, comes back through the ionosphere or whatever that we live in. And it helps practice that attitude of gratitude.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Thank you, lad. And Linnae, to add a little bit more to our topic of gratitude and what it means to you, we have a very special lady in studio. Her name is Amy. And so let me say, amy, what does the word gratitude mean to you?
[00:24:43] Speaker F: Well, I think when I lay down at night, the first thing I do is I say, thank you, God, for this day, and thank you for everything that you've given me. And sometimes that day has been awful. And then I say, and today was a doozy.
But thank you for helping me work through it. Thank you for the fact that after all is said and done, I lay my head down in this bed with these people in my home, surrounded by so much love, surrounded by grace and mercy and honestly, so many blessings as I look back at my life. And so I think that truly is when I think of gratefulness, it's just that simple task of sitting still long enough to let all the noise go and to really focus on truly what matters the most. And then the next day, want to get up and give that back to somebody else and make sure that you continue to bless other people's lives, because I truly am so blessed in so many ways.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: So you're by nature a thankful person, or was there an event that actually changed your way of thinking?
[00:25:46] Speaker F: I would say, but I grew up old, so of six kids, so family was always extremely important to us, and that's just kind of how we lived. We didn't live a very extravagant life. We didn't have a lot, but we didn't really long for anything either. So there was a balance to all that. And I think that's just my mom's way. That's my family's way of no matter what we had or didn't have, we just woke up knowing we just lived our lives knowing that we needed to be thankful for what we had. Because, yes, others had more, but so many people didn't have what we have. And my mom's that kind that was always like, well, if we have this, we're giving away this part of it, because we don't really need all of this. And so I think just growing up focus, and obviously, I can't deny that a lot of that was faith based. When you grow up in the church, when you grow up with a Christianity philosophy and background, and you truly watch that be lived out, that you adopt that for the most part, or I adopted that, I should say. And so there wasn't necessarily one life changing event that led to that. I mean, certainly there's been events where I can describe to you where people have been just so kind and so generous to me personally. That would get me to a point where I thought, wow, this has really been life changing. I think my grandmother, who is probably the simplest person I watch live, when I was 24, I told her, grandma, I want to buy a house. And she goes, okay. So she helped me buy a house. At 24, friends were living with me, and I look back, I go, gosh, at the time, I didn't really know, and I didn't know, but my grandma loved me enough, trusted me enough, wanted to see me be successful. But there wasn't like that tragic, unfortunate day that I had to really change directions.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: Thank you, Amy. You've been listening to the real estate and more show, and we've been talking about the concept of life changing gratitude. Gratitude for what you have, what it means to us in our lives, and how we can use it to help others we'll be right back with part two, more interesting guests and their stories. Stay tuned.
