Monday Motivation, 2.1.2021

Written by: Kaitlyn Gwaltney

Every Monday, The Rogers-Long Team meets for one of its two weekly meetings. The Monday meeting always ends with “Monday Motivation” in which a few minutes are spent listening to one team member presenting a quote, a quick reading from a book, a scene from a movie, or anything else they find motivating to provide a “spark” to the whole team on a Monday morning.

We all know that a new year bring on new challenges, new goals, and new beginnings. Majority of the people I know have set their goals for the year and are on track for hitting them. There are also some people who make their goals at the beginning of the year and delay getting started until October/November. One of my smaller goals this year is to find time 4 days a week to read. No specific genre, no specific length of time, just read.

My first book of 2021 is called “The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life before 8AM”.  I’m only about half way through it, however, I’ve really enjoyed it and would recommend it. Author, Hal Elrod, tells his story from a tragic life event that happened when he was just 20 years old and the steps he has taken to overcome and change his life around. While there have been a handful of things that have stuck out to me, there was one thing specifically that really was a “light bulb” moment for me. Blame vs. Responsibility. During the introduction, Hal explains “It is important to understand that responsibility is not the same as blame. While blame determines who is at fault for something, responsibility determines who is committed to improving things.” He goes on to compare this to a past head-on car accident stating that the driver was at fault and to blame but it was his responsibility to make the outcome of the situation what he wanted it to be. A few sentences later writing “All that matters is that you and I are committed to leaving the past in the past and making our lives exactly the way we want them to be, starting today.”

If I’m being honest, I’ve had this goal of reading for the last few years and have never accomplished it. Even when my 2019 goal was to read four, yes only four, personal development books throughout the year, I only read two. Why? Because I didn’t put enough time/effort into it. I could easily come up with a few excuses such as having a baby is time consuming, being a working mom is hard, waking up early is just “not my thing”.  But the truth is I just wasn’t committed. So here is to being committed to my goals and making my life exactly what I want it to be. I challenge you to look back through your 2020 goals, compare them to your 2021 goals, and make a commitment to yourself to accomplish them!

Kaitlyn Gwaltney, a Realtor with The Rogers-Long Team since 2016, previously worked in the medical field for 6 years before deciding to shift her compassion and dedication toward helping others in a different direction. The RLT excitedly brought Kaitlyn on to work with buyers and sellers due to her humility, inner drive to succeed, and her fun-loving attitude. Kaitlyn has found a lot of early success in her career on The Rogers-Long Team. Kaitlyn lives in Chesterfield with her husband Matthew, and their daughter Lily.