Is that post title cryptic enough for you? What do lightbulbs have to do with real estate? Well, it’s not about LEDs or CFLs, it’s about priorities. Confused? Hopefully I can shed light on the subject.

Photo credit: photohannah on Flickr. CC license

As real estate agents and brokers, we have no shortage of people offering advice to us. Marketing companies harvest our email addresses from our MLS and send us all kinds of “surefire” ways to increase our business. Real estate “coaches” encourage us to prospect more. Market more. Blog more. List more. Sell more. Do more. Make more.

But almost nobody mentions maintaining some semblance of a life. What about your personal time? Your family? Your friends? Your physical health? Your sanity?

Look, I get it. First things first, like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, right? You’ve gotta feed and shelter yourself first before taking care of that other stuff. But, as we approach the end of the second year of a pretty decent real estate market, it might be time to start thinking about priorities.

So what does this have to do with lightbulbs? Well, recently I was listening to a new podcast called Hello Internet. It’s CGP Grey (the dude who makes the fascinating and informative videos on YouTube about things like The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England, or Holland vs the Netherlands, etc.) and his friend Brady Haran (a journalist and fellow YouTube star) just talking about various stuff.

This particular episode, entitled Four Light Bulbs, was about life/work balance. He used the analogy of four light bulbs: Family, Friends, Health and Work. Given that a human being has only a finite amount of time and energy to dedicate to these bulbs, how are you going to distribute yours? The more you put into Work, the less you have for Family, Friends and Health. I’m betting that many of us have been putting too much into the Work bulb lately and not enough into the rest.

Philosophers and electrical engineers alike may argue that it’s a flawed analogy. Surely they’re right, but that’s really not the point. You may want to rename the bulbs or add some additional ones, or choose a different analogy entirely. The point is to put some thought into it. Just sayin’.

Photo credit: photohannah on Flickr. CC license