Pulling the Trigger

I am going to learn to "pull the trigger." No, I am not taking shooting lessons....there's a scary thought. I am going to do some of those things I say I am going to do but just never seem to get done. Coming to this resolution is at least partly a result of losing my mother suddenly and without warning. I will always regret things I did not say or do while she was here. Oddly, it's that very tendency to procrastinate, to put off doing both the big and little things, that I saw in my mother and my relationship with my mother and frequently see in myself.

For purposes of this blog, I am thinking more about those fun things...at least they should be fun.... the sometimes material things that we all postpone for every possible reason. We don't have time. We don't have the money. We don't know if it's the right thing. We worry about the economy. We just can't decide to "pull the trigger."

As a realtor, I see this kind of thinking all the time. And, although as an analyzer myself I understand it, I do worry that buyers who overanalyze today's market may miss out on one of the best home buying opportunities in years. Just pull the trigger, right?

Recently my sisters and I helped my dad remodel the beachfront condo he shared with my mom for nearly forty years. In all that time, the only upgrading they did was when hurricane water damage forced a few minor improvements. I commented to my sister that it made me sad to think that our mother never saw the "new condo" and never had a chance to enjoy it. To that my sis commented, "Mother talked about it all the time. She just would never pull the trigger." That is so....well so....Dee.

I talk with my husband all the time about making memories with our children. Those camping trips we continue to postpone, the Disney discussions, the promises to go here or there or do this or that are so well-intentioned but just never seem to happen. One day soon we will be begging the children to go somewhere with us, and they will simply be too busy or have better things to do. It's the circle of life, I suppose.

Speaking of children, there is no doubt, no room for discussion, no discourse whatsoever....my Baby Girl Kate is a trigger puller. Her "Ready, Fire, Aim" attitude drives her mother crazy at times. But it is probably going to take her places I can only imagine. My tendency to get hung up in analysis paralysis is most assuredly a character trait I inherited from my mom and just as certainly, thankfully, one my daughter missed.

Whether buying jeans or furnishing a house, I just have trouble making up my mind. There are so many choices out there. Why is it so easy for the "Kates" of the world to make a choice while others of us wrangle with the details of a seemingly endless game of pros and cons. I never could have been a guest on "Let's Make a Deal." Three weeks after stepping up to the mike with Monty Hall (or whoever this new guy of the new version is) I would still be trying to rationalize the decision to choose door number one or door number two.

We have postponed for years doing some needed things in our home. Again, I am proving to be my mother's daughter. I either don't have the money or time or can't decide what I want to do....always some excuse, some reason for delay. But, this fall, I am stepping out of the seeming comfort of indecision. I may not have the money or the time, but By George, I will have a master bath! Look out world......I'm pulling the trigger!