Real Estate & Property Law

Hard Times Are Upon Us; But Have Faith; Things Will Get Better

This post has nothing ... and everything ... to do with HOAs and Condos and financials and devastating losses, difficult times, etc. It is probably not what you would expect from an attorney (at least its not a 4 letter word); however, I like good surprises. Hope you do too.

I was back in the midwest visiting my mother a few weeks ago. In searching for some bedtime reading I went through her bookshelves and picked up a book entitled "Tough Times Don't Last, - Tough People Do" by Reverend Robert C. Schuller. I thought ... hmmmm, sounds like something relevant to the times. Since I am always looking for answers to all kinds of questions, I picked it up and started reading it. Low and behold, it was about hard times, a serious rescession, and how to survive it. The time period of the book was 1982! It could have been talking about today in America. It was talking about the same things people were suffering today. And, among the many other good things I got out of reading the book, it was living proof that tough times never do last!

HOAs and Condo boards, and owners who live in condos and are facing special assessments, job losses, illnesses, and hard times are not alone. These are hard times. If you can find it in your heart and your gut to adopt a positive outlook and hopeful philosophy, which is what I try to live by, it may help.

Everytime some hurdle (or crisis) is put in your way, look for a way to jump over, get someone to throw you over, or get around it. It is okay to stand before it for a time and contemplate what the options are for getting to the other side, and to take all the time you need to research options, but don't sit down and cry for long as that does nothing to get you to the other side of it. And every tear shed and every moment you are worrying about this crisis consumes energy that could be used to look for a solution. If you are on the way "up" (even crawling, scratching, praying and digging your way out of a hole, or struggling to turn that first step toward into recovery from an illness, or searching out the flowers to stop and smell), you are not on the way "down". It's that simple.

I'm certainly no preacher or profit, but I was raised on the premise that the harder you worked, the luckier you got. Both of my parents were survivors of very hard times. And although at the time (each year) I was growing up and into an adult, I did not know it, the annual Christmas and birthday gifts containing the words of Norman Vincent Peale (and the "Power of Positive Thinking") sunk in. The kids in my family got books and pamphlets for gifts - not always appreciated for the value at the time, but timeless as it turns out.

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on September 20, 2009 (boomark / email).