Monday Wake up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Play Good morning! Did you find time to play this weekend? By play, I mean did you do something you really enjoy versus all the stuff you “had” to do? We each enjoy our free time differently – for some, it’s quiet time reading a book; for others, it’s running five miles; still others enjoy a round of golf or a night out with friends. In our hectic lives, many of us focus so heavily on work and other commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we’ve stopped playing. If you don’t plan to have fun, you’re more likely to zone out in front of the TV or sit at a computer when you have some spare time. By giving yourself permission to play with the joyful abandon of childhood, you can reap oodles of health benefits throughout life. Play can: Relieve stress. Play is fun and can trigger the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good chemicals. Endorphins promote a sense of well-being and can even relieve pain. Improve brain function. Playing chess, completing puzzles or pursuing other activities that challenge the brain can help prevent memory problems and improve brain function. Stimulate the mind and boost creativity. You’ll learn a new task better when it’s fun and you’re in a relaxed and playful mood. Play also can stimulate your imagination, helping you adapt and solve problems easier. Improve relationships and your connection to others. Sharing laughter and fun can foster empathy, compassion, trust and intimacy with others. Play doesn’t have to be a specific activity; it also can be a state of mind. Developing a playful nature can help you loosen up in stressful situations, break the ice with strangers, make new friends and form new business relationships. Keep you feeling young and energetic. In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Playing can boost your energy and vitality and even improve your resistance to disease, helping you feel your best. Something to Think About Incorporating more fun and play into your daily life can improve the quality of your relationships as well as your mood and outlook. Even in the most difficult circumstances, taking time away from your troubles to play or laugh can go a long way toward making you feel better. It’s true what they say: Laughter really is the best medicine. Laughter makes you feel good. And the good feeling that you get when you laugh and have fun remains with you even after the laughter subsides. Play and laughter help you keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments and loss.   Weekly Activity Schedule time to play this week.   Words of Wisdom “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” – Plato “Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.” – Michael Jordan “Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves – those who work hard and play hard.” – Colin Powell “To find a man’s true character, play golf with him.” – P.G. Wodehouse “The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Monday Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

Father’s Day Good morning! Did you do something special yesterday to celebrate Father’s Day? Father’s Day honors fathers and celebrates fatherhood, paternal bonds and the influence fathers have on society. Dads play such an important role – not just in society, but in the lives of those around them. Even as adults, the influence of a father is ever present.   My father was tough and demanded the best in everything we did. He always said, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.” At the time, I thought he was too tough. Today I realize that my desire to “get it right the first time” stems from my upbringing, and it has served me well in business. If I was facing discouraging odds, he would say, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” If I was afraid, he would quote Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous words from his inaugural speech during the Great Depression of the 1930s: “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself.”   He instilled in me the value of working hard. Success, he would tell me, is 10 percent talent and 90 percent hard work. Above all, he loved me unconditionally, and his influence on my childhood has reached far into adulthood.   Something to Think About Our fathers help shape us into the people we become. As a parent, you help shape your own children. Being a father is an awesome responsibility and one that brings great joy!   Weekly Activity  Spend quality one-on-one time with someone special this week – someone who has helped you become the person you are. It can be anyone, even a child.   Words of Wisdom “My father gave me the greatest gift he could ever give another person: he believed in me.” – Jim Valvano “My father always told me, find a job that you love, and you will never work a day in your life.” – Jim Fox “When I was a boy of 14, my dad was so ignorant that I could barely stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in 7 years!” – Mark Twain “You don’t raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they will turn out to be heroes, even if just in your own eyes.” – Walter Schirra Sr. “A working definition of fathering might be this: Fathering is the act of guiding a child to behave in ways that lead to the child's becoming a secure child in full, thus increasing his or her chances of being happy and fruitful as a young adult.” – Clyde Edgerton

Five Cost-Saving Features in Energy-Efficient Homes

As the largest locally owned realty firm in Greater Syracuse, John Arquette Properties is determined to find clients the perfect home. In this economy, cost efficiency is key, and energy-efficient homes are trending. Here are some aspects of cost-conscious homes that benefit anyone buying a home.

(1) Roofing Material

The type of roof on a home can either cut or increase costs dramatically. A house should have a cool roof, which means the material is made of a type of reflective material so heat can bounce off and make the home easier to cool, to be truly energy efficient. This is especially cost effective in warmer climates.

(2) Skylights

Sometimes, people who are new to buying a home view skylights as strictly decorative or unnecessarily expensive. However, they can actually be a great way to make your home more energy efficient. Skylights provide direct, natural lighting that will help cut expenses on the power bill, as will their ability to improve ventilation and heating.

(3) Decor Choices

Design choices such as having ceiling fans in each room or the exterior paint color can affect heating and cooling costs. Fans help circulate air and lead to lower power bills. Further, lighter colors on the outside of the home can help reflect heat.

(4) Ventilation & Sealing

Making sure windows and doors are properly sealed, as well as providing proper ventilation in your home, are a few of the many ways to save when buying a home. Well-sealed homes require mechanical ventilation, which prevents mold by bringing in filtered, fresh air. This not only helps with health concerns, but it also saves money by not using natural gas or outdated furnaces.

(5) Proper Insulation

Insulation is, perhaps, the most important way to make a house cost effective. For example, adding extra insulation between walls and not forgetting to insulate the upstairs and attic areas can keep costs down by a tremendous amount. The more insulation, the better and easier it is to heat and cool the entire house.

These practical and effective features of energy-efficient homes are great items to look for in your next house. Contact our offices today and we'll get started on finding the right one for you.

Monday Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

All Smiles… Good morning! How was your weekend? What brought you joy this past week? What made you smile? Did you know that smiling has many benefits to your well-being? Consider this: Neurotransmitters called endorphins are released when you smile. Endorphins are responsible for making us feel happy, and they also help lower stress levels. Faking a smile or laugh works as well as the real thing – the brain doesn’t differentiate between real or fake, as it interprets the positioning of the facial muscles in the same way. The more we stimulate our brains to release this chemical, the more often we feel happier and relaxed. Endorphins act as the body’s natural painkiller. For sufferers of chronic pain, laughing and smiling can be very effective in pain management, as can laughing off the pain when you bump an elbow or fall. Laughing expands the lungs, stretches the muscles and stimulates homeostasis. This exercises the body, replenishing the cells from a lungful of oxygen. Smiling is an attractive expression, which is more likely to draw people to you, which is great for salespeople. Smiling makes you appear more approachable. Interaction with others is easier and more enjoyable when smiles and laughs are shared, and these behaviors are contagious, making others feel better too. Something to Think About A happy, positive expression will always serve you well in life. This is particularly true for challenging situations such as stressful real estate transactions. Our clients depend on us to stay cool, calm, collected and positive. A relaxed persona indicates confidence and an ability to cope well in stressful situations. Weekly Activity There are many simple ways to bring more smiles and laughter into your life. This week, brighten your days by doing the following:  Smile and laugh regularly.As I mentioned, your brain doesn’t know the difference between a fake smile and a real smile. Laughing and smiling more often will make you feel better, and you will become more likely to smile and laugh spontaneously. Watch funny films, TV and theater shows. Spend time with friends and family who make you feel happy or who cause you to laugh. Find things to smile and laugh about.

Monday Wake Up Call

Monday Wake Up Call: Your Motivation, Inspiration, & Direction for the Week Ahead

JOY Welcome to the beginning of summer! There’s something magical about June for so many people. For students, it’s the end of the school year. For teachers, it’s the end of the school year! Some are planning family vacations, others are graduating, still others are getting married. June is a month of JOY. Joy is an emotion, a feeling… something that happens without us thinking about it. Many people think of joy and happiness as being the same but, in fact, they’re very different. Happiness is an emotion aroused when we buy a new car or get a promotion at work. It’s dependent on our circumstances occurring in accordance with our desires. Joy, however, is an emotion that occurs within us when we develop an appreciation/thankfulness for things such as nature, freedom, relationships with people and faith in something larger than ourselves.   Joy and happiness are both great feelings, but being happy is a result of good circumstances, and we can’t rely on good circumstances all the time. Joy, on the other hand, is an emotion that can be present in our daily lives. It’s something we can work on daily, much like the process of getting physically fit. Writing the three things you are most grateful for in a gratitude journal each night is a great way to practice joy.   Joy is a powerful emotion and the opposite of fear, our second most influential emotion. These two emotions are in constant battle and, when joy loses to fear, we withdraw and forget all that we have to be joyful for. One of my favorite sayings in times of fear is: Faith and fear cannot co-exist, so you must choose one! Look around, and you will see that you have much to be joyful about. Something to Think About Teaching yourself to be joyful is the single greatest thing you can do to enhance your health. Advancing medical technology is teaching us that the human physiology and psyche are affected by negative and positive emotions. Our three primary negative emotions – fear, anger and sadness – have devastating effects on our bodies when experienced in a prolonged state. On the other hand, our two primary positive emotions – joy and excitement – are like medicine to the body. Which do you choose? Weekly Activity Who in your life is joyful? Think of the different people in your life, and make a list of those who seem most joyful. Here are some traits you might see in them: They’re in good health, they value discipline and strong relationships, and they’re appreciative and thankful. Now make a list of those who are negative and fearful. What are their common traits? How are their relationships? How do you feel when you’re around them? Drained? This week, make a conscious decision to spend more time in the company of those who are joyful, and see how you feel. Words of Wisdom “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson   “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” –Albert Einstein   “When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Tecumseh   “We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we'll also have a lot more joy in living.” – Thich Nhat Hanh   “Once you have to start counting calories, it takes away from the joy of eating.” – Mireille Guiliano