In 2024, Self-Agency Will Lead to New Opportunities in Commercial Real Estate Finance
By Roger Porter and Olga Brandeis
“You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf,” is a proverb found in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Wherever You Go, There You Are, an insightful book about the power of meditation. The quote accompanies a poster of Swami Satchitananda, a wise and passionate yogi, riding a surfboard atop a Hawaiian wave.
At the heart of Kabat-Zinn’s thoughtful reference to the poster of the yogi master is self-agency, a notion that we are in command of our own destiny. Though the waves of the mind are ever-present, meditation teaches our spirit how to ride the surf like a pro. In the same way we must accept the waves and learn to surf them, we must see the changes in commercial real estate finance and utilize our self-agency to create new opportunities for the year ahead.
Why is self-agency the optimal word for commercial real estate finance in 2024? “Retail property owners holding loans that are set to mature in this higher interest rate environment are bracing for impact,” according to ICSC, an industry-leading publication. “Borrowers will feel the pain of more expensive capital and tighter credit, and pockets of distress will emerge among weaker assets.” In fact, $540.6 billion in commercial mortgages will mature in 2024. Thus, I’m putting self-agency at the center of the new year for my business. This means I embrace my personal agency to accept the present moment and use it to forge ahead with new deals and new industry partnerships. In essence, I’m repositioning my mindset around the realities of my industry – learning to surf the waves, if you will – to create new opportunities.
Self-Agency for 2024 starts with letting go.
Letting go is about release. This can be from past events, old relationships, time-worn memories, or anything that holds you back from growth. In commercial real estate finance, we have to let go of historic rates and former underwriting metrics to progress forward in an ever-changing marketplace. What is life but evolution and growth? “To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling,” writes
Kabat-Zinn, “in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them… it’s akin to letting your palm open to unhand something you have been holding onto.”
What does Kabat-Zinn refer to when he writes “something more powerful and wholesome?” In my opinion, he’s referring to our self-agency. When we put our hands in the clay, we allow ourselves to release the old, take command of our lives, and move in a new direction. Letting go isn’t just about ending the struggle, it is about making space for a future that is powerful and wholesome.
*Mindfulness tip for letting go: To borrow from Kabat-Zinn’s lake meditation, picture a serene lake in your mind – the embodiment of stillness, a forest mirror of calm and tranquility. Try the lake meditation to calm the waters of your mind and allow a space for letting go.
Another tenet for self-agency in 2024 is trust.
“Trust is a feeling of confidence or conviction that things can unfold within a dependable framework that embodies order and integrity,” writes Kabat-Zinn. Put in different terms, he is saying to trust the process. In commercial real estate finance, the disruptions in the market have caused several banks to close. In their place, new banks have popped up with the promise of new streams of capital. I see this as an opportunity to trust that the new banks will come together and drive the industry forward. Many may be worried in the transition, but if we lean on trust “[it] protects us from harm or self-destruction.”
*Mindfulness tip for trust: Begin by thinking about every way you trust yourself; dwell on these ideas. If you struggle to find ways you trust yourself, go deeper into your meditation and you’ll arrive at the present moment. Focus on your breathing and simply be in the now. Trust will find its way to you.
Lastly, resourcefulness opens the door to self-agency in the new year.
Resourcefulness, in a way, is one of the foundational components of agency. It asks us to reorient ourselves around a problem, to see it from a different perspective, therefore, opening the door to new opportunities. I root into resourcefulness, calling to it in my mindfulness practice, which allows me to brainstorm solutions, and collaborate with trusted partnerships. Kabat-Zinn’s metaphor of the waves of the mind helps me to surf with confidence.
As discussed in his book, the best way to arrive at resourcefulness, however, is when we release ourselves of intention, expectation and the choppy waters of stress and anxiety that stir in a storm. “So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all,” writes Kabat-Zinn. “But ultimately the winds of life and of the mind will blow, do what we may. Meditation is about knowing something about this and how to work with it.”
*Mindfulness tip for resourcefulness: Let go of any intention or expectation, hang-up or distress. Take a moment of stillness and present yourself to the quiet. A settled mind will find resourcefulness in the stillness, and we may be pleasantly surprised by the new ideas, thoughts and solutions that come to mind.
Agency in 2024 looks like letting go of the past, leaning into trust for a stable and empowered future, and embracing resourcefulness to uncover strategic solutions.
I focus on these tenets of self-agency for 2024 in my meditation to set my intention on a year of opportunity and growth in my personal and professional life. And I know that the source of achieving these results – my vision for a fruitful year ahead – lies in my meditation practice itself. Why? Because as Kabat-Zinn puts it, the daily embodiment of my vision lives in the practice and contains what I value most deeply.
How will you utilize self-agency in the new year?
What do you think, readers? Drop a comment in the submission form linked here – I’d love to hear from you!
