Book Recommendations to Re-Light the Fire

[Jason V.]

Hey All! It's been a while since I've posted here, but I thought this would be a good place to come for some input. 

I've been a member for coming up on two years, and have been investing in real estate for a while longer than that, always part-time. When the market was 'bad' my wife and I were fairly aggressive, and we might be what a lot of newer folks consider 'successful' with our real estate investing. 

On top of our full-time jobs (my wife is an RN, and I'm an Automation Engineer) we own a small business that makes specialty service tools for a couple of specific industries. It's a small market, but lucrative, and there's a ton of room for growth in a couple of different areas. 

Most importantly, we have three children, and are in the final steps of adopting our 4th. 

None of these things are terribly new, and for years we've managed it all well - as well as any 'normal' people manage their 'normal' lives anyway. But for the last 3-4 months, I just can't seem to find my drive. I have all the opportunities in the world, but just can't seem to find the motivation to even try to capitalize on them, other than going through the motions. 

So I'm looking for some suggestions of great books to read that have helped you out of a similar slump. I've tried to get back to reading the business books that I have, but I can't even seem to focus on those the way I used to. It's just so much easier to pick up a fiction novel, or (horror of horrors) watch something on YouTube or Netflix. I've got a shelf full of business/motivational books, quite a few of them unread, but I really need something different to shake things up I think. 

I'm not even sure what I'm looking for specifically - I just need to bust out of this slump. 

Thanks all!

[Jason V.]

Originally posted by @Bettina F.:

Have you ever adopted before? I adopted 2 preschoolers in the 1990s. Both the kids came with undiagnosed emotional issues that took a lot of time, energy and therapy. Your RE motivation slump may be a blessing in disguise.

Best wishes on your growing family!

Yep - all of our kids are adopted actually. We adopted our first daughter from Colombia in 2013, she's 8 now. Our oldest is 14, and our youngest is 5 - they were adopted at the same time from Armenia, and have been home about 2.5 years now. All three of our kids have Down syndrome, and the younger two are still non-verbal. 

The son we're about to finalize the adoption of is 10, hard of hearing (potentially correctable) and has Cerebral Palsy. 

And I completely agree, and really appreciate your tactful words of caution. If we weren't already experienced and comfortable handling children with histories of trauma and neglect, this adoption would weigh a lot more heavily on my mind than it does. As it stands, this is just what normal for us looks like - pretty similar to a family in their 4th pregnancy. Of course, most babies don't pop out the size of a 10 year old with all sorts of emotional baggage :-)