— Claude M. Bristol

The prospect will often tell you when he is ready to buy- if you are paying attention. Listening is as important as talking.

The Meatpacking District is the best example of Manhattan’s fluid culture, who’s scene has changed drastically over the years. A relatively small area, the Meatpacking District originally took up the area between West 14th Street and Gansevoort Street, and the Hudson River to Hudson Street, and has expanded outward only a small amount since then.

History: The area known as the Meatpacking District was originally the sight of Fort Gansevoort, built between 1808 and 1812. Colloquially known as the “white” fort, due to its whitewashing, it guarded the Hudson River, but saw very little conflict. It was eventually demolished in 1845, although Gansevoort Street still retains the name.

By the turn of the 20th Century, the Meatpacking District earned its name, as it was the bustling center of butchery in New York. Over 250 slaughterhouses and packing plants crowded the area, providing work for immigrants and food to feed the growing population of Manhattan.

In 1980, the neighborhood’s features began to change. Many of the slaughterhouses and plants had been shut down and the area gained a seedy nature, become a center for the drug trade and (particularly transsexual) prostitution in New York. An illicit sexual subculture took hold as several clubs that catered to that crowd were open and found protection under the Mafia. This business prospered for several years, until many of the clubs were forcibly shut down in 1985 in response to the rising numbers of the AIDS epidemic.

By the late 1990’s, the area began to transform again, this time into the high-fashion center we know today. Luxury boutiques like Diane von Furstenberg, Christian Louboutin, and Alexander McQueen were opened, drawing a high end crowd with money to spend. In response, several new restaurants opened, promising quality, cutting-edge cuisine, with notable establishments such as Pastis, Buddha Bar, and The Spice Market earning critical acclaim. With the introduction of new nightclubs as well, the Meatpacking district became a nighttime hotspot, drawing crowd of young professionals, hip trendsetters, fashion industry powerhouses, and a swarm of celebrities. The juxtaposition of the daytime blue collar workers who work in the remaining slaughterhouses and the nighttime menagerie of who’s-who is what makes the Meatpacking District such a complex and interesting area.

Landmarks:

• Gansevoort Market Historic District
• Hotel Gansevoort
• High Line
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Ground Zero Museum Workshop

— Clark Moustakas

Keep in mind that when you show an apartment, clients are being presented with a lot of new information that they have to process in order to make a decision. It’s common that some questions will not occur to them until after they have left. This is where you step in- anticipate what they will want or need to know based on past client interaction, the particulars of the apartment, and what you know about the client.

Any one of these questions could turn into an objection if you’re not there to handle it! That’s why your presentation should be as thorough as possible!

Hell’s Kitchen, on the West side of Manhattan, has a notorious history as home to New York’s seedy underbelly. The area, between 34th and 57th St past 8th Avenue, was a roosting place of gangsters and bootleggers until it’s gentrification in the 1970’s.

History: The origins of the name “Hell’s Kitchen” is unclear, but the most common story traces it back to Dutch Fred, The Cop, who was watching a neighborhood riot with his rookie partner. His partner is believed to have said, “This place is Hell itself,” to which Fred replied, “Hell’s a mild climate. This is Hell’s Kitchen.”

The neighborhood, originally farmland, began to industrialize in the mid-19th Century with the introduction of tanneries along the riverfront. Shantytowns began to crop up in the neighborhood as Irish immigrants fled the Potato Famine and found jobs on the docks and along the railroads. The influx of immigrants increased after the Civil War, and those stricken by poverty turned to gang life, and the neighborhood soon became known as the “most dangerous area on the American Continent.”

Violence escalated during Prohibition, and many warehouses in the area because breweries for rumrunners, and rackets like illegal gambling and union shakedowns became common practice. A loss of jobs after the two World Wars and an the introduction to new Puerto Rican immigrants to the neighborhood created a volatile environment that was the inspiration for the musical West Side Story.

Gentrification to the area didn’t take effect until the 1980’s, which brought about the end of the reign of the Westies, an Irish American gang that dominated the area, and brought in the neighborhood of young professionals and aspiring actors that can be seen today.

Landmarks:

• Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
• The New Yorker Hotel
• The Manhattan Center
• Port Authority Bus Terminal
• Studio 54
• Hearst Tower
• Time Warner Center
• John Jay College
• DeWitt Clinton Park
• CBS Broadcast Center
• The Daily Show
• The Colbert Report

By Leo Babauta

“Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune.” ~Walt Whitman

I’m a pretty positive person — I consider it one of the keys to the modest success I’ve had in creating new habits and achieving things in the last few years.

I couldn’t have run three marathons without a positive mindset, nor created Zen Habits, mnmlist, or The Power of Less. I couldn’t have lost 50 lbs., quit smoking, eliminated my debt, or quit my day job.

Positive thinking, as trite as it seems, has changed my life.

I’m not going to sell you on it, but if you’re interested, here’s the condensed guide to changing your own life:

• Realize it’s possible, instead of telling yourself why you can’t.
• Become aware of your self-talk.
• Squash negative thoughts like a bug.
• Replace them with positive thoughts.
• Love what you have already.
• Be grateful for your life, your gifts, and other people.
  Every day.
• Focus on what you have, not on what you haven’t.
• Don’t compare yourself to others.
  But be inspired by them.
• Accept criticism with grace.
  But ignore the naysayers.
• See bad things as a blessing in disguise.
• See failure as a stepping stone to success.
• Surround yourself by those who are positive.
• Complain less, smile more.
• Image that you’re already positive.
• Then become that person in your next act.

Focus on this habit first, and you’ll have a much easier time with any other.

“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” ~Herm Albright

Leo Babauta is the brains behind ZenHabits.net, a motivational blog. You can find more articles like this at ZenHabits.net, or follow him on Twitter.

Define and achieve specific long-term (what you want) and short term (how you’re going to get what you want) goals. Goals are a road map that will direct you to success.

— Ralph Waldo Trine

— Inscription at Williams College

Yorkville, a neighborhood in the greater Upper East Side, is an alcove of history in Manhattan. Bounded by 96^th Street to the North, 3^rd Avenue on the West, 79^th St to the South, and the East River, the area is a quiet corner of Manhattan. Originally home to residents of Irish or German descent, Yorkville has seen an influx of young professionals who want to live in one of New York’s prime locations.

History: For most of the 19^th century Yorkville was populated by middle- to working-class residents of a variety of different cultural backgrounds. However, this began to change after the General Slocum disaster on June 15, 1904. The steamboat General Slocum took off up the East River on a chartered trip for the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Little Germany, carry over 1,300 passengers. As it reached East 90^th St, a fire broke out in the Lamp Room, and as the ship was traveling in a headwind, began to spread. The ship’s captain decided not to take the ship aground, as he was worried about setting the banks and nearby oil tanks on fire, but sub-standard safety procedures not only failed to put out the fire, but make lifeboats and lifejackets inaccessible and useless. As a result, about 1,021 passengers died either through drowning in an effort to escape, or when the floors of the ship collapsed and sank.

The tragedy of the General Slocum was the biggest disaster New York had ever seen at the time, as was a devastating blow to the German population. As a result, many of the residents of Little Germany relocated up to Yorkville, the site of the crash. They populated the area, opening butcher shops, restaurants, and other businesses to the area, as well as the Gloria Palast, which held a German movie theater and ballrooms for polka dancing and waltzing. Mixed in were pockets of Eastern European communities, as well as strong Irish community (up until 1990, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade ended at 86^th St, the heart of Yorkville).

The 1930’s left a scar on the face of Yorkville, as several pro-Nazi groups grew out of the area, and were frequently caught up in street fights with German-Americans. Today, however, little of Yorkville’s German culture remains, as many of the Old World landmarks (places like the Elk Candy Company, Kleine Konditorei Bakery, and the Bremen House Market) have closed down. But, in a sense, the area remembers its history, as each year is marked by the Steuben Parade, one of the largest German-American celebrations in the US.

Landmarks:

• Brandy’s Saloon
• Gracie Mansion
• Carl Schurz Park

By Leo Babauta

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The idea of having concrete, achievable goals seem to be deeply ingrained in our culture. I know I lived with goals for many years, and in fact a big part of my writings here on Zen Habits are about how to set and achieve goals.

These days, however, I live without goals, for the most part. It’s absolutely liberating, and contrary to what you might have been taught, it absolutely doesn’t mean you stop achieving things.

It means you stop letting yourself be limited by goals.

Consider this common belief: “You’ll never get anywhere unless you know where you’re going.” This seems so common sensical, and yet it’s obviously not true if you stop to think about it. Conduct a simple experiment: go outside and walk in a random direction, and feel free to change directions randomly. After 20 minutes, an hour … you’ll be somewhere! It’s just that you didn’t know you were going to end up there.

And there’s the rub: you have to open your mind to going places you never expected to go. If you live without goals, you’ll explore new territory. You’ll learn some unexpected things. You’ll end up in surprising places. That’s the beauty of this philosophy, but it’s also a difficult transition.

Today, I live mostly without goals. Now and then I start coming up with a goal, but I’m letting them go. Living without goals hasn’t ever been an actual goal of mine … it’s just something I’m learning that I enjoy more, that is incredibly freeing, that works with the lifestyle of following my passion that I’ve developed.

The problem with goals

In the past, I’d set a goal or three for the year, and then sub-goals for each month. Then I’d figure out what action steps to take each week and each day, and try to focus my day on those steps.

Unfortunately, it never, ever works out this neatly. You all know this. You know you need to work on an action step, and you try to keep the end goal in mind to motivate yourself. But this action step might be something you dread, and so you procrastinate. You do other work, or you check email or Facebook, or you goof off.

And so your weekly goals and monthly goals get pushed back or side-tracked, and you get discouraged because you have no discipline. And goals are too hard to achieve. So now what? Well, you review your goals and reset them. You create a new set of sub-goals and action plans. You know where you’re going, because you have goals!

Of course, you don’t actually end up getting there. Sometimes you achieve the goal and then you feel amazing. But most of the time you don’t achieve them and you blame it on yourself.

Here’s the secret: the problem isn’t you, it’s the system! Goals as a system are set up for failure.

Even when you do things exactly right, it’s not ideal. Here’s why: you are extremely limited in your actions. When you don’t feel like doing something, you have to force yourself to do it. Your path is chosen, so you don’t have room to explore new territory. You have to follow the plan, even when you’re passionate about something else.

Some goal systems are more flexible, but nothing is as flexible as having no goals.

How it works

So what does a life without goals look like? In practice, it’s very different than one with goals.

You don’t set a goal for the year, nor for the month, nor for the week or day. You don’t obsess about tracking, or actionable steps. You don’t even need a to-do list, though it doesn’t hurt to write down reminders if you like.

What do you do, then? Lay around on the couch all day, sleeping and watching TV and eating Ho-Hos? No, you simply do. You find something you’re passionate about, and do it. Just because you don’t have goals doesn’t mean you do nothing — you can create, you can produce, you can follow your passion.

And in practice, this is a wonderful thing: you wake up and do what you’re passionate about. For me, that’s usually blogging, but it can be writing a novel or an ebook or my next book or creating a course to help others or connecting with incredible people or spending time with my wife or playing with my kids. There’s no limit, because I’m free.

In the end, I usually end up achieving more than if I had goals, because I’m always doing something I’m excited about. But whether I achieve or not isn’t the point at all: all that matters is that I’m doing what I love, always.

I end up in places that are wonderful, surprising, great. I just didn’t know I would get there when I started.

Quick questions

Question from a reader: Isn’t having no goals a goal?

Quick answer: It can be a goal, or you can learn to do it along the journey, by exploring new methods. I’m always learning new things (like having no goals) without setting out to learn them in the first place.

Another question from a reader: So how do you make a living?

Answer: Passionately! Again, not having goals doesn’t mean you stop doing things. In fact, I do many things, all the time, but I do them because I love doing them.

Tips for living without goals

I am not going to give you a how-to manual for living without goals — that would be absurd. I can’t teach you what to do — you need to find your own path.

But I can share some things I’ve learned, in hopes that it will help you:

• Start small. You don’t need to drastically overhaul your life in order to learn to live without goals. Just go a few hours without predetermined goals or actions. Follow your passion for those hours. Even an hour will do.
• Grow. As you get better at this, start allowing yourself to be free for longer periods — half a day or a whole day or several days. Eventually you’ll feel confident enough to give up on certain goals and just do what you love.
• Not just work. Giving up goals works in any area of your life. Take health and fitness: I used to have specific fitness goals, from losing weight or bodyfat to running a marathon to increasing my squat. Not anymore: now I just do it because I love it, and I have no idea where that will take me. It works brilliantly, because I always enjoy myself.
• Let go of plans. Plans are not really different than goals. They set you on a predetermined path. But it’s incredibly difficult to let go of living with plans, especially if you’re a meticulous planner like I am. So allow yourself to plan, when you feel you need to, but slowly feel free to let go of this habit.
• Don’t worry about mistakes. If you start setting goals, that’s OK. There are no mistakes on this journey — it’s just a learning experience. If you live without goals and end up failing, as yourself if it’s really a failure. You only fail if you don’t get to where you wanted to go — but if you don’t have a destination in mind, there’s no failure.
• It’s all good. No matter what path you find, no matter where you end up, it’s beautiful. There is no bad path, no bad destination. It’s only different, and different is wonderful. Don’t judge, but experience.

And finally

Always remember: the journey is all. The destination is beside the point.

‘A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.’ ~Lao Tzu

Leo Babauta is the brains behind ZenHabits.net, a motivational blog. You can find more articles like this at ZenHabits.net, or follow him on Twitter.

Agents who excel jump into the day as early as possible. Most are at the office well ahead of their colleagues. Set a time that works for you and stick to it. If you fit in one extra phone call or increase your knowledge of one more apartment – that could mean the difference of one more commission that day. Over time, it’s this kind of discipline that will lead you to dramatically increase your income!

— George F. Tilton