Last Sunday, as things began to escalate in the Middle East, one of my clients was hosting an open house for a townhouse she had just listed.
It was a jewel box. Turnkey renovation. Impeccably designed, the kind of place where the light hits just right and buyers slow down when they walk in. The traffic was serious. Second looks. Long conversations. That unmistakable energy that usually means one thing in this market: multiple offers.
In another week, that would have felt simple. Strong positioning. Good momentum. Let’s prepare for a bidding war.
Instead, she texted me that night.
“I feel strange even caring about this right now. We’re probably heading into a bidding war and there’s actual war happening.”
It wasn’t dramatic. Just disorienting. Are we really talking about escalation clauses while the world feels like this?
And honestly, it’s a fair question.
As we talked, I found myself wondering how many of us are quietly navigating the same tension. When the headlines are heavy and constant, does your own success start to feel awkward? Does ambition feel like bad timing? Does even losing a deal feel indulgent to process?
The news cycle is relentless. There is almost always something somewhere that is tragic, destabilizing, or heartbreaking. The world does not pause so we can host an open house or celebrate a strong quarter.
If we wait for a globally calm moment before allowing ourselves to feel proud, disappointed, competitive, or excited, we may be waiting forever.
At some point, we have to strengthen our ability to regulate ourselves inside of that noise rather than expecting the noise to quiet down.
There is a psychological layer here worth naming. Researchers have studied survivor’s guilt for decades. When others suffer and you do not, your nervous system can interpret your own safety or success as something that requires apology.
You do not have to be in a war zone to feel a version of that tension.
When the contrast is sharp, your brain tries to reconcile it. If something terrible is happening somewhere, maybe you should not be celebrating here. If the world feels fragile, maybe your disappointment over a bidding war is trivial.
But emotions are not ranked globally. They are processed locally
Your nervous system responds to what is directly impacting your life. A deal falling apart. A competitive offer situation. Financial stakes. Reputation. Identity. Security. Those responses are biological, not immoral.
Feeling proud of your work does not diminish compassion for people experiencing real harm.
Suppressing joy does not make you more ethical. Minimizing your disappointment does not make you more globally aware. When we shrink our emotional experience in the name of perspective, we often become less steady, not more.
Maturity looks like integration.
It sounds like this: I am aware that the world feels heavy. And I am still responsible for the clients in front of me.
When my client questioned whether she should even care about a bidding war, I asked her something simple.
“If you step out of this role, who serves them?”
Helping a seller navigate multiple offers responsibly is not trivial. It is about fairness. Clarity. Real people making real decisions about where they will live.
Showing up grounded for the people standing in your open house does not mean you are indifferent to global suffering. It means you are anchored in your lane.
The world has always been uneven. There has never been a moment when everything was calm everywhere. And still, people married. Children were born. Businesses were built. Homes were bought and sold.
Participating in your own life is not tone deaf.
The key is regulation.
Coaching Corner: Stop Borrowing From the Future
- Do not equate.
A transaction is not a tragedy. Keep the scale accurate. Avoid moral comparison in either direction. - Name both realities.
“It’s heavy right now.” Acknowledge it. Then return to what is within your control. - Stay informed, not saturated.
Awareness is responsible. Immersion is dysregulating. Protect your bandwidth. - Lead proportionally.
Celebrate with gratitude. Process disappointment without dramatizing it. Calm is contagious.
By the end of our call, my client was not dismissing what was happening in the world. She was simply clearer about her role inside of it.
She could hold compassion for people far away and still prepare to manage multiple offers with steadiness and integrity.
Humans are capable of holding more than one reality at once.
In this era, that is not optional. It is a skill.
And like any skill, it can be strengthened.
