It has been a week now since Christine and I have been moving into our new home in Black Mountain. It has taken all of a week to accomplish that move and make a home for ourselves and our businesses. There have been many lessons learned in this move that I would like to talk about in this blog.
- Difficult Decisions Have to be Made
Every move requires all kinds of difficult decisions. Yes; there are big decisions like where you want to live and how much you want to spend on a new home; however, some of the most excruciating decisions have to do with what you will keep and what you will throw away.
While I have been blessed to get some new clothes over the past number of months, especially since my weight loss, there are still some clothes I have had a difficult time getting rid of. As I was cleaning out the garage preparing to move, I saw a pair of shoes that I am sure I have had for over ten years. I will never use them again but I found it difficult just to toss them. Now, that was a difficult decision.
If you want to create positive movement in your life, you have to be willing to make some difficult choices, and some of those choices will be about getting rid of old baggage. Much of that old baggage is nothing more than dead weight that you will have to drag around with you.
- There will be Set Backs
As much as we anticipated what could go wrong, there will always be hiccups or set-backs that you just can’t anticipate. We were really hoping to get an early jump on our move, so, we hired a truck to move all of our garage belongings into our new garage. The plan was to set up all the shelves and make space for all the boxes that needed to come on the following day. When we arrived we discovered that there needed to be an extra coat of paint applied to the garage and so all our things had to be piled in the center of the garage until the paint dried.
Set-backs can be so frustrating and can make it difficult to maintain a good attitude while you move. Moving is in many ways an exercise in frustration. So, it is really about how you respond in those moments of frustration that will determine whether you will enjoy the process or struggle against it. I want to believe that it is just one more opportunity to work on my patience, and patience is a remarkable virtue. It is what maintains my peace of mind.
- There will be Damage
No matter how careful you are moving in, you can count on there being some damage to walls, door jams and furniture. It’s probably a good idea to look around your new place before you begin to carry all your belongings in, because, when you do, your house will no longer be new.
It is also a great opportunity to see if some of your furniture is still usable or if it has been used beyond its life span.
I had an older desk that I remember being in disrepair back in our Moss Court offices. It was basically held together with bubble gum and tape. Amazingly we managed to move that desk to the new offices at Lakeshore Drive and then to Stockley St. in Black Mountain. It was this desk that got stuck in a doorway to our new place and I had to dismantle and throw away.
Moving is similar to the process of natural selection. The healthy will survive while the unhealthy will die.
- Moving is an Opportunity to Embrace New Beginnings
I really believe that an important part of the moving process is letting go of the old and embracing the new. I acknowledge that I have an attachment to the past and often get stuck thinking about how I could have done so many things better. And yet, I can’t change anything about my past, it has already happened. What I can do, is learn from the past and embrace the opportunity to keep doing my life better.
I actually appreciate the opportunity for change and for something new. My new home and new business office is nothing more than a metaphor for the change that is taking place in my life daily. Moment by moment everything is new.
- It’s Good to have Friends
I tend to be too self sufficient and independent at times. Moving is not a good time to be self sufficient and independent. It is a good time to have some friends and a good time to know how to ask them for help.
On the day of our move, I had Doug King as my sidekick and helper for the day. I could not have gotten done half of what I did without his help. I have to acknowledge that I am getting older and am in need of strong young backs to help me carry the load. And now I am not just talking about moving.
There were others who really helped Christine and me over these past few weeks. You know who you are and I hope you hear me say thank you.
Terry
