Research, surveys, and most people’s anecdotal experience would suggest that moving is one of the top five most stressful life events. Moving doesn’t have to be stressful and I argue that if you adopt a Learner’s Mindset it can be a wonderful learning opportunity and a significant opportunity for renewal and growth. I am speaking from years of experience so consider the following.
My landlord is selling his house and we now have to move. We have been in our current location for 8 years which is the longest time we have been in one home. All through this time, I lamented with my wife that we had grown complacent, collected too much stuff, and needed to move to help force us to adjust our lifestyle. The past 8 years have been a major shift from 2006-2013 when we moved 14 times which included moves to 7 different cities and also included moving to and from different countries. In our previous move from Edmonton to North Vancouver, everything we owned fit in a 10X20 container and this was in storage for nearly 8 months because we were staying at Whistler for the biking season and then house sat for a few months. When we finally moved to our house I recall selling and purging so many things from our storage container because I realized just how little we really needed.
This current move is only going to be for a year because we are once again house sitting for a friend so most of what we have will be in storage. This has given us the opportunity to once again purge and eliminate all the things that we just don’t need. My younger son is getting married this fall and is living in another part of the province. My other son is still off racing and this fall will be going to school for the next few years so life has significantly changed for my wife and me. Since I have a Learner’s Mindset I have tapped into my intrinsic capacity to learn and view all interactions with the world as learning and growth opportunities so this current move has been one of the most exciting and exhilarating times. We have purged, sold, and given away so many things that we just don’t need. We have the next year to lighten our load even more because our next move will require us to have even fewer possessions than we have now.
I am looking forward to the unpacking stage of this move because I know from previous experience I will be able to get rid of even more and par down my possessions to the minimum that I will need to continue to flourish and grow.
