If any change you're intentional about making begins first in your brain, you've already begun your move if you're curious enough about moving to be reading this ... See how easy it was to get started?!
Seriously though, as you mull over the changes your future could entail should you embark on a move, a guide to what you're in for can be a very helpful thing. Sure, there is no tried and true recipe to follow for a move. The only certainty is that yours will not match another's. So instead of a recipe, here is a 5 step guide that follows the flow of moving from ending where you currently are - through the in between - to your eventual new beginning. This is a guide to any sort of change process in fact, but that lends itself particularly well to the changes faced when moving.
Begin your thinking here:
1. YOUR IDEAL PLACE (the big picture)
- what does it look and feel like?
- where is it?
- what are you looking to create?
"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."
Victor Hugo
2. YOUR CURRENT PLACE (the gap)
- where are you now?
- where does it fall short of your ideal?
- what are the gaps and where is there alignment?
"Endings are about letting go. Part of the challenge when dealing with an ending is to respect and acknowledge the past while making peace with the idea that it is time to let go."
Melinda Sinclair / Dorothy Greenaway
3. YOUR AGENDA (ready, set, action)
- what do you want to learn about?
- who will you need to connect with?
- how will you fit the project into your current life?
"Every answer serves as a starting point, not an end point. It invites us to ask more and better questions."
Douglas Thomas / John Seely Brown
4. EXPERIMENTATION (taking field trips)
- experimenting with the options out there
- reflecting on what you are learning about your priorities as you try these on
- being open to change based on what you discover
"Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them."
Bruce Mau
5. SUPPORT FOR YOUR CHANGE (collaborating)
- are you developing supportive relationships in your process?
- who can you discuss problems and challenges with in the journey?
- listen carefully as their thoughts fold into yours while laughing a lot :-)
"Stand on someone’s shoulders. You can travel farther carried on the accomplishments of those who came before you. And the view is so much better."
Bruce Mau
On that note, would you be in need of some engaged, attuned and relentless shoulders to stand on for your next move? If so, you could try mine on for size by contacting sdelean@sutton.com
