We’re Moving Home: How To Make A Move Without The Stress

I’m fastidious. A planner. I used to be a logistics officer in the Army and my job involved planning and backup planning and then having a course of action for when those two plans fell apart and so on. I was very good at that job as I’ve never been comfortable leaving things to chance.

This personality has served me very well in life. I’m seldom unprepared and meet with success in many things. Being prepared is a double edged sword however. It can provide the comfort of a safety net but building that safety net can require grinding teeth and sleepless nights.

I’d have to take off my shoes and socks to count the number of times I’ve moved and, according to my character, I’d always plan for every contingency. The sequence of events and interactions had to work out perfectly. It’s consequently always been a stressful process and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. This move however it’s different and I felt I should share.

You see, three weeks ago I watched a video of Jeff Berwick (also known as @dollarvigilante) speaking at The Infinite Man Summit in London on the topic of "Finding Happiness Without A Plan”. It had a profound effect on me and since then, I’ve been trying to just let life happen a little more and I’ve met with some success.

Today’s task was the power. I set myself a simple goal of organising the connection/disconnection and it was the only moving-related job I asked of myself for the day. I went for a walk at lunch, took the phone and called the power company.

My objective was to roll with the punches, take any inconveniences that may be inherent in the process and at the end of the day, the move would be one step closer.

There were indeed some hurdles. For example, it turns out that to connect the power, someone has to be home on a week day over a 5 hour window to allow a technician to attend and perform a safety inspection. This had to be organised then and there on the phone.

“I’m not able to do that as I’ll be at work.”

“What if my wife is rostered to work that day and can’t fill in?”

“How would I cover that contingency?”

“What if the technician doesn’t show and there’s no power for the weekend?”

“Would we need to extend the departure date so we had the old place still as a backup to stay at the night in?"

blah blah blah.

These would be my typical thoughts when processing the situation.

Instead, I accepted that this was a normal scenario and did as Jeff suggested in his presentation. I “let life happen”. Making my best guess at my wife’s availability for the day in question, I booked it in.

Later I described the scenario to her and she was perfectly fine with my selection. In fact, she even had ideas about how to best spend the time at the new property when waiting! I’d let go of the need to have certainty at my fingertips and it felt liberating.

I intend to apply the thinking that Jeff describes to the entire move, using it as a test case for winding down my need for control and certainty. I see this as a pathway to a happier life and I’ll keep you posted on how that turns out.