You are absolutely right, and this bit that you shared is something that I have talked about many times on this site:

If you keep doing what you’ll always do you’ll keep getting what you always got.

Stepping outside of the comfort zone – even if you get shot down – is a learning experience that at least adds to your confidence, if not actually landing you what you desire.

Thanks for the great comment!

I wanted to say something about #1, leaving your comfort zone. Don’t misunderstand this as “player” advice because it isn’t. If something is not going as you want it to go, always take a look at how your keeping yourself in your comfort zone might contribute to this. Let’s say can’t find a girl and you just seem to be destined to be alone forever. Possibly you never took the chance to start talking to a girl waiting next to you on the bus, because you were afraid for what she might think of you. What you need to do is go beyond your comfort zone and start talking! Practice. If you’ve seen the movie “the 40 year old virgin” you’ll notice that the way he finds his partner is by doing things he wouldn’t normally have done. If you keep doing what you’ll always do you’ll keep getting what you always got.

I’m glad that you enjoyed the post so much, and you can obviously speak with some authority on what it is like to leave behind the material constraints! I’ve “rebuilt” my material possessions in the past, and it can be quite the experience, especially if you don’t want to spend a bunch of money.

On the other hand, trying to cut those corners certainly means that you need to be creative and flexibility, and that is certainly not a bad thing!

On a different note, I bet you are loving the fact that you live in the Orlando area at this time of year compared to being way up north in Canada!

I’m sure that was quite the change of pace once you left the “mainland” behind. I actually considered going to the Caribbean, but the employment/geography changes needed to make it happen would have meant taking an extended leave of absence away from this website and PDP, and I was not willing to do that.

You’ve got your head in the right place being grateful for your experience, Alvyn, and I’m sure that you’ve got the chance for many new experiences where you are now. Enjoy it!

Great article. I personally was touched with 4. I moved from Ottawa Canada, to the Orlando area. To make a very long (and still continuing) story short, I have been without my personal effects save a couple f suitcases. My entire household is in storage and has remained there for over a year. I had to scrounge, and refurnish to make my place liveable. Not wanting to buy things that I already have, I have made usage of Goodwill and Craigslist. The experience I can echo, is rather life changing, and your outlook certainly changes. Thanks for the writeup, it brought a smile to my lips.

Mathew

You nailed the concept beautifully – make your life simpler.

Not only does it make your physical world easier to deal with, but it also helps you to feel more mentally focused on your life when you aren’t surrounded by extraneous material possessions.

As far as going from a 13-room house to a 2-BR apartment – I can only imagine how much simplifying you had to do in order to make that happen!

Why people do not end up in a psychiatric ward after a move is beyond me.

For one thing, I had stored all my kids stuff from kindergarten – guarded every item like gold.

When I moved, I said, “Come over and get all your memories.” There were hundreds.

They each took two things.

What is the message? DON’T SAVE THINGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE. DON’T EVEN SAVE THINGS FOR YOURSELF.

If you need something later, go buy it. This excludes priceless antiques and art work. It does include cheap glass vases that came with flowers for your birthday ten years ago.

Most of the things we save are JUNK like that.

When we die, someone will throw everything in a dumpster to get our place ready for sale.

DO IT NOW FOR YOUR SELF. Then, if you do have to move, you’ll be able to do it in a small Uhaul. It’s called making your life simpler.

It sounds like you paid attention to the lessons that the experience held for you, and you’ll be a better person for it; of that I have no doubt.

You sum it all up beautifully in this one quote:

I’m truly blessed to have my friends there for me, but it’s really all up to me to pick up the pieces and move on.

Wise words, spoken from someone who walked the path needed to speak them. Keep on truckin’, R.

Wow, that’s quite a story! I’m sure living it was an experience with highs and lows that aren’t easily described after the fact.

Big props to you for taking control and turning it all around. It just goes to show that success is something that can be attained by all who do what it takes and who refuse to accept defeat. I know that sounds cliche, but I can’t think of a better way to describe it.

Congratulations on the massive success of your equipment brokerage, SP, and on a more general level, for becoming the person that you needed to become in order to succeed. My hat is off to you!

Wow – it IS a small world! Howdy, neighbor!

Yep, that bridge is something else. I biked it again today, and came back across it a few hours later. My legs are screaming for mercy!

I’ll definitely swing by your MySpace page and check you out. Thanks for popping in to greet a fellow Port Orange local, Aaron!

Aaron,

Thank you.

I am an inveterate planner, maintaining written, dated, and specific
goals for every major objective. Yet, quixotically, I had no idea
what I was getting into with this last move. It involved leaving a
high-paying, secure job in mid-life for an island, dragging my family
away from everything dear like Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast.

I was compelled to develop my own company from scratch, after having
lost almost a million in the stock market crash. My health declined
as a consequence, and then, after four years I said, “That’s
enough.” I quit alcohol, smoking, put myself on a strict daily
exercise program (exercising EVERY day), and lost 40 lbs., and my
business went through the roof (largest international Grand Format
equipment brokerage in the world now).

It can be done, but “Man, it can kill you …..also.”

As a friend remarked a few years back, “You are either cause, or
effect.”

SP

@Panther – The adjustment is an on-going process, but it IS happening!

@Jahon – I hear you. On one hand you are nothing less than homesick for your previous surroundings, but on the other, you are surrounded by a whole new world to explore. I suggest focusing on the “explore” part. That’s what I’ve been doing, and not only has it helped, but I’m getting a lot of exercise in the process!

@Lifeseeker – This quote is priceless:

The first victim of intentioned change is perspective.

That is a very true statement. You can plan all day long, but you won’t really know what that implementation will look like and feel like until you get there and start doing it. Thanks for sharing that.

Nearly everything I planned had to be “re-mapped” to a rearrangment of priorites imposed by my new circumstances. So much for planning. It was a difficult experience – one certainly I’d have not undertaken with present knowledge.

Was it worth it? Yes – to the person I was compelled to become, but it was a displacement.

The first victim of intentioned change is perspective.