You’d think that with all of humankind’s technological breakthroughs, someone would do something about the onerous task of relocating. After all these years, there doesn’t seem to be any way around loading and unloading every single thing you own, one item an a time, into a car or truck. You can hire people to do it, but the process of moving is probably no less upsetting. There are change-of-address forms to fill out, phone numbers to change, utility bills to reconcile, utility companies to call, and a ton of other activities to manage.When you get to the new location, you’ve got to make decisions about where to put furniture and dozens of little artifacts. You may not be able to unpack everything for weeks. Many people, therefore, find moving to be upsetting, disorienting, and downright frustrating despite their good intention that the move will be for their ultimate betterment.

Seize the Move

Setting goals before and after moving is ideal because you have to make a decision about everything you own. Primarily, you have to decide whether something will make the move, be sold, or be given away. This predicament forces you to make decisions you wouldn’t otherwise make when you’re in the middle of a long-term lease and you’re not considering relocating.

More than the physical move itself, there’s something about the moving process that is akin to setting goals. A move, like the start of a new year, is a place marker. It’s an interval between one era and the next, namely, the time between when you live in the former residence and when you move to the new one.

Some things immediately become clearer. Perhaps you’re ready to give up the beat up old couch because it simply won’t be good enough in your new location. Maybe it was hard for you to give up the couch in the past because it awakened many memories. Now, in the light of day, you can see that your memories will always linger, but there’s no need to take the couch.

Yet, day after day while you lived in your old residence and saw that rickety old couch, you had no desire to change it because there was no particular reason to upset the status quo. In the new location, perhaps you not only want a new couch, but matching chairs and light fixtures to go with it. Perhaps your whole attitude changes. Maybe you decide it’s time to upgrade your lifestyle and do more entertaining or associate with more movers and shakers.

You may be moving because you got a raise. In either case, with the raise or the move, you have a new vantage point from which to view your life. From that vantage point springs a new set of goals which may be unlike goals you’ve chosen before.

New Goals for New Times

One of the wonderful things about goal setting is that you can set goals that are inconsistent with your history. You can set goals unlike anything you’ve attempted before. Your mother, your father, your peers, and those who you think still have influence over you need not have any effect on you as you embark on your own life’s journey.

If you’re married or living with a significant other, a move can be a wonderful time in which to mutually establish goals. Perhaps you agree to let your partner have more space in the new location, or you both agree to set up a home gym and buy some of those exercise machines advertised ad nauseam on television.

I had a friend in college, John McCaffrey, who now works for Amtrak in Washington, D.C. During his youth, John told me that his father worked for Nabisco and was frequently relocating to assume new positions. Because the family moved every couple of years, they made decisions about what to retain and what to toss. In the new locations, they frequently lived in a clutter-free, streamlined home. Long before I became a conference and convention speaker on the topic of having more breathing space and less clutter in your life, this notion appealed to me.

When John’s family settled down in Orange, Connecticut, even after many years passed, they still maintained a relatively clutter-free household. It was a pleasure to visit, unlike other friend’s houses that were strewn with stuff in every room.

You don’t have to move frequently to maintain a clutter-free home. It certainly helps, however. The next time you move, recognize that a whole new series of ideas about how you want your life, career, or relationship-to-be may spring forth.

Whether it’s a move or any other element of your existence, exploit–in the positive sense of the word–the opportunity to set new goals consistent with where you want to be in life.