Life creates learning opportunities all the time. We may not realize it in the moment, however if we take time to reflect back those lessons present themselves to us.

I recently got to spend time helping my best friend move.  Their housing is related to their employment, so a recent job promotion meant moving to a different house.  During my 6 hour drive home, I had plenty of time to reflect back on the weekend and what I could take away from it. Three main lessons (that aren’t just about how to make a move go smoothly) presented themselves – lessons that can apply to anything in life.  Here they are:

Priorities Change

Over time priorities change and this became apparent as we were digging through the “items” that had accumulated throughout the house.  Things that were once high priorities were now at the bottom of drawers or the back of closets, and other things had replaced them. The new priorities are the items sitting out more readily available.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this happening.  Over time we change, we grow, and situations become different than before. It causes us to reevaluate how we spend our time and what our priorities are in the here and now.

“If this was put here when we moved in 2 years ago and I haven’t used it since, is it worth still keeping.” Well, I guess that all depends on who you are asking and whether it’s a priority any more.  I am a firm believer in “if you haven’t used in recently and wouldn’t miss it, then it needs to go”.  Take the time to reevaluate your life. What are your priorities now? What are you trying to hold on to that no longer fits?

Planning is Necessary

Moving all of your belongs (especially if you have a family) is a large task.  Packing everything up, coordinating help to move, cleaning the house, arranging rides between houses, feeding the help and yourself – there is a lot to think about and there are many lessons that could be learned here.

The biggest lesson that I learned was we have to take the time to plan. If we don’t take the time to plan and remove those things that are no longer important to us, we continue to throw the “items” in boxes and move them with us.  This could be mentally or physically. In this case, it was mostly physical items that, because of the time crunch, we threw in and took along to the new house.

This could easily apply mentally as well. How many times do we hold on to unimportant thoughts, or the “how it used to be” ideas in our heads making us cluttered and feeling like we don’t have enough time?

Mindset Matters

Being (mostly) an outsider in this situation, I was able to look at things more objectively.  Change is hard, no doubt about that. In every situation there are multiple ways to look at things.  This move was part of a tough decision for my friend and her family. There were pros and cons.  There was a lot of discussion and prayers that went into making their decision.  While asking various people related to the situation for their thoughts on the move, there were mixed emotions. This all brings me to the next lesson I took away, which happens to be something I struggle with at times, so I totally understand where they were coming from –  your mindset matters!

This is definitely easier said than done, but we have to learn how to speak to ourselves in a positive way!  When something has potential to line up with our current priorities, and especially when it requires change, we have to pump ourselves up about it.  Once a decision is made, the tone that you use in your head absolutely will affect how the new situation plays out for you – positive or negative.  Start out with a positive thought and the chance of ending the day on a positive note is much greater, same with the opposite.

This trip was energizing for me. It was a chance to step out of my own normal routine to help out a friend, have some good laughs, and learn some valuable life lessons.   I came home refreshed with new perspectives. Life can be tough, change can be hard – take the time to learn from everyday situations and never stop growing as a person.  What can you do to make each day be a little better than the last?