🌍 we moved! & the benefits of disorientation

Phew, , finally. After a year of planning, viewings, big and small disappointments, we finally moved into our new home in E17 London.

While you have been (hopefully) lounging by the pool somewhere, I was tearing tape from cardboard boxes, unpacking items, deciding where they should go and arranging our new home to our taste.

A new life season is starting. The part I cherish the most about this:

The disorientation.

It's only an hour's car drive from our old to our new home. But London is big; every area is like a new mini-city.

That move threw me out of my old way of being - the walk to the station, the shopping trip, the local grocer, the neighbours - into the new.

It's all new and unknown; I must figure out new routines, habits and activities.

In that in-between space exists an opportunity:

Who are the new people I might make friends with?
How will I arrange the home to provide a different experience?
Maybe I decide to start cycling more instead of taking the bus?

Saturday night. The first weekend, we weren't unpacking. 7 pm. I was putting the dishes away. It was a familiar routine; likely followed by watching TV. Yet, I stood at the sink and thought: Let's do something different tonight. I messaged. We took our bikes out of the shed, cycled down to a local tap room, and had a drink with a friend. We were happily tired when we went to bed.

This moment is very much like the experience clients have at the start of coaching.

... Before coaching, their status quo is ok, but something's itching for a change. For months, that itch is just a thought that they toss back and forth. Over and over, they go.

... At some point, they decide they want – no, they need - support. So they sign up for my coaching. In our first coaching session, they breathe a sigh of relief. They can finally acknowledge their professional disorientation.

... And behind the disorientation opens a space: The new and unknown. A door of opportunity to do things differently than before.

Clients say I have an x-ray vision of seeing the heart of the situation and the pathways emerging. That fills my heart, as I love supporting clients to open new doors of opportunity and help them walk through them.

In my old home, I felt isolated and lacked opportunities to meet people. With my move across London, a new door of opportunity is opening: Community.

So, cheers to disorientation. Cheers to new doors opening.

What is your door of opportunity right now?
And what's the discomfort you must step over to take advantage of it?