Embracing Change: Downsizing and New Beginnings

0:00 Hello and welcome to Real Men Feel. This is your host, author, coach and healer, Andy Grant. You can learn more about me at the andygrant.com. Today you're getting me solo talking about my recent downsizing and moving because the move has been so chaotic that I had to cancel a planned podcast recording I had last week, which would have been released tomorrow. I grossly underestimated how quickly I would be up and running again. Today is day 12 in our new home after moving out of our House of 24 years in at the end of September into a hotel with my wife, dog and cat for two weeks and then finally into our final resting place, our final home.

0:40 This this downsized location and we went from a House of 3200 square feet to currently 11160 square feet. Oh, but first I've got some exciting news. Real Men Feel is a finalist and the third annual Signal Awards for podcasts. We are up in two categories for most inspiring podcast and for best self improvement and self help podcast. And being chosen as a finalist also put this in the running for these listeners Choice Awards, where where all the listeners of the world select their favorite podcast and all these 30 plus categories. And the voting ends October 17th, which has passed, right?

1:24 I'm recording this right now. It's October 17th. And because of the move, the chaos, you know, I didn't have access to all my toys and goodies and I failed to communicate that I was the finalist, that I failed to communicate with you that I needed your vote. I made a few social media postings, but I, you know, I didn't get it out to the actual listeners of the show. So I'll thank you for the vote you would have given me about that. But anyway, yeah, that was I was very excited to hear that news and I will certainly let you know the final voting does. So we're up for awards given by judges and up for awards given by listeners. Today is the 12th day in our new downsized home.

2:06 For those of you that haven't been falling in my life, in April, I was laid off from my full time corporate position with Cisco Systems. I had worked there on and off since 1999. I was part of an acquisition, survived the the.com boom and bust. I worked there full time until 12,013 when I quit and went on to try being a coach and author. I think I would. Podcasting didn't exist for me anyway at that point. But I returned to Cisco off and on as a contractor for a while and then about two years ago they offered me a full time position again and I took it. So I was. I was shocked when the layoff happened. I was the only person doing my job managing online video and at one point we had been a team of five and I was just out to me and I just again, I was shocked to have been cut.

2:53 So no matter what a corporation says, they don't love you. They they don't really care about you as a human being. And in the end, you're just a number you just a line item. So no matter how many awards they win and how wonderful they are, just know you're all of us are dispensable to any corporation. So with that said, I'd already been depressed. That did not add to it. So the forced downsizing for my wife and I and in the beginning I, I did not welcome it. I did not like it. I did not enjoy it. I, I thought reversing the American dream was, was quite depressing and sad and kind of I looked at it as a, as a failure. I was going in the wrong direction. But when we started giving things away, the joy I felt in my heart, appreciating all of the furniture that I'd served us for many years and then seeing it go somewhere else to continue to serve someone else, it, it was phenomenal. Most, most French was giving away other things, which we sold on Facebook marketplace.

3:51 And so just meeting lots of people and seeing things go and be put to good use was, was great. It was, you know, a little heartbreaking to, to sell the last of my Metallica concert shirts and to sell off CDs and stuff, things I'd collected, you know, since I was a kid. But in the end, it was liberating. It's freeing. I, I feel so much lighter emotionally, physically, mentally. And you know, when I first got out of college, I live somewhere different every year and everything I own could fit in the car and I, you know, I liked it that way. So it's kind of neat to get back to that. But we have now have a small house and a 1 1/2 car garage. And thank God for that half. We, we wanted A2 car garage, but if both of our cars were parked in the garage, we'd have less room for stuff. So that half a garage is really saving us to not have to get rid of even more things.

4:40 But eventually we will. Cause can't take it with you. So this economically forced downsizing has been much more joyous and fun, even exciting a process than I ever would have expected. I am truly, truly grateful that I was laid off. I would have stayed at that job thinking I had to for years and years until until they got rid of me. So whatever you're faced with challenges, you can, you can deny them, resist them and make it worse, or you can own it. You can grab it. You can take control the best you can of any situation. Everything has to come to an end, all right.

5:23 So taking control, deciding how things would end was tremendously liberating for myself and for and for my wife and for our dog and cat who are still with us. And you know, that's what I wanted to share this this week. And we'll get back to a regular show next week, I think. I hope, I plan to. But you know, until next time, be open to change. Embrace change and take control of your life. The UPS and the downs, the more control you take, the smoother the ride will be. All right, until next time, be good to yourself.