Embracing Change: Downsizing and New Beginnings

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Hello and welcome to Real Men
Feel.

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This is your host, author, coach
and healer, Andy Grant.

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You can learn more about me at
the andygrant.com.

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Today you're getting me solo
talking about my recent

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downsizing and moving because
the move has been so chaotic

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that I had to cancel a planned
podcast recording I had last

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week, which would have been
released tomorrow.

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I grossly underestimated how
quickly I would be up and

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running again.
Today is day 12 in our new home

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after moving out of our House of
24 years in at the end of

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September into a hotel with my
wife, dog and cat for two weeks

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and then finally into our final
resting place, our final home.

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This this downsized location and
we went from a House of 3200

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square feet to currently 11160
square feet.

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Oh, but first I've got some
exciting news.

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Real Men Feel is a finalist and
the third annual Signal Awards

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for podcasts.
We are up in two categories for

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most inspiring podcast and for
best self improvement and self

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help podcast.
And being chosen as a finalist

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also put this in the running for
these listeners Choice Awards,

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where where all the listeners of
the world select their favorite

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podcast and all these 30 plus
categories.

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And the voting ends October
17th, which has passed, right?

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I'm recording this right now.
It's October 17th.

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And because of the move, the
chaos, you know, I didn't have

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access to all my toys and
goodies and I failed to

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communicate that I was the
finalist, that I failed to

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communicate with you that I
needed your vote.

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I made a few social media
postings, but I, you know, I

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didn't get it out to the actual
listeners of the show.

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So I'll thank you for the vote
you would have given me about

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that.
But anyway, yeah, that was I was

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very excited to hear that news
and I will certainly let you

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know the final voting does.
So we're up for awards given by

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judges and up for awards given
by listeners.

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Today is the 12th day in our new
downsized home.

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For those of you that haven't
been falling in my life, in

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April, I was laid off from my
full time corporate position

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with Cisco Systems.
I had worked there on and off

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since 1999.
I was part of an acquisition,

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survived the the.com boom and
bust.

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I worked there full time until
12,013 when I quit and went on

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to try being a coach and author.
I think I would.

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Podcasting didn't exist for me
anyway at that point.

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But I returned to Cisco off and
on as a contractor for a while

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and then about two years ago
they offered me a full time

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position again and I took it.
So I was.

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I was shocked when the layoff
happened.

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I was the only person doing my
job managing online video and at

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one point we had been a team of
five and I was just out to me

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and I just again, I was shocked
to have been cut.

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So no matter what a corporation
says, they don't love you.

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They they don't really care
about you as a human being.

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And in the end, you're just a
number you just a line item.

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So no matter how many awards
they win and how wonderful they

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are, just know you're all of us
are dispensable to any

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corporation.
So with that said, I'd already

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been depressed.
That did not add to it.

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So the forced downsizing for my
wife and I and in the beginning

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I, I did not welcome it.
I did not like it.

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I did not enjoy it.
I, I thought reversing the

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American dream was, was quite
depressing and sad and kind of I

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looked at it as a, as a failure.
I was going in the wrong

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direction.
But when we started giving

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things away, the joy I felt in
my heart, appreciating all of

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the furniture that I'd served us
for many years and then seeing

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it go somewhere else to continue
to serve someone else, it, it

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was phenomenal.
Most, most French was giving

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away other things, which we sold
on Facebook marketplace.

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And so just meeting lots of
people and seeing things go and

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be put to good use was, was
great.

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It was, you know, a little
heartbreaking to, to sell the

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last of my Metallica concert
shirts and to sell off CDs and

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stuff, things I'd collected, you
know, since I was a kid.

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But in the end, it was
liberating.

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It's freeing.
I, I feel so much lighter

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emotionally, physically,
mentally.

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And you know, when I first got
out of college, I live somewhere

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different every year and
everything I own could fit in

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the car and I, you know, I liked
it that way.

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So it's kind of neat to get back
to that.

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But we have now have a small
house and a 1 1/2 car garage.

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And thank God for that half.
We, we wanted A2 car garage, but

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if both of our cars were parked
in the garage, we'd have less

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room for stuff.
So that half a garage is really

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saving us to not have to get rid
of even more things.

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But eventually we will.
Cause can't take it with you.

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So this economically forced
downsizing has been much more

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joyous and fun, even exciting a
process than I ever would have

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expected.
I am truly, truly grateful that

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I was laid off.
I would have stayed at that job

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thinking I had to for years and
years until until they got rid

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of me.
So whatever you're faced with

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challenges, you can, you can
deny them, resist them and make

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it worse, or you can own it.
You can grab it.

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You can take control the best
you can of any situation.

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Everything has to come to an
end, all right.

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So taking control, deciding how
things would end was

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tremendously liberating for
myself and for and for my wife

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and for our dog and cat who are
still with us.

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And you know, that's what I
wanted to share this this week.

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And we'll get back to a regular
show next week, I think.

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I hope, I plan to.
But you know, until next time,

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be open to change.
Embrace change and take control

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of your life.
The UPS and the downs, the more

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control you take, the smoother
the ride will be.

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All right, until next time, be
good to yourself.