Moving Day

Tomorrow, my office location at Willow is changing – not just down the hall, but to an entirely different building where most of the Willow Creek Association staff works. After two years in my new role, it was decided that it’s time for me to relocate even though I’ve enjoyed my proximity to the arts team on the church side. In about 23 years on staff at this campus, I’ve probably had at least seven different offices. These have ranged from windowless small-box spaces to one of my favorites, a spot hidden away on the lower level with a view of the lake.

Moving offices isn’t a huge deal in the scheme of overall life, but it does impact the little things. Instead of saying “Hi” to Jodi, Jon, and Dave, I’ll now cross paths with an entirely different group. My new neighbor with an office right next door is one of the most joyful, fun people on the planet – Steve Bell. I look forward to laughing with him! I will park in a new spot, walk through different main doors, and try to find the right place to get hot water for my morning tea. This physical change will put the final period on a sentence of transition in my role that began 23 months ago, and somehow, it will make it all much more real and final.

We humans are creatures of habit. Think about your daily routine – how you get to work, what stops you tend to make, where you park, how you schedule your day, where and when you tend to stop for breaks and lunch, who you chat with about last night’s sports scores or the winner on Dancing With the Stars. Experts on creativity challenge us to break out of these routines once in awhile, if for no other reason than to shake up our thinking and give us the chance to reframe our perspective. So if you’ve been stuck in a fairly predictable pattern for a long time, you can celebrate my moving day tomorrow by doing at least one thing differently in the next 24 hours. Order something new from Starbucks, drive through a different neighborhood to work, call someone you haven’t connected with in years, do a completely different form of aerobic exercise. And let me know what you did and how it felt. I’ll be setting up shop in my new space, and though I’ll be stepping out of my comfort zone, I think it will be good for me…