Making Space for Change

Welcome to the New Year!

This year will be TBD – to be designed – by YOU. As a friend shared, there is “not a minute to waste or a joy to lose” as we begin to discover what can and will be in the days and weeks ahead.

The question is how we choose to move into this new year. Is our choice simply to follow a calendar? Or is it to follow an open mind and an adventurous heart? Is it about the status quo or about following the energy that a new year brings? The best part about the new year is that it belongs to each of us. It is up to you to make it special, to make it productive, to make it whole, to make it yours.

I can predict with great accuracy that change will be part of our future. The calendar changes, our environment changes, and our relationships change. Everything in the world is changing – every second and every minute of every day. As humans, we are changing, too. Yet, we often get uncomfortable when we openly talk about change – as if it is bad or uncomfortable. Change is like breath – it is absolutely human and an unquestioned necessity.

I am a believer that change can happen to us, or it can happen because of us and for us. Change this year must be an intentional choice with an intentional plan. Before thinking about what I will change, I first consider what I must release – things that have served me in the past but no longer serve me today, or where I need to go in the future. I call this making space for change – it is as purposeful as any action I take. It may be letting go of a negative belief, a toxic relationship, a limiting trajectory, the energy of others, or historic baggage that you have accumulated and carry with you. The baggage of the past should not weigh you down in the future.

Making space for change means clearing out the past with a commitment to be in the moment today. I have worked hard to walk away from things that no longer work for me, even very successful, historic relationships – accepting that they served me at a different time. The trauma of leaving something behind can be hard, but it is necessary to create the openness for the new that is waiting for you. The key to the future is creating that space – physical and emotional -- for yourself to thrive.

Even my uniquely curated office, which is visited by people from across the world for its design, has challenged me to take a wild chance and let go of the past. Gone is the traditional conference room, replaced with the “locker room of the future”; gone is the favorite chalkboard room which was reimagined each quarter for the past 10 years; gone are the elegantly designed spaces and walls of white that are being replaced with intense color and the energy it brings; gone is the Ms. Pacman gaming area, now to be replaced with a music inspired lounge of original albums.

These original spaces brought great creativity and comfort – but the times ahead require a different level of creativity and a period of comfortable discomfort. In other words, we have physically made space for change in a space that was already one of a kind.

I may be crazy for investing in changing something so special. But I must prove to myself that no matter how great the past was – design, results, innovations, connections, etc. – that the future can be even more spectacular and special. If we are unwilling to take a chance – even if that means we fail in the moment – then we have limited our chance to get to the whole promise of a future that is waiting for us. I have no idea how people will experience the new space. The only thing I know is that I had no choice but to change it – in an effort to open up new space for me and my team to reimagine what is possible.

So, let yourself work to get ahead of change. Practice change before it comes for you. Be open to the future and what you will dream and then design. First, work to actively make space for the change you want. Take an inhale. And then let go! It will free you. It will propel you. And, you will find that you will inspire the greatness within you! Start by making your own space.

Brad