Day 18: 35 Moves and Counting – 30 days, 30 episodes

MacGill Hooley
00:00:01

I'm MacGill Hooley, and this is the Life Shift Candid conversations about the pivotal moments that have changed lives forever.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:18

Hello, my friends.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:19

Welcome to day 18 of 30 days, 30 episodes of the Life Shift podcast.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:25

I just realized that my hair looks a big mess, so if you're listening, you can't see that.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:29

Congratulations.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:31

But here I am.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:31

Day 18.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:32

This has been really a wonderful journey of challenging myself to come on every day and address something that's either top of mind or that is a prompt or someone has asked me to address this particular question or idea.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:48

And I feel like it's just like a really cool experience for myself.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:53

And I hope that you're enjoying these.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:55

Some of them are a little off the wall, and some of them are a little deep.

MacGill Hooley
00:00:59

Today I.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:00

I just wanted to share a fun fact, and this is usually one of the fun facts when I started a new place, and I'm like, you know, we go around the room with those terrible icebreakers that I think nobody loves icebreakers.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:12

And my one fun fact for me is that I have moved over 35 times in my life.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:21

And so that is usually surprising to people, considering I'm 43 and I'm not in a military family.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:29

But I have moved a lot.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:31

And a lot of that stems from my parents getting divorced when I was younger.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:36

And so then in some cases I had multiple houses, and in some cases those situations, we moved again.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:43

And then I've moved to, let's see, I've lived in four states, so that contributes to moving.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:50

And then college.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:52

I feel like everyone moves a lot in college.

MacGill Hooley
00:01:55

I'm currently in my third house that I've purchased, so there's a lot that goes into it.

MacGill Hooley
00:02:02

And the reason that I wanted to bring it up today is one, I think I just love change in that way or, like, this ability to start fresh in a new space is really this kind of like a something that I crave.

MacGill Hooley
00:02:19

And if we look back at the longest times that I've spent anywhere, it's about a six year stretch in which, like, that's the longest that I am in one place.

MacGill Hooley
00:02:30

And so I've been back in Orlando now for six years, and I'm getting the urge with everything that's going on in Florida and just the country feels a little bit off balance and for me, at least, and the things that I believe in.

MacGill Hooley
00:02:46

So I've been thinking more about, like, where will I go next?

MacGill Hooley
00:02:50

And I've talked about this on these daily episodes of, like, how I tend to just come Back to Florida because it's easy.

MacGill Hooley
00:02:58

And I don't think I need to do that anymore.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:00

I think in my 40s, it's like whatever, like how much time do I have left?

MacGill Hooley
00:03:05

Probably a lot.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:06

Hopefully a lot.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:07

But why go to what's easy?

MacGill Hooley
00:03:09

So I've been thinking about where I would go next.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:13

There's no actual plans.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:15

Who knows when it will happen, if it will happen.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:18

There's a lot of renovation we need to do at the house before we would be able to rent it out or anything like that.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:23

So it's not like any near term plans.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:25

But I do have myself kind of dreaming about like different places and different temperatures and different seasons and different people around in different environments.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:37

Obviously I would want to be able to be in a place where I could easily travel back and see friends that live here or travel back and forth to just see each other.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:47

And that's just how you do as adults.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:49

I don't think you need to be next door neighbors anymore.

MacGill Hooley
00:03:52

I think that is pre Internet when you were just kind of friends with your circle or the people that were closest by.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:00

But now as adults you can kind of move.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:02

So this is really top of mind for me lately and I just think about all the times that I've moved and the things that I've loved about it.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:10

Sure, it is a pain in the butt to move and packing is the worst.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:15

I am someone though that the day you move in or the day I move in, I have to unpack everything.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:22

Like I have to.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:23

I can't live with boxes and the mess and it just everything needs to be in a place and then I can determine where that place is.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:30

But I am someone that likes to unpack on day one and sometimes it shocks people when I do that.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:35

But it's just kind of how I am.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:37

I'm also the same way with like trips.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:39

When I come back and I have my luggage, like it immediately goes in the laundry, luggage goes away, I don't want to see it.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:46

I just need to unpack and feel like I am set up and settled.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:51

So that has always happened every time I've moved.

MacGill Hooley
00:04:55

I am also at the point in which I will never move myself again.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:00

So gone are the days when I rent a U Haul or a truck and call up friends and say, hey, I'll get you some pizza if you can come help me move.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:10

Those days are gone because yeah, it's not.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:14

It's so much faster and so much more efficient when you have a company that does this every day.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:19

All Day long and knows how to do things in an efficient way without really damaging too much.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:25

Although I've had a few instances where things have been damaged.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:28

But all in all, it seems like a really good way to go is to just hire someone.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:36

So if you're looking to move, make sure you do that.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:39

I'm a pro at packing because I've done it so many times.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:42

One of my favorite ways to move that I ever did was after a really traumatic experience in Colorado.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:51

The end of my time in Colorado, not the whole time, the end of my time.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:55

And I just needed to get back.

MacGill Hooley
00:05:56

And I think I talked about this in day one or two, but I sold everything, like, almost everything that I had.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:04

I think I shipped like 10, 12 boxes to my friend Tracy's house so she could hold on to that until I got back here.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:10

And then whatever fit in my car along with my dogs.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:14

And then I flew my friend Tracy out, I moved with.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:17

And so there was something really freeing about getting rid of nearly everything that I had, because you just learn to figure out, like, I don't really need all this crap, and then somehow I acquire all this crap again.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:31

But I did really enjoy the sense of, like, showing up to an apartment and knowing, like, I had to get everything this time.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:39

And it was brand new and everything was kind of a fresh start, which is what I needed at that particular moment in time.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:47

So I look back on that trying time with some fondness because I.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:53

I found it such an interesting process to really shed yourself of those things.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:58

Naturally.

MacGill Hooley
00:06:58

I kept things related to, like, my mom.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:01

I have a couple of my mom's things, and I kept those and a couple of my grandmother's things.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:07

Obviously anything that's kind of irreplaceable in a way, and then just kept the things that I liked or the things that I needed, clothes that I needed, got rid of all the furniture and everything like that.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:19

And it was.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:20

Was a really good experience.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:21

So I don't know what the next one will bring.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:23

Right now it's a four bedroom house, so there's a lot of stuff here.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:26

So, you know, ideally I win the lottery and then I don't have to worry about it.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:30

I can just do whatever I want and just buy new stuff when I get there.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:33

But we'll see.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:35

It's just kind of this thing that says it's a seed planted in my head right now thinking, where can I go next?

MacGill Hooley
00:07:42

How can I envision my life in a new space?

MacGill Hooley
00:07:44

I think I would really like to live in a More city environment.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:49

Like something like Chicago or something with like walkable kind of city feel.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:55

New York City was always something.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:56

I don't think I can afford to live in New York City.

MacGill Hooley
00:07:58

I might not be able to afford to live in Chicago.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:01

I also like the idea of having winters and having some kind of different weather every once in a while.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:07

I know some places or a lot of places get hot in the summer, but not for extended periods of time, like in Florida.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:14

This last couple years in the summers have just been brutal with days and days and days in a row of like a hundred degrees and 100% humidity to the point that we have a central air conditioning unit in our house, but also two additional air conditioning units in the offices so that it cools the spaces that we're in all the time.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:35

So, you know, there's a lot of.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:37

It's just hot.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:38

And I think I'm ready.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:39

I think I'm ready for something new.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:40

So maybe 2025 will be something new and maybe the Life Shift podcast will be recorded in a different city at some point.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:49

Hell, maybe someday if this show grows to a place where it makes sense, maybe I can actually have a studio or go to a studio.

MacGill Hooley
00:08:57

My friend Matt Labrie, who's been a guest on the Life Shift podcast, his podcast Decoding Success, has now been recording in a studio for like over a year now.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:08

I mean, I think he's way past I, I am on number of episodes, but how cool is that?

MacGill Hooley
00:09:14

And he's able to have these face to face conversations.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:17

I don't know if I'd be able to.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:18

I think this remote thing allows me to kind of have a little bit of comfort and I feel like people open up even more through remote recording.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:26

But who knows?

MacGill Hooley
00:09:27

All this to say I've moved 35 times and I'm willing to add numbers to that.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:32

So maybe 2025 will bring changes.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:35

Maybe 2026, who knows?

MacGill Hooley
00:09:37

Stay along for the journey.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:39

Let me know how many times you've moved in your life.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:41

I'd especially love to hear from someone that's never moved in their life.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:45

Like maybe they were in their or maybe once out of their parents home and then they're in the same place that they moved to from their parents home.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:53

So share that with me if you want in social media.

MacGill Hooley
00:09:56

If you have any questions that you want me to address in these final like 12 days of this little adventure I am taking, please send those to me on social media, the Life Shift podcast on Instagram and those places, and you can email me at Matthew Life Shift podcast.com if you have any other ideas.

MacGill Hooley
00:10:15

So that is it for day 18.

MacGill Hooley
00:10:18

How many times have you moved?

MacGill Hooley
00:10:19

I will see you tomorrow for day 19.

MacGill Hooley
00:10:22

Bye bye.

MacGill Hooley
00:10:34

For more information, please visit www.thelifeshiftpodcast.

MacGill Hooley
00:10:40

com.