As I sit here and write this week’s blog, I am doing so on the first day from my new home. I am running on adrenaline and about 2 hours sleep! My day yesterday (Friday) started at about 5:00am and, as I fell into bed after midnight last night, I reflected on the day just gone. I thought about everything that I had accomplished, and I realised that, honestly, you just do what you have to do, right?

Yesterday was move day, and it had been coming for a while, so you would have thought I would be more ready and organised! What can I say? This house moving adventure has been fraught with opportunities for personal growth. That’s a nice way of swearing out loud and having a tantrum without really doing it! I have had challenges with real estate agents, content insurance providers, refrigerators and then, on the day before moving the one provider you don’t want to have hassles with, the removalist. I won’t go into the details, but less than 24 hours before moving, I was looking for a new removalist. Thanks to God, I found one.

I couldn’t sleep on Thursday night, as I had too many things going through my mind. So, I was up at 5am on Friday. As I walked through a home that was supposed to be moved that day, I was overwhelmed! Thankfully, I had the calming influence and amazing help of my beautiful partner, Deb. We went through each room, and packed for several hours and then, we took two carloads to the new place. We unpacked, had lunch, and I waited for some tradies to do their thing. Then I had to get back to meet the removalists at 5pm. It was the only time they could do, as they were doing me a favour and adding another job onto their Friday.

After about 2 hours of frantically getting ready for them, they arrived at about 6pm, to get started. Now, these two amazing guys, had already moved three houses before coming to me. I was number four. I stopped complaining immediately. You see, you do what you gotta do, no matter how tough it may seem. Over the next 90 mins, the three of us put the contents of my home into their truck, just in time for a regular radio segment I do on 3AW, a prominent radio station in Melbourne. The removal guys headed off in their truck, and I sat in an empty house talking to Denis Walter on 3AW about using emotion for good. Incredibly, I felt fantastic.

I got to my new place at 8:30pm and we unloaded the truck and the incredible removal guys left at about 10pm, after, what was for them, a mammoth day. I had to take a new fridge out its box and set it up, make my bed, eat some food, start to make some kind of order out of the chaos, and then I fell into bed. When I think about everything that happened, I was amazed how I did it all. But then, you do what you gotta do! The impossible becomes possible when it’s something you gotta do. The energy is there to burn when it’s something you gotta do. Capacity, potential and ability appear when it’s something you gotta do.

This is great news for all of us. We often look at the things we want to have, do or achieve and talk ourselves out of because we doubt our ability. There may be things we start and then give up on because we make excuses about lack of time, not enough money or undesirable circumstances. The reality is, and I will say it again: we do, what we gotta do! The reason most people never start, or if they do, give up on things they are aspiring to is because they don’t categorise it in their mind as something they gotta do! The second you make something non-negotiable, the job is done, no matter how unlikely it may seem.

In my podcast this week with Jan Cocks-Salvemini, called The bright red boot, Jan talks about her mission to change the word ‘disabled’ to ‘para-abled’. She plans on going to the United Nations and stating her case in front of the World Health Organisation to make it happen. I have no doubt she will get it done, and you will agree as you listen to her talk. The reason is because she has decided it is something she must do. And you know what that means, right? When you make a decision that something you want is something that has to be done, you will go ahead and make it happen, no matter what others may think. Why? Because you do what you gotta do!