It’s always around this time of the year when I stop and say “where did the summer go?”   September is right around the corner and it seems like only yesterday that I was preparing for the warm weather and dreaming of barbeques.  For myself, this summer has been one of change.  I transitioned my role from the F&B Director at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Allentown to my new role as the Hotel Manager at the Marriott Courtyard LaGuardia.

It was only a last week that all of my possessions were packed into boxes and, with PA in the rear view mirror, I took off for New York.  After hours of carrying boxes up a five flight walkup it was official:  a New York resident I now was.

I have come to realize a key fact.  Change in the hospitality management world is like gravity.  It isn’t just a good idea…it is a law.  If we aren’t changing…we aren’t growing.  We are actually moving backwards  because our customers needs and wants are always changing.  “Change is Good” is actually one of our Journey Foundational Principles.  I think, “Change is a Law of the Nature of Hospitality” might be a better way to pose it.

Everyone changes. No story there.

As I thought deeper about it, I think what makes us unique as MJ leaders isn’t the changing part.  It is how we manage that change.  How we look at learning and apply what we are learning as we change.

I built a lot of heart connections and partnerships while in PA.  In our Journey culture we don’t just throw those out and chalk them up to CHANGE. We deepen them and strengthen them so they can stretch all the way to New York and tie onto the new heart connections and partnerships ready to be formed.

At first all the newness of the move brought that weird pit-in-the-stomach feeling that comes with change back to me.    I walked out my door one morning and realized that even getting a simple cup of coffee was new.   I no longer had the coffee shop on my way into work where they knew me by name.  It felt weird and kind of sad.

When I got to my new office we were reviewing GSS and pinpointed some areas at breakfast.  I immediately thought about the time back in Allentown and the time when we faced the same issue.  So I took out my phone and called Kevin.  I shared the scenario and we talked about the results of what happened when we encountered the same situation.

Change is good…. Change doesn’t mean “starting over.”  It means maximizing opportunities to increase impact.  It means picking up and connecting larger and larger circles of influence.  It means leading and learning and teaching and then learning more and more.

It is an amazing how the Journey principals can take shape in so many different ways.  As I embark on a new position, new home, new associates and friends, I can’t wait for the opportunities and experiences.

I have “someday dreams.”  I have a vision of a horizon that includes me.  I know that each step I take along this journey is an important one that will make that horizon even sweeter.

Think about those times in your own journeys where change has produced the pit-in-the-stomach and you have worked through it to find success.  Share with me your Change Is Good moments.  I would love to read them.