Relocation & Expat Coach

TIp four - time for reflection!

It is important that before you select to make any decisions that you take the time to reflect on your decision.  You have answered many questions in the previous three tips and now is the time for you to sit down, quietly and reflect on your answers to the questions asked and to your own questions.

It's important to remember that the answers you give to your own questions and to the questions asked in this blog or by your Expat Coach are answers that you only share with yourself.  It is your decision if you decide to share these with anyone else.

- What was the real reason that you want to move away from where you are living now?

- What are you truly looking for in the environment that you want to move to?
   At the same time, what are you truly looking to move away from in the environment that you are now living in?

- What do you want from your lifestyle?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in your current lifestyle?

- What do you want from your new property?
   At the same time, what are you looking to move away from in the property you are now living?

- What do you want from your bank accounts?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in your current bank accounts?
   Strange question you may say, but have you truly looked at all elements of moving? 

What benefits have you got now that you might lose?  What benefits have you not got now that you might gain?

- What do you want from your social life?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in your current social life?

- What do you want from your working life/requirements/career/business?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in your current job/career/business?

- What do you want for your health?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in relation to your health now?

- What do you want from your cost of living?
   At the same time, what are you looking to change in your current cost of living?

- What do you know of the legislation, regulation and tax systems in the country you are looking to move to?
   At the same time, what are you trying to get away from in relation to legislation, regulation and tax?
   OK - so we are all trying to get away from paying tax, but it is worth being very clear about what tax you are paying now and what you will be paying.

During your reflection, please remember to be:
- specific about your answers
- where you are looking for something, be clear about how will you measure what you are looking for
- agreed / action-oriented - you've heard the phrase 'if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail'.  When writing in your journal be absolutely clear about what you have to do to get there.  Now is the time for you to really document your tasks, your actions.  If you need to do more research - do it.  If you need to visit, visit!  If you need time, take the time!  It's important now to identify exactly what you need to do to achieve your goal.
- realistic - looking at what you have now written down, what draws you to want to move?
- time framed - what is your timescale for each task/action, and what is your timescale for each decision you need to take?
- exciting - looking at your answers, how do you feel?  It's true that it we cannot live, dream, breathe, be engulfed by our goal, it probably won't be achieved.  If you are not feeling absolutely overwhelmed by excitement, now is the time to ask yourself 'what is the reason or reasons that I'm not sure about emigrating?'  Once you've written these down, if you have to go back to the beginning and reflect in your journal about these answers - this is the time to do it.  Once you know that this is your goal and no longer your dream, then move on!
- recorded - it's important to capture your goal ... write a sentence (preferably not a paragraph) about your emigration goal.  This will allow you to focus - clearly focus.  Now write it on something or put it somewhere where you will see it regularly.

Want to make a success of your plans to move?  Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path?  You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!

Just email Barbara on [email protected]!

Find Barbara's biog on http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91

... a little focus on Europe!

After many discussions and real hard talks, we decided that really we didn't want to be away from Europe.  Although my family live in the Southern Hemisphere - Australia and Southern Africa - John's family mainly lived in Europe.  My business was all based around Europe, with one or two clients further afield.  Although a very hard decision, and after many, many years of researching Australia and the southern hemisphere, we found ourselves understanding that although we wanted to move out of the UK - we may not have to move that far away to get the life we wanted to live.

So back to our research ...

Cyprus - this was our first point of research.  I have many friends from the southern hemisphere who have moved here.  John wasn't so keen.  So we looked at Cyprus, but did say 'no' after several hours of research.

Malta - part of the reason we visited Malta in 2007 was to understand if we could live there.  We have a number of friends who have visited the island and can't wait to move.  As with every decision that you take, this was a personal decision for us, and although we had a fabulous holiday there - loved our trips to Gozo and the clearness of the water - we very quickly decided that it was not for us on a permanent basis.

Sardinia - although John's family originated in northern Italy, our research didn't encourage us to go and visit Sardinia.  Part of the reason was the distance of travel Sardinia is from mainland Europe ... the ferry journey's (if you wanted to drive) were very long!

Corsica and Sicily - although we spent a lot more time (many, many weeks) researching Sicily mainly and the distance from mainland Europe wasn't so far, our research eventually showed that it wasn't a destination for us.  We did look into travelling there to understand exactly what Sicily and Corsica had to offer and will do so in the future.

Back to the internet to do our research! 

Want to make a success of your plans to move?  Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path?  You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!

Just email Barbara on [email protected]!

Find Barbara's biog on http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91

Looking for a new environment!

It's Christmas 2007 and with a few days at home we started our research again!

Now we were back with the world map and having addressed a number of concerns that had come up as we had followed through with our research, we made the decision that we really didn't want to leave Europe.

This was a huge decision and we did talk about it many times over many weeks just to be absolutely sure that we on the right track!

What was the reason that we investigated, over many years, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, California, Mexico before really knowing that we didn't really want to move that far away?  It was the experiences that we had both had during our lives while travelling both for business and for pleasure.  We knew from this that there are many countries in the world that can offer a fabulous way of life.  We had to now be realistic and admit to ourselves that some of the things we have now we didn't want to change!

Both of us have travelled extensively in Europe, but not always to the same place.  Our work had taken us to different environments and to different countries and towns.  Before we met and got married, we had both done a lot of travelling and again this was to different countries, different experiences of culture and different towns.

So now knowing that what we were trying to change was our environment - home, weather, lifestyle - and not our jobs, friends, access to our family - we had to move on.  It wasn't an easy decision, but we both agreed that we do fly to Australia now to see my immediate family, what's to stop us continuing to do this?

So we were emigrating for a new environment.

So we got the map of Europe out.  One of the things that we really, really want to change was the weather.  We know that rain happens everywhere and we've experienced rainy summers throughout Europe; but we also know that Southern Europe offers a better chance to be able to do the outdoor things that we wanted to do!

As we had both experienced Northern Europe in summer and winter, we both agreed at the beginning of this research that we wanted to live in Southern Europe.  So we started to look at the Mediterranean, but where to start?

Spain - although I had worked in various cities in Spain and I had thoroughly enjoyed the experiences, met some lovely people, have some great Spanish friends, it wasn't a country that drew us to live in it.  So having had a look at Spain we both agreed that it wasn't at the top of our list.  Yes, we may be wrong; but we went with our intuition and moved on.

Greece - I have a lot of Greek friends (some from school and some met during my working life in/around the world) and have visited Athens with some of them.  I haven't spent a lot of time in Greece.  One of my clients organises fantastic holidays (www.elysianholidays.co.uk) to the Greek Islands and seeing the feedback from their clients does make us want to go there.  We researched mainland Greece and then some of the islands.  Again using our intuition, we felt that it wasn't the right place for us.

Turkey - we spent our honeymoon in Istanbul and we loved it!  My parents have travelled through Turkey and good friends of ours had been there many times.  We got out our photographs, our notes, our memories and we reminisced.  We asked ourselves 'what was the reason we hadn't gone back?' - after all it was nearly 13 years since we had last been there.

We agreed to spend some time thinking through our Europe decision, as in a short few hours we had turned down a number of countries.  So back to the research and to the journal ...

Want to make a success of your plans to move?  Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path?  You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!

Just email Barbara on [email protected]!

Find Barbara's biog on http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91

Tip three - don't despair!

Australia ... New Zealand ... South Africa ... Thailand ... Vietnam ... Philippines ... Malaysia ... Mexico ...  Where?  We didn't despair ... we knew that with enough research we would find the ideal place!  It's at times like this that you really need to absolutely clear on what your goal is. 

What is the real reason that you want to make this move? 

What are you trying to achieve by uprooting yourself, your family, your enviroment to go somewhere else?

After nearly five years of looking we still knew that we wanted to change our lifestyle.  We knew that it was the right time for us to do so - or accept that we would continue to live in the 'rut' that we were in.  We knew that this was not the lifestyle for us - we knew that we had to move.

Research shows that people tend to emigrate because they've visited somewhere that looks a lot 'nicer' than where they are today.  Often not enough research is done, to understand where they are now and what they really want.

Emigration does mean 'starting again!'  Unless you are lucky enough to move to a place where you know a lot of people, often you arrive, settle in, start work and it all feels the same as it did before your move but without the social life.

Thinking now about what you truly want:

- What do you like about your current environment?

- What do you like about your current job?

- What do you like about your immediate family? 

- How close are they to you now?

- How often do you get to visit them?

- What do you want to change about your current environment?

- What do you want to keep about your current environment?

- What do you want to change about your job?

- What do you like about your current job that you want to still do?

- How far do you want to be away from your immediate family?

- How often do you want to see them?

- Once you've moved, how will you make friends?

- How will you build your social life?

I understand that as another drizzly summer passes us by in the UK and the sunshine in other countries seems to draw us, it makes our plans for emigration all the more urgent!  How will you feel if you join the statistics of people who move and within a couple/three years have returned back to the place of starting/origin?

- How much research have you truly done to absolutely know that where you are looking to emigrate is the right place for you?

Don't despair ... just know that you will find your dream! 

Take this time to turn your dream into your goal!  Take some time and write in your journal - allow your imagination to run wild!  Everytime you think of a reason to move ... something you are drawn to ... an idea of your 'new' life ... just jot it down.  It's important when you are writing in your journal that you do not try and interpret your thoughts - just write them down as they come.

After a while (it may be days ... weeks ... months) review what you have written down and now, take a clean sheet of paper in your journal and be:
- specific about the type of lifestyle you want.
  specific about the type of environment you want to live in.
  specific about the type of job that you want to be doing.
  specific about the hours that you want to be working.
  specific about how you will find the 'job of your dreams'
  specific about how you will find friends.
  specific about how you will build up your social life.
- how will you measure that the life you are designing meets all the criteria you set initially?
- agreed / action-oriented - you've heard the phrase 'if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail'.  When writing in your journal be absolutely clear about what you have to do to get there.  Now if the time for you to really document your tasks, your actions.
- realistic - looking at what you have now written down, what about your 'new' life is different to the one you've got now?  What makes this new life realistic?  What draws you to want to live it?
- time framed - a lot of the process of emigration is outside our own control; so sometimes putting down a timescale for actually moving is a little difficult.  Now is the time to think about the decisions that you have to take (these are generally based on the tasks and actions you've set yourself above) - what is your timescale for each task/action, and what is your timescale for each decision you need to take?
- exciting - looking at your journal, how do you feel?  It's true that it we cannot live, dream, breathe, be engulfed by our goal, it probably won't be achieved.  If you are not feeling absolutely overwhelmed by excitement, now is the time to ask yourself 'what is the reason or reasons that I'm not sure about emigrating?'  Once you've written these down, if you have to go back to the beginning and reflect in your journal about these answers - this is the time to do it.  Once you know that this is your goal and no longer your dream, then move on!
- recorded - it's important to capture your goal ... write a sentence (preferably not a paragraph) about your emigration goal.  This will allow you to focus - clearly focus.  Now write it on something or put it somewhere where you will see it regularly.

Want to make a success of your plans to move?  Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path?  You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!

Just email Barbara on [email protected]!

Find Barbara's biog on http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91

OK ... so where next?

One of our desires was to live in a country where the weather was reasonable - we wanted to be able to plan outdoor activites - BBQ, sight seeing, visiting friends, swimming, sailing, to name just a few!

In my business travels I had, had the opportunity to visit San Diego in California a number of times - both in winter and in summer.  My knowledge (very limited), my contacts (reducing over the years), and my research led me to think that this area of the world may just be what we were looking for.

Yes, out came the laptops - on went the research and we came upon Mexico!  At the time of our research, we were watching a number of programs on TV about buying property across the world.  We turned on the TV on evening and the program that evening was about a couple who were looking to buy a property in Mexico - our interest was raised and we watched with note pads at the ready to capture our own thoughts!  What we saw heightened our interest, so we carried on with our research.

After a couple of months we were talking about our move and one of the concerns we now had was how far away we were from everyone!  Family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances - it didn't matter who they were we really were looking to move away.  This didn't feel comfortable, so we stopped our research and decided that we would not visit Mexico at the moment (although we will one day, just to see what we could have moved to).

Want to make a success of your plans to move?  Want to work with someone who will not judge the reasons you want to make your move, who will not guide you down a specific path?  You have this opportunity to work with a qualified and accredited coach who has done it!

Just email Barbara on [email protected]!

Find Barbara's biog on http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org/coach_referral_service/display_detail.php?trf=91