For those of us who are lucky to have enough finances and a desire to take a few risks, coming to a new country and city, to make a new start and to try to integrate into a new culture isn’t the easiest thing to do. There are always moments which will challenge us when coming to a foreign country. The definition of leaving one’s comfort zone then becomes even more apparent, as it not only refers to the mental idea of becoming uncomfortable, but geographically and, of course, linguistically, also.
Madrid and Spain had offered me so much
I had come to the conclusion that 12 years living in Madrid had reached its duration and that I was falling out of love with Europe. This is not to say that Madrid and Spain is a vibrant, friendly and scenic country, because it is, but I had just reached the milestones in my personal life and business, which meant I could consider the idea of becoming what is now known as a ‘Digital Nomad’, where as long as you can work online, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world. I will go into this late
I also felt that after hearing many Spanish natives tell me, matter-of-factly that they have, “The best food in the world!” without being able to confirm they have actually left the country to prove this, just started to irritate me.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
This, of course, is a reflection of perhaps how I was feeling, after living in Spain for 12 years. I was feeling uninspired and unmotivated. That is not to say there aren’t many opportunities for business and work there in the education industry, as there are, but I needed to shake myself out of a depressive funk.
Feeling paralysed requires massive change
I knew that I needed to embrace a completely new, 180-degree shift to kick my own arse, or ass, as the Americans say, lol. I had visited Thailand 16 years ago, when I was 25 and I had always wanted to discover more of Asia.
I was willing to start learning another foreign language, which will be my third, albeit involving a totally new alphabet to the easy western languages.
I will go into much more detail later about addictions, being in business and taking risks, motivation levels and mental and physical health. All I can say for now, is that working for many years alone is not a healthy approach to growing in business or as an individual, but many of us suffer in silence. I honestly believe that if more of us spoke about our challenges the world will become a better place. There is a lot to tell…
