Getting to here
It wasn’t easy. Nor was it convenient. But relocating ourselves was the right decision.
There is never going to be that perfect moment to undertake a relocation, the stars will never align and make it a somewhat seamless task.
There will be resistance from family and friends, challenges in leaving your job and the financial uncertainty that entails and then there are the prized possessions with which you must part.
We made our decision to pack up our lives after becoming disenfranchised with the full time working week and all that comes with it. We wanted to spend more time experiencing all that the world had to offer – flying to other countries from Australia and having only 4 weeks leave over the course of a year just wasn’t going to cut it.
Firstly, I finished at my job. That made it difficult to turn back. And I think that is the hardest part – no amount of planning is going to make putting your first foot out the door any easier. We didn’t plan the process particularly well to be honest. We hadn’t even booked our one way ticket until about 3 weeks before we departed!
We also started selling our possessions. This was a very heartbreaking and yet strangely liberating feeling. We lost many valuable possessions for a tenth of the value and lots we even donated to charity – we cursed those who got away with almost stealing from us, but these were things that were tying us down from pursuing our dreams – and any extra cash certainly helped. We still have two properties back in Perth that we are looking to sell, but we got there in the end.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
From start to finish this process took us about 6 weeks. It wasn’t particularly well planned at our end, but we were that keen to escape that it didn’t matter. Sure, we may have missed out on maximizing what we got for our gear – I am still upset that someone bought my prized alcohol collection for a mere $500, but it was worth it to get to where we are today. To get our freedom back.
We have never experienced stress like we did in the few days leading up to our departure, but getting a drink at the airport and then getting on our plane was an overwhelming relief.