The Nomad Choice
Traveling Partners
2020-10-06
Being a Nomad
2020-10-06Sometimes we can feel that our present is like wind blowing us away and we no longer know why we are living where we are. The importance of being aware that this is our decision is crucial when it comes to living our nomad life fully. What are the choices we make to be where we are, allows us to feel that we have the reins of our life.
The choice is yours
Many times I hear expats who lose their sense of why they are where they are. Some may feel tired of the constant change in their life, many find it difficult to readjust.
We all have our days, some are better than others. But when the "what am I doing here?" resonates many times in your head, it is time to slow down and rethink what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Frequent questions and reflections are:
What am I doing here?
How did I get here?
My work leads me to...
I left everything to follow you
If I had not left, today I would be / would have…
Finding why I am doing what I do, often takes us a long time. When we reflect on what motivated me to make this or that decision, it frees us from the pressure of having to know exactly what to do today.
In the difficult days, that every Nomad has, it is frequent to fantasize about everything we would have achieved if we had not gone in this direction. (That place can be a city, a job, a partner) This speech is very frequent in traveling partners, spouses that “follow” their spouse.
Now, who made us come to live here? I take it for granted that all those who read me are adults, because children are a separate case, they have no choice than to follow us. We can all reject a job offer because the conditions are not what we expected (be it our own or from your partner´s) What we have is to bear the consequences that comes with it.
It is very frequent to hear “I came here for him / her and I left everything. I left my friends, my family and even my job" Now this statement is a trap. If I put it that way I have no escape, I am the victim of migration. But if we analyze it more in detail, the decision was made by us. We must had made the decision of moving to this city taking into consideration what we were going to leave behind, and even with this analysis we made the decision.
Of course, what is worthwhile in one moment of our lives may not be worth it in another. This is also valid. What made sense to me at one point, stopped. So it is time to reflect.
When I was in the "I left everything for my husband's career" it took me a lot of effort to see that:
a) I did not leave EVERYTHING
b) all the thing I took with me
c) It was not because of my husband's career, but because of the family project that we both had.
And this is where I think the catch is. We convince ourselves that there is something outside that leads us to make decisions when in reality we are ourselves and our choices.
What we put in the balance when making the decision, what things were more important, what things TODAY are more important for me. On those difficult days that every Nomad has, we have many things to blame, we can point fingers and get angry. But make no mistake, calm down and be honest. Most of the time the blame is an imagination of our own choices; decisions we made that took us where we are now.
What sacrifices are you willing to make? The choice is yours!
