Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye, and you will be drawn toward it.
Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Submitted by RagsToRich on Thu, 2010-04-29 09:46
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You may or may not know that in December of last year I made a decision to uproot everything and abdicate the country – leave my job, sell almost all my stuff, and zoom off to another country with no intention of coming back any time soon.This actually wasn’t so much part of my personal development plan, it’s more something that I’ve always had some desire to do deep down… It may seem crazy to some people, but I have very strong reasons for wanting this.
Years gone by…
This was actually something that had been bubbling up inside of me several years ago. I had been accepted on to a program which pays for graduates to teach English in Japan. I got through all the interview stages, and then flaked a few months before the final hurdle.
I had a good reason though, I’d just secured a job which offered me money and experience I had never been close to before. I made a choice based on which would be most in keeping with my goals, and staying was the one to go for. Jetting off to Japan has an adventurous appeal, sure, but I’m not actually that much of a J-fanatic and I would have definitely come out of Japan broke.
It was the right decision because the next few years were amazing for me – my social circle exploded very shortly after making that decision and I had a very exciting period of self-change. If I had of gone I'm sure I'd have great memories, but it's hard to imagine how anything could have compensated for the things I actually did with my life in that time.
However as the years went by the root reasons for me initially wanting to jet out the country were still there. They never went away, they had just been suppressed temporarily. Over-time they festered. I had already felt as if I’d been rooted to the spot for too long all that time ago, I knew that one day I’d have to re-address my desire to uproot and bomb off into the unknown.
Towards the end of last year I began to feel negatively towards the city I was in. A city in which I’d had many fun experiences and owe a lot of great times to. Also a city which I have a great deal of love for. I knew that this was my signal – the call of adventure was roaring again, my feet were so itchy now that I could barely keep them on the floor.
Come the present…
So come December 09 when I decided I was definitely going to go. And as luck turns out, I hit this wave at exactly the same time as a friend of mine who had similar feelings but different motivations – this is technically called synchronicity by the way and it's a fascinating phenomenon. We combined forces right away and began working on our plans.
Having him along has been a major boost, it would be at least ten times harder doing everything on my own and I largely suspect, since we haven't actually set-off yet, that I've really only seen the tip of the iceberg of benefits to having another person along. Not only another person, but another conscious personal developer who has a plethora of skills.
By early January we nailed it down to a destination in southern Europe. The more economically minded associates and friends were not impressed, southern Europe is terrible for jobs right now – in-fact just yesterday Spain's credit rating was dropped from AAA to AA+.
Honestly, this is what scares me the most. The economic side of things. Once we dive off the cliff with our home-made parachute only time will tell if it actually opens up or not. That's much how I feel about my economic prospects in Spain. All I can do about it right now is labour away on my parachute. Not just working hard on it, but also planning to make sure it's the right shape and made out of the right material.
But a beautiful coast, great weather, a non-career focused relaxed attitude to life… this is the stuff I dreamed of for years.
¡Queremos vivir en españa!
By february we'd settled on Spain. I’ve had to justify this decision to people over and over mainly due to the aforementioned economic situation which is particularly nasty in the med.
We weighed up all the options and Spain came out on top, we chose it, we began learning Spanish, we’ve stuck with it, and we will stick with it (save one last-minute backup which I have should things appear completely unfeasible in Spain). At the end of the day, you have to make one choice or another. To some extent gut instinct must be involved – you're never going to get all the facts, and the ones we had available show Spain as both the best fit and the most likely plan to succeed.
Spain has a fantastic culture of relaxation and partying, it’s not too far from home, living costs are a little cheaper, the Spanish language is one of the most well-spoken languages in the world AND it’s beautiful to speak and listen to. The coast line is beautiful, the opportunities for intellectual, cultural and spiritual improvement are vast. The opportunities for relaxing, partying, and socialising are vaster still!So since January this year I’ve been preparing. By the end of January I committed to an hour a day of learning Spanish. He aprendido mucho y peudo hablar mucho, pero es un mucho trabajo. (I have learnt a lot and I can speak a lot, but it is a lot of work.)
On top of that there has been budgeting, networking, business plans, and lorry-loads of admin work. The admin work involved in doing something like this, if you want a clean execution, is massive. Organsiation is not optional.
Stress bubbles…
Then at intervals of about a month and a half I would look again at the plan to move to Spain, which we had set at September, and feel a little overwhelmed.
Ok I’m lying. COMPLETELY overwhelmed is more like it.
I put a lot of organisation into this, but I still occasionally felt like not enough can be done. How competent will I actually be in speaking Spanish? Will I actually get a job? How? Will we overcome the massive challenges ahead? What about all the people who try this stuff and fail?
Usually when that happens I’d have a day where my mind almost melts down because it all becomes too much, then I’d recover the next day with renewed commitment, enthusiasm, and a desire to redouble my efforts.
The most recent of these impressions of harsh reality happened just a few days ago. I was researching Spain a little more, and I just found myself overwhelmed with the number of things to keep track of – again. At the same time I stumbled upon the blog of someone who moved to Spain successful, just about.
But his commitment was outstanding. I have always thought that my own energy, drive and commitment are some of my finest assets, but this guy seemed to know at least as much dedication. On top of that he already spoke fluent Spanish AND he studied in Seville for three years! He accentuated the importance of his pre-established social-network in the success of his move.
This shock me up quite a lot. I don’t have a pre-established social network, I will not speak great Spanish, and I’ve never even been to Spain – let alone lived or studied there. On top of that if I didn’t get a job my money could well run out without 6-8 months.
Eek.
Actually I’m not being honest – let me try and represent a little more what it was actually like.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…. (you get the idea)
The worst thing about stress is that when it happens not only does it feel terrible it screws up your performance with everything. For example, my learning Spanish that day went HORRIBLY.
Bottoming out, and hitting the up-swing.
But – as per the patterns which had gone before – I came through it the following day, gradually. I accepted that many things would be out of my control, I accepted that I was prepared for the worst situation if it happened (ending up broke and unemployed but with a lot of great memories), and I let go of some of the harsher realities which I may or may not have to personally come across.
Then, and most importantly, I adjusted my own schedule and efforts with this new information in mind. I tightened my budget, started organising the many administrative documents which will be involved in the move, renewed my Spanish learning efforts, and began putting some other things into place to help this whole thing go as smoothly as possible.
In short – I adjusted as much as possible to clear the upcoming hurdle. The hurdle which for one brief moment there had looked like an insurmountable mountain.
I’m not unconvinced that this process is not just part of the way our brains deal with massive things like this. I suppose the important part is coming through stress relatively unscathed, and embracing the upswing when it comes.
I was still a little shaken up when I wrote this by the way, but I've stablised since. I'll be sure to post regular updates on my plans on this blog. I will also start to reveal some of the more deeper reasons why I've decided to do this. I know it's a little out of the remit of what I usually write about, but I'm hoping people will find insight, inspiration, and intrigue in this plan.
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Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Good luck with the move. It is something that I want to consider doing some day soon when I get a few other things sorted.
I also like the posts you do which are more about your personal life, rather than just purely abstract self improvement concepts. Makes it a lot more interesting and "human". Nice to see also people taking the principles and applying them rather than just thinking about them or being aware of them. Keep up the good work!
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Thanks very much for those comments Ducky. I actually don't get much feedback and the feedback I get tends to be "oh, good job" so I'm really glad to hear something like this.
I was thinking about shifting the blog in a more personal direction - ie: more present and future facing.
Me and some other friends who are all into personal development did an excercise about 6 months ago in which we all had to write a couple of pages about "who we are."
Four out of five of us all wrote about our PASTS... including me.
But your past shouldn't be all that you are - because there's some things that you are which just don't have a lot of history yet.
We'll see how it goes ;)
Rich
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
What if you are given a parachute constructed of the flimsiest invisible and odourless material but the power of your thoughts make it stronger than spider silk and reusable and expandable and endurable would you could you and when would you with the feelings you now have choose to do this.
Well done for the big 'drop' notice.
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Hey dude, NEVER give up... I know you may be going thru really harsh situations and sometimes things don't look good... but being adventurous is just awesome dude!! and the essence of it, it is to enjoy it to the maximum and give the best of us to make sure that all things work out for us dude.... the same happened to me when I moved from my native Spanish speaking country to Canada.... it was such a huge change!! you cannot imagine all things I went thru... but I made it... most importantly, you have to have faith in yourself and trust in your skills.
Do not worry about the language. Probably you won't be the best speaker of Spanish but you will learn it bro. Learning languages is just awesome and inspiring, getting to know different cultures and stuff... wow... that just thrills me... I'm glad I have the opportunity to speak 3 languages (Spanish, English and French) and believe me, it hasn't been easy... but God has always been there helping me. Well, I'm christian as you can see, and that has been a great motivation for me. A motivation will help you go higher than the others and thrive for that that you want to achieve.. Just keep on studying Spanish, it is very easy. Try to give birth to a new motivation each passing day to learn it, and in a blink of an eye, you will see yourself surfing over the "linguistic hemispheres" of the world.
Anyways, I wish you the best and let me know how your plans are being carried in regards to your moving to Spain.
Take care and don't forget: that "There is NO secret ingredient, to make something special, we have to believe that's special :) "
A. H.
Montreal, Quebec.
Canada
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Hey Angelo,
Thanks for the message - it's good to hear some encouragment about these plans from an external source. Obviously friends and family are very encouraging, but outside of that often the message is more on the "Watch out for this" and "This will be harder than you thought" side of things.
Gracis por la oferta - I'll be in touch on Facebook.
Rich
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Hi, I read this with great interest.
What risk are you actually taking?
You are single right? If it doesn't work out how you want it too (which I am sure it will), you can go back!
I moved to Spain from the UK 7.5 years ago with a 4yr old & 6 month baby.
I had money & a spanish wife, two great assets I grant you but know job, a mere few words of spanish and 4 mouths to feed. I'm still here, it wasn't easy and sometimes still isn't but Iv'e set up my own successful business and speak spanish, well Andaluz.
You seem like a smart person who wants to acheive your goals, go for it, have fun doing it and remeber why you are doing it!
The one little thing I wanted to mention was dialects, just as Andalucia has it's own dialect Valencia does too.
It's hard at first but get yourself out on the streets and throw yourself in, it's the best way to learn the language.
The issue of whether Catalan and Valencian constitute different languages or merely dialects has been the subject of political agitation. Autonomous Community of Valencia considers “Valencian” to be a separate language that is not considered a dialect of Catalan. Yet, the two languages are virtually identical apart from “dialectical” differences and linguistic nuances.
I'd like it if you wouldn't mind contributing to my facebook site in helping people to successfully move to Spain?
As you take each step maybe you can help others looking to move to Valencia or Spain as a whole!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Move-to-Spain-FREE-information-on-how-to-successfully-move-to-Spain/114232351939007
Suerte Amigo y un cordial saludo
Paul
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Hi Paul,
Gracias por ayudarme.
My research into Valencian is that it's only used by older people and in public most people speak Castilian. The particular study I read was that 80% of conversation in a large super-market in Valencia (the city) was in Castilian and so that is what I'm learning.
It sounds like you did something quite special. I will take a look at your site.
Rich
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
Hey buddy.
Two things.
1) I don't have big savings or retirement money to rely on. I'm mkaing assumptions about your mum, but I'd be very impressed if she emigrated with nothing.
2) I chose Valencia for many reasons, one specifically was to avoid English speakers. Not because I dislike them, but because I want to integrate into Spanish culture. I want to become fluent in Spanish and I want to be plunged deep into the water.
Cheers,
Rich
Re: Abdicating to Spain: A taste of harsh reality
BEAUTIFUL!!
I've actually decided last year to up and move to another area too. Of course, its still in this country (and in fact the same state) but it is a good 6 hours away from everything I know. I'm not familiar with the area there since I've only visited once, and I am absolutely TERRIFIED of failing and having to come back here if something goes wrong.
Everyone knows of my desire to move there and everyone sees this as a show of strength, I believe.. so to fail or have to retreat back would feel so crushing to me!
Yet just tonight, as I was pondering my next move towards this goal of mine; I realized that I essentially had two options;
1) Go there, give it all I absolutely have, follow my heart, trust this wonderful Universe, allow myself to be guided and taken care of by life and all that is. I'll face my fears, find a way to make it and grow more than I ever thought possible!
If somehow I DID have to retreat back here, and become a 'failure' in THEIR eyes, I will know that I've still won within. I won the battle of conquring my fears and trusting my own soul.
Or, 2) Stay here, fearful and shackled for the rest of my life. Wither away into nothingness as many others are doing, and fail myself on the deepest level possible.
So... I've re-commited to following my heart and more than ever TRUSTING that what I want wants me just as bad as I want it.
I can live with becoming a failure in the eyes of others, but I could never live knowing that I've failed myself within.
And Rich, love, what you want also wants you just as much as you want it. Always!
Best of luck on your journey!
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