Don’t let feelings of doubt affect your new adventure!

Don’t let feelings of doubt affect your new adventure!

Have you ever had that feeling of doubt creeping in when you are in the middle of preparing a change? This is how I felt when my husband asked me if I realised it was just going to be the two of us for a while.

To get you up to date, we are in the process of moving to a big estate to become the new caretakers of a property. It was sold earlier this year when we were there doing a house sit. The property we will call our new home is in the Ariège with only a few small villages close by and a few bigger towns approximately 30 km away.

3-5 years of settling in

My husband’s question made me think! I have always loved starting over again, meeting new people and exploring all the new things around me. From experience and I have a fair bit, I know that it takes me 3-5 years to feel settled somewhere. It takes that long to make friends and feel comfortable. One of the things that always strikes me most is to figure out where you can find random things like a needle, pins or nails.

This new destination in Daumazin, Ariège offers nature, gardens and plenty of land but going to a café for a quick drink will be a thing of the past. To be fair, we don’t even know if the few cafes that we found in surrounding villages will be open. French villages can be fairly sleepy during the winter months.

Naturally I am a very social person. I like to be in touch with people, meet and talk to people. Social media is from that perspective a god sent. My experience is that it has helped me to connect with many likeminded people all over the world.

Social Media helped me to reconnect with old childhood friends, even a teenage boy friend and I made many new virtual friends. With some I click so well that I am sure we would be friends in person.

Moments of doubt

I suppose it is fairly normal to have these moments of doubt when change comes closer. It may help to put things in perspective. My usual approach to change is to be openminded, have no expectations and walk into it with energy and guts.

I can remember that this is how I started a new life in Sydney in 1991 and it paid off. I found a job within a week and made ‘friends’ there quite fast. Australians are in general easy going welcoming people and embrace strangers without hesitation. Many of them were once in the same situation after all – being a land of immigrants.

New opportunities

Our new lifestyle as caretakers will give us heaps of opportunities and I am aware of that.

The biggest thrill for me will be the outdoors. Stepping outside and being surrounded by nature is like a medicine for me. To put it in perspective – where I used to live the only thing I see is the house in opposite and the street is not much more than a car width.

There will be opportunities to garden, possibly start a vegetable pad. I like to eat organic and make foods such as pestos, chutneys and jams. How wonderful would it be to go shopping in your own garden?

So, after this little ‘awareness’ moment and writing it down is as always helpful, I put on my gutsy hat and steam forward to this new life with energy and zest!

When doubt creeps in!

If you are going through a change and see these moments of doubt creeping in. If you feel you need a little retune, why not reach out, tap into my experience and let’s evaluate it together.

I offer a 30 minute Free Call to get you back on track!

doubt, moments of doubt,lifestyle change, moving abroad, experience, living in a different country
Does the prospect of change excite you?

Does the prospect of change excite you?

Change is a fascinating topic and the prospect of change may not be appealing to everybody. It may excite some while it terrifies others. I personally thrive on change: it motivates me and causes me take initiatives.

Since 2017 my life has been full of change and I mean rather big lifestyle changes. I used to live in Brisbane, had a house full of teenagers and ran a garden business. I exchanged it for an indoor career, being an empty nester and moved from a big city in Australia to a small town in France.

Our lifestyle changes in a nutshell

This all happened within a few years. We made the decision, sold our house and rented instead, bought a house in France and turned it into a holiday rental.

When we set the date to leave, we sold most of our belongings as shipping them to France would be expensive. Also, we weren’t sure whether the furniture we had in Australia would be attractive in an historical French house. It was a curious process to sell things we had for years. Some were easy to leave behind while memories of others still give me a stab of nostalgia.

prospect of change, excitement, fear

Some of the changes we made

  • I gave up a thriving garden business that I can’t replicate in France because of the differences in climate. Also, I feel that gardening professionally may not be a long-term solution for someone in their sixties.
  • We sold our car and made do without one for a year but realised that the limited local public transport was restricting us to make the most of the beautiful area we now live in.
  • In Australia we used suntan every day of the year and avoided the sun while in France we seek out the sun to soak up enough Vitamin D.
  • Brisbane gave us killer mosquitoes, sticky flies, plenty of spiders and huge cockroaches while in France we hardly ever see an insect. A huge difference is the birdlife – the sound of a flog of cockatoos waking you up is rather different than the soft tweak of the local French birds. I definitely miss the unique call of the Kookaburra.
  • In Brisbane we had two daughters and usually a home stay student or two living with us. A full dinner table every night with great meals and chatty cultural exchanges. Now we are empty nesters and have ‘Diner à Deux’ unless we socialise.

The prospect of change in retrospective

Lots of changes and a totally different life as a result. I am not saying it is better, but it is certainly not worse. It is different, exciting and on many occasions incredibly challenging because of the language.

Would I turn back the time or wish I had never made these changes? Only on occasions when French bureaucracy is playing games with us, but mostly not. Life has become simpler, cheaper and in many aspects much more pleasant.

So, if you feel the thrill of change knocking on your door, don’t ignore it but explore it!

If however, the prospect of change makes you feel uneasy, contact us for a FREE call to explore this further.

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