Have you ever traveled to a new city and discovered something extremely fun, different, and/or interesting? That has essentially been my life for the last 3+ months! I feel a bit like it’s still an adventure/visit. So sometimes when I wander the streets of Amsterdam now, I occasionally pause just to look around and think, “I really live here.”
This ends up doing a couple of things for me:
1) Allows me to take in the experience at that moment, and
2) Begins to help me feel more at home.
Home
This word has taken on a whole new view for me. Having never lived outside Southern California (though traveled quite a bit), I still call it “home.” While many people can identify with never having moved from home, still many more have never felt like they had somewhere they could call home.
I feel extremely grateful and fortunate in the fact that I did grow up in a somewhat localized area, and I still would call it my home. However, in wanting very badly to belong to my new surroundings, I wonder when it’ll start to feel like home as well (or instead?).
To be fair, these first few months have been quite the whirlwind. I haven’t had a chance to make it feel like home because I’ve been so busy figuring out where I’m going, how to do it, when, and if I even need to. Fortunately, all of this painstaking work over the last 6 months has FINALLY resulted in me being an official resident of Amsterdam!
Excitement Meets Reality
The culmination of my residence after all of this work brings me now to this peak that my friend Susan DeVriend described as a “void of completion.” She encourages you to be present with the accomplishment before you run off to do the next item on your list.
This perspective helped me take a moment to really appreciate all of the work I’d put into getting this done and enjoy it. I really allowed myself to take a few days to celebrate with friends and family. While to some this may sound selfish, it was really just a chance for me to relax and re-gather my thoughts and goals for what comes next.
So I have my first accomplishment in my new ‘home’, and I must ask myself, “Now what?”
Making strategic decisions in my next goal is key, in my opinion. Asking some difficult questions of myself is definitely a part of it, but I believe will make the experiences much more enjoyable – even the challenging ones (and there have definitely been a few of those already and I’m sure will be more to take on). Some things I plan on determining/evaluating begin with:
- What is most important to me?
- What is most important to my business?
- What are my core values?
- What is my 1-5 year plan?
All of these will contribute to the next decisions I make, and hopefully will help you in the journey you’re in or will be in as well. Either way, I’ll keep you in the loop and hope to hear about your adventures too!
Jen E. Nunez 