Moving abroad is a big deal. Even considering it takes a shift in your mindset and perspective. This article is written to describe you a way of thinking about moving abroad. This step adds a dimension to the vision addressed in the prior article, Three Key Foundations.
Hopefully, after reading this, you will visualize your future self when thinking of moving abroad—Being that person you wish to be, your future self, living your best life. While this is not an original approach created by our family, it helped us to open ourselves to different possibilities.
The Future as Someone Elses Problem
We often live as if our future selves are someone else’s problem. Today’s issues and challenges are real, and we focus all our time and effort on them. Our day-to-day lives are so consuming that we don’t spend time thinking about, much less getting to envision our future selves.
We typically consider our future selves only when directly related to our current life. For instance, we may complete a particularly challenging task for a new job we are hoping to land, or to ensure that we get a promotion or incentives in the future. But these are situational and transactional, focused on specific aspects of our future, not our future selves. Our typical approach to life engages with the present, but it mostly neglects our future. To quote Groucho Marx, “What has our future ever done for us?” The answer, of course, is “nothing YET”.
Writing a letter-- Really?
One effective way our family used to create a mental picture of, and make friends with our future selves was to write letters to our future selves. Just the act of writing allowed us to think more deeply than just verbalizing our thoughts. The goal of creating a written picture of your future self is to create the most complete vision of your best life.
In this letter to your future self, describe your aspirations, dreams, and the person you aim to become. Be honest and heartfelt. Consider different areas of your life: career, relationships, health, hobbies, personal growth. Also, consider the qualities of the physical and social environment you want to live in. Imagine your future life’s sights, sounds, smells, and feelings. Are you envisioning being in the cool mountain air, along a rugged coastline or a tropical beach? Are you living in the culture of your ancestral family in Ireland, Spain or Egypt? Or, in a welcoming but unfamiliar culture that intrigues you?
Writing this letter will provide an image of your future self, how you want to make a livelihood, and the environment in which you want to live. After you pen your letter and let it incubate for a day or so, include the characteristics of your future self to your vision of your best life tht you created as described in the last article , “Three Key Foundations”.
Integrating our letter into our vision helped ensure that we included intangibles we held dear, but thought were so intrinsic that they did not require mentioning. This helped us tease out things about locales and ask questions we would have ignored or answers we would have taken for granted. Your future self is an essential component of your vision to relocate.
What benefits does a person like me gain from moving abroad? (use your age and other characteristics you are curious about)
Whether you choose to move abroad or not, I hope this thought process has been valuable to you, and you have met and made friends with your future self.