There are a lot of people who would happily spend their entire lives in one place, never leaving the town, they were born in or seeking out new experiences any further afield.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, as the old saying goes, different strokes for different folks, but for many other people, there’s always there’s that pull.
The call to adventure from some far off place that makes them want to pack their bags and experience something new.
Of course, even for those who do hear that call, the idea of actually doing it can be incredibly scary, especially if you’re thinking about going somewhere new permanently.
However, if you’re the kind of person who can’t resist the call to adventure then here are a few reasons why living abroad might well be the perfect thing for you.
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Saving money
When people think of travelling to new places they often think first about the costs involved. However, travelling to a new country and actually working and living there are two extremely different things.
If you decide to go backpacking through Indonesia then sure, you’re likely to end up paying a pretty hefty sum in order to make that happen, but if you’re living and working there, then you simply have to look at property for sale in Marbella to see how cheap living abroad can be.
Plenty of countries both in Europe and Asia are incredibly inexpensive, and you can live a much more luxurious life there without spending half of what you would for the same things, or worse, back home.
Broadening your horizons
There’s nothing wrong with sticking to some home comforts every now and again. However, if you spend all of your time within your comfort zone, then you’re never really going to get the chance to grow or develop as a person.
This is why so many people who never leave their hometown don’t seem quite as plugged into the world around them as those who’ve tried to branch out and experience new things, cultures, people, and places.
Being able to immerse yourself in someone else’s culture and learn about it cannot only give you a better appreciation for them and their country, but it can also help to give you a greater understanding of the world around you as a whole.
It can stop you from taking things for granted or making assumptions that might be based on things that you should perhaps be questioning. Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should reject your home and claim that everything about it is bad, but rather than learning about another culture can teach you to see your own much more clearly.
New career opportunities
It really is amazing to think about just how interconnected the world really is these days. There was a time when many people were limited to careers exclusively in their immediate vicinity.
But now, thanks to the internet, you can search for career opportunities all across the globe. Whether you’re a creative type, you have a business brain, or you want to teach and share knowledge with other people, the fact that you can now search for jobs among thousands upon thousands of different companies means that you’re almost guaranteed to find something that’s absolutely perfect for you.
And that can help you take that next, crucial step towards your ultimate career goals that you might never have found if you were forced to only look within your home country.
Understanding other people
If there’s one thing that can be more of a challenge than just about anything else, it’s coming to better understand other people. The truth is that most of us live in our own heads a whole lot more than we admit.
Because of that, empathy can often be one of the biggest stumbling blocks that many of us have to actually connect with one another.
However, getting away from everything that’s familiar can be a pretty isolating experience if you’re not careful which means that you really will have to make the effort to connect with those around you at every opportunity.
Not only does this mean that you could well end up making some amazing new friends but the fresh perspectives that people from another culture can provide to you can help you to much better understand them and learn to see things the way they do. And, of course, you may well be able to do just the same for them as well.
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Getting out of your context for a while
Most of us would love to think that we were completely self-made. That all of our choices and decisions are completely our own and we have no one to blame or to thank for them except ourselves.
However, that’s simply not the case. The truth is that we are all influenced by our surroundings from birth. Whether it’s your friends, your parents, your work, or anything else, the things around you shape you in ways that you may not fully realise.
However, it can be tough to shake those things off. After all, if you’re in your hometown then you’re always going to feel like the person you were years ago.
Offering yourself a totally new context means that it’s going to be a whole lot easier to reinvent yourself or to make some changes to your life than if you had the shadow of your past hanging over you all of the time.
You can really get to know yourself
A lot of us are quite heavily defined by the context that we’re in. If that sounds a little bit odd don’t worry, it’s actually pretty simple. The truth is that we all have a lot of personal history that surrounds us all of the time.
Old friends, parents, the sites of breakups, makeups, first kisses, and parties that went too far. Because of this, it can be very easy to build up an image of yourself that is entirely based on these things.
You imagine that you know who you are because of all the things that you’ve done and how they colour how other people see you.
However, if you move to a totally new country, then that’s not really possible anymore. Moving somewhere new puts you in the position where you can’t rely on people’s perceptions of you in order to define yourself.
You’ve got to figure out who you really are completely removed from your personal history and baggage. This can be pretty scary for a lot of people, but it can also be incredibly freeing.
After all, not only can you get to know yourself but you even have the chance to completely reinvent yourself. Any mistakes that you’ve made in the past don’t need to follow you there. You can be a whole new person, and who you want to be is entirely up to you!
YOLO!
When you hear the term YOLO, you probably think of a pretty dated phrase that people would yell before drinking too much or doing something stupid.
However, the idea that “you only live once” has a lot of value as a personal philosophy. If you really do only live once then why shouldn’t you try to squeeze every last drop of experience from your life?
Shouldn’t you be willing to try something brave and new, rather than staying in the same old bubble day in and day out? Living in another country might not change you as a person or find you your perfect career, but no matter what you get out of it, it’s sure to be an experience!
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Of course, even with these reasons, it’s still pretty undeniable that deciding to move to a completely new country, or even a new continent, can be incredibly scary and is certainly not something that you should take lightly.
After all, this really isn’t the kind of thing that is going to be right for everyone. In truth, there are a lot of people for whom moving to a new country would be a terrible idea!
However, if you’ve done your research and you’ve given it a good amount of thought, then the worst thing that you can do is to let fear hold you back from something that you really want.
If it’s what you really want, then you shouldn’t let anything stand between you and being able to explore that brave new world! It’s your life after all, and the only way to live it badly is to avoid doing things that you really want out of fear.
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Happy Travels
Love Lucy x
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