What is the most important motivating factor in your choice to expatriate? That is a very important question. Whether its career growth, expanding your horizons or retirement abroad that drives you, your motivation is the fundamental starting point for a successful expatriation. It will help you in two different ways.
First: Motivation will give you direction
Moving abroad is a dream with unlimited options. There are no rules and a zillion possibilities. This may work very appealing as well as overwhelming. Your motivation for relocating abroad will shape your course in this big ocean of options. It will help you to make the right choices to stay on the right track. As soon as you know what you are looking for abroad, you can make a plan to follow. This may sound very squared to you, but I have experienced that without a tangible motivation, it is quite easy to get lost in those unlimited possibilities.
Second: Motivation will help you in difficult times
Moving abroad involves unfavorable consequences every now and then. Think of problems with mastering the language, dealing with cultural differences, feeling homesick, etc. Accepting and dealing with those issues is easier when you can remind yourself of your main motivation. It will give you the energy and courage to persevere in tough times. When your initial reasons to expatriate are obvious and strong enough, they will help you overcome your worries and re-find the strength to keep going in pursuing your dream.
The Lack of Motivation
I am an accompanying girlfriend. I moved to Mexico with my boyfriend Jan who wished to pursue his dream of running a start-up business in a Latin American country. My main motivation to follow him was love, which is kind of a difficult motivation to draw a plan on. My initial plan was: enjoying the sun and improving my Spanish. I knew that would get me bored after a while, so we came up with a better plan. I would be setting up a travel agency franchise in Guadalajara. We had it all planned but soon we had to draw the conclusion that running two start up business´ is simply too much in every respect: time wise, energy wise, money wise, nerve wise. We had to call it off.
This was very unfortunate, but I got over it and continued with improving my Spanish (and enjoying the sun, of course!). At that moment, I didn´t realize that I just had lost a very important part of my personal expatriate plan. I simply continued with my daily pursuits. I didn´t consider my Spanish good enough yet for a full time job, so I started looking for other activities. But none of them was as big, challenging and fulfilling as the pulled back travel agency.
As a consequence, I didn´t know anymore what I was looking for in Mexico. I didn´t have any goals. During the first couple of months, it was very pleasant to have no obligations at all. I had plenty of time to organize our home, to explore our neighborhood, and so on. After a while, however, I started yearning for some structure in my life. I found it difficult to find that structure without a full-time job. Moving abroad had put the brakes on my busy life and the abundance of time frustrated me. I went through my worst.
I experienced that the lack of a motivation can make you feel lost, especially in combination with:
- The transition from full-time employment to not working
- A new culture and language with all its challenges
- A limited social environment with no family around
As I look at those bullet points, I know I couldn´t have changed anything about those circumstances – although I was blaming them at the time! The only challenge that was in my own hands was to fill up the absence of a meaningful activity in my new life: To give me direction and to help me in difficult times. I had to recover of something that I hadn´t seen coming.
What is your main motivation to relocate abroad? Does it give you sufficient direction? Do you recognize the lost feeling in a new environment? And do you have some other ideas on how to overcome that problem?
