Still Waiting for ‘The Right Time’ to Move? Newsflash: It’ll Never Come

Are you still waiting for the right time to move abroad? Let me break this to you gently. It will never come. Look, the stars won't magically line up. The planets of the solar system aren't gonna line up. The perfect moment isn't going to just appear out of thin air. And life is always going to throw a curveball your way. The good news is you don't need to have the perfect time. You just need to make a decision to leave your country and then build a plan on how to get out. Let's talk about why waiting is holding you back, and how to finally make your dream of moving abroad a reality.

Part 1: The illusion of the “right time”

We tell ourselves we'll move when we save money, when the economy gets better, when we find that perfect job, when our kids are finally off on their own, out of the house. But let's be honest, weren't we saying the exact same things a year ago, two years ago, even five years ago?

The idea of the right time is an illusion. If you keep waiting, eventually another decade will have gone by. And that's the price you pay for staying firmly within your comfort zone for years on end. Something is always going to come up in your life. Life happens. The key is learning to make a move despite your uncertainty.

Not waiting for that feeling to just disappear. 'Cause it won't. This is the difference between being proactive versus being reactive. Wouldn't you rather be ahead of the eight-ball instead of behind it?

The proverbial 8-ball

Part 2: How fear disguises itself as “timing”

Most of the time it's not really about timing. It's about fear. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. Fear of making a mistake, worrying about what your friends and family might think if you try to live abroad, and it doesn't work out for you and you need to come back home. And I get it, moving abroad is no small feat.

Even moving to a different state is a big task. But do you know what's worse than failing? Regret? Regret that you never even tried. Instead of waiting for fear to go away, start making some small moves right now while you're still afraid. This is how you build self-confidence. There's a great book called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Dr. Susan Jeffers. Get a copy. It'll improve your self-confidence quite a bit.

Feel the Fear … And do it Anyway

Part 3: Why later often means never

Every time you tell yourself, I'll get to it later, I'll do it later, you're going to make it easier for you to keep pushing your dream further and further away. And before you know it, later turns into never. Think about all the other things being put off right now in your life.

Did waiting ever make those things easier? No. It made them even more difficult. It would make them take even longer to accomplish. The same thing goes for moving abroad. The best time to do it was probably years ago. The next best time is now, today.

Part 4: How to start moving toward your goal today

So what can you do today? No, you don't have to buy a one way plane ticket to your chosen destination, but you can take small steps right now. Start researching locations. Where do you want to move? Is it Mexico, Belize, Portugal, someplace else? What interests you?

You should start researching that now. Look into Visa options for your top choice countries. Ideally, the first thing you're going to do is take a scouting trip. See the country in person. For that, you all you would need is a tourist visa and probably about two to three weeks of time. After that, if you decide a country is for you, then there are other visas you would need to obtain, like residence visas, work visas, and so on and so forth.

You can join Facebook groups and Reddit forums right now that talk about your chosen country. Get some inside information while you're still here. Then you should create a financial plan, a budget. Are you going to move abroad with savings, or are you going to arrange for a job lined up for you before you move there?

That's something you really need to take into account how you're going to support yourself while you're abroad.

Closing

Take one step, just one that moves you closer to your dream goal of living in a foreign country. I want you to comment below and tell me what that small step is for you and what you're going to do. There's no more waiting on this. This is your turn. You're not getting any younger, as my father used to tell me. Now that your kids are grown up and out of the house. It's just you.

I can't think of a better time than now to start working on this. If you have any other comments or questions, please drop those in the comments and I'll answer them for you.