The One Thing Preventing You From Moving Overseas – And Why That May Be OK

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When you get to the root cause, there is exactly one thing keeping anyone from moving overseas – his or her beliefs.

It was almost thirty years between when I had my first thought about moving overseas, and the day I did it.

Every day of that delay was because of my beliefs.  Some of them were valid, but many weren’t.

Part of your brain doesn’t want you to move overseas

There’s some interesting research about how we make decisions.

What many researchers say is that our subconscious makes all of our decisions, based on how it “feels” about something.  After it has decided, our conscious mind comes up with logical reasons to make us believe our subconscious mind made the correct choice.

We aren’t actually using logic to make our decisions.  The logic is only an after-the-fact justification.

This would be OK if our subconscious always came to the best conclusion for our lives.  Unfortunately, our subconscious’s goal isn’t to be correct, it’s to be safe and comfortable.

It’s the part of our brain that makes us run, when we’re walking down a dark alley at night and hear a noise.  It doesn’t calculate the probability that there is any real danger.  It just tells us, “DANGER! RUN!”

This part of the brain doesn’t like change.  It wants the familiar.  It’s why we drive the same route to work every day, repeatedly go to our favorite restaurants, eat the same foods, and live in the same type of place where we’ve always lived.

We’ve survived for decades by sticking with the familiar.  Why should it let us take the risk of something different – especially when different could be worse?

What can we do to override this craving for the familiar?

If you want to move overseas, but something in your mind is preventing you from doing it, try the following:

1. Think of the reasons why you “can’t” move overseas.

Write them all down without making any judgments about them.  Whatever they are, they are valid reason to you, based on what you’ve experienced in life.

Maybe you think you need more money.

Maybe you’re waiting until you can start collecting your retirement benefits.

Maybe you have a health concern, and don’t believe you can find good medical care overseas.

Maybe you’re caring for an elderly relative.

Maybe you don’t think it’s safe overseas.

Maybe you don’t want to move because you have young children in school.

Whatever reasons you have, they are as real to you (and your subconscious mind) as the laws of gravity.

2. Now, check to see if these reasons are actually valid.

I was talking to a friend who still lives in the US.  When I mentioned some of the interesting things going on outside the US, he said he’d like to move overseas.  However, he can’t, “because he has kids.”

I told him that none of the almost 200 countries on this planet currently has a ban against children.  However, that just led to an uncomfortable silence.

In his case, he was using his children as a “logical” reason to justify his fear of change.  If he was truly interested in moving overseas, he could dig deeper (as I’m suggesting you do).

There’s obviously some point of concern about his children, when it some to moving overseas.

Maybe he’s worried about the education they would receive.  That can be dealt with by finding countries with good schools.  In fact, he may be able to afford higher-quality private schooling for his children, by moving abroad.

Maybe he’s worried about their health.   Again, actually doing the research for this may let him find his belief is incorrect.

The point is to get to a question that can be answered.  Then find that answer.

If you’re worried about crime, have you spent the time to get crime statistics for your current hometown and the places you’re thinking of moving to?  Or have you just “felt” that living overseas is unsafe?

3. Reinforce the positive solutions to the root problems

Let’s say that my friend went through this exercise and realized he was actually concerned about his children getting a good education.

Then, after doing his research, he discovers a great school, in a great country.  It prepares children to live incredibly rich and fulfilling lives.

There’s still a problem.

His subconscious mind still believes the old belief.  It’s believed it for decades and it’s not about to change overnight.

What he’d need to do at this point it to build a stronger link in his subconscious to “overseas schools can give my children a better education.”

You see, those old beliefs happened because of something being repeated over and over.  In his subconscious mind, when he thinks about “quality of overseas schools”, there is now a well-worn path that leads to “low quality”.  He needs to build a path to “high quality”.

He could do that by repeatedly reading, watching, and listening to information that reinforces the “overseas schools are high quality” belief.

By the way, this is one of the reasons why I spend almost no time watching the news.  It’s filled with problems, trouble, and fear.

I believe that if you keep feeding those types of thoughts to your subconscious, you’ll build strong pathways to negative feelings.  Then you’ll start to experience the world as fearful and dangerous.

This is why so many people are worried about their safety when moving overseas – especially Central and South America.  For decades, all they’ve seen and heard about these countries has been problems.  Dictators, rebels, guerillas, drugs, poverty, crime, sickness, disease, and every other bad thing you can think of.

Actually spending time in a country can let you realize what is truly happening there.  You’ll build strong pathways to let you have accurate feelings about a country in your subconscious, instead of what’s been fed to your mind by the media.

4. Realize there may be good reasons stopping you from moving abroad

What do you do if you get to the root cause of your concern, and it’s something you can’t find a positive way around?

It’s completely possible you’re in this situation.

Maybe you’re waiting to move until you start receiving your retirement money.  If you’ve created a budget, and know you need to wait, then it’s a good thing to wait.

Several people have told me they’d like to move overseas, but are caring for an elderly parent.

If they went through step two, seeing if their reasons are valid, they might find out their parent would like to move overseas too – eliminating that false reason.

However, for some people, that may not be their situation.

In those cases, you may have a conflict of values.  You may value living overseas, but you have a higher value for caring for your parent.

That’s not a problem.  You should be living your life in tune with your highest values!

You need to realize that you’d like to live overseas; however, there is something you value higher – and that’s OK.

Just remember to keep evaluating your situation and your beliefs.  There may come a time in the future when your values to move overseas outweigh your values to stay in your home country.

If you don’t take the time to investigate the root reasons behind why you haven’t moved overseas yet, you can easily lose years of living a happier life – thanks to feelings that may not be accurate.

What beliefs are keeping you from moving overseas?  Have you taken time to see if those beliefs are true?