As I sit here in Southern Ontario, sweltering under a prolonged heat wave, I can’t help but think about moving to another country. One where the climate is a little more moderate – not so hot and humid in the summer and not so cold in the winter. Any suggestions??

Actually, I have gone through one major move to another country – and return home again. In 1989 I moved to New Zealand with my husband and two kids, fully expecting to live there for the rest of my life. Nine years after we touched down in Wellington, we returned to Canada. During that nine years, almost everyone that we met who had moved to New Zealand from another country had returned home.

Although we thought we knew what we were doing, there were obviously a lot of things we just hadn’t prepared ourselves for – and we weren’t the only ones.

If you are thinking about making a major move to another country and aren’t sure whether you are prepared or not, check out my article 10 Things To Consider Before Moving To A  New Country. It poses a number of questions that you might just want to try to answer before you start packing.

The great thing about being a nomad is that you do have the freedom to move about from country to country. Have you tried moving to a new country? Have you stayed or returned home?

TTFN

Anne

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Have you ever experienced a time when you were trying to manifest a significant change or transformation in your life and everything that could go wrong did go wrong? Add to this a nasty little imp called ‘Resistance’ and you end up with a frustrating situation where Murphy’s Law meets the War of Art!!

This is what my life has been life for the past couple of weeks.

For those who are unfamiliar with Murphy’s Law or The War of Art – let me explain:

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible moment. It’s like when your USB memory stick develops amnesia right after you have finished writing three of the best blog posts ever in the history of blog posts!! Which, once you have picked yourself up off the floor after having collapsed to the ground in a quivering, whimpering heap, leaves you scrambling,  trying to remember those perfect ideas expressed in those perfect words and sentences. Yeah – not so easy to do!!

Or – just after you learn that you are probably going to need to have a new furnace put into your 100 year old house and have the slightly crumbling chimney relined to the tune of multiple thousands of dollars, one of the drains in your house (the one that takes the used water from your kitchen including the dishwasher and washing machine) breaks, leaving you without the use of your dishwasher and washing machine – the day before you have planned a family brunch!!!

And this is where The War of Art kicks in. With bills and frustrations increasing, and money becoming ever more scarce, resistance begins taking over vital systems in your brain. Creativity spins from writing to looking for a full time job. Thoughts of entrepreneurship morph into nightmares of punching the 9-5 clock.

But in the middle of all of this, a funny thing happened while I was straightening up some books. The book, The War of Art, fell out of a bookcase. I thought I had lost the book several months ago, but here it was. Loaded with the exact information I needed at exactly this specific point in time. Don’t you love ot when that happens!!

Picking the book up, I began reading a chapter titled “The Unlived Life”: “Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.” Resistance can come in the form of technical mishaps, unexpected expenses, bills, frustrations, lack of confidence…..

The War of Art challenges resistance. Its funny, inspirational, and most importantly motivational – great for anyone trying to overcome resistance, to move forward with their life – to change, to transform, to live the unlived life within us. It was just what I needed to read in order to get myself back on track.

So, how do you cope with resistance, procrastination, and the other little imps that life likes to throw in your way while you are busy trying to build your authentic life?

TTFN

The War of Art: Breaking Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles is written by Stephen Pressfield.

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I hate getting lost. The fear of getting lost is one of those fears that I have held for as long as I can remember. Maybe it was all those fairy tales I used to read as a child, or over protective parents (I’m sure a therapist would have fun helping me sort this one out!) but the fear of getting lost is one of the ‘biggie’ fears for me. At least it was, until this past weekend….

Hamilton Ontario, source: John Piercy, Flickr

There is an exhibit on at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (that’s Hamilton, Ontario), that I really wanted to see. The ‘VisiaItalia’ exhibit gathered Italian Renaissance Art from galleries across Canada to put on a rather impressive display. So my husband and I headed down to Burlington to pick up my daughter and son-in-law and off to Hamilton we went. Fortunately my husband was driving. We had never driven to the Art Gallery of Hamilton before, so to make sure there were no problems getting there I brought the GPS (always trust the GPS — well most of the time!!), printed out maps and directions from Mapquest, and had one of those yellow covered map books, and we still got lost. In fact, we ended up in the east side on Hamilton when we wanted to be an the west side of Hamilton.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Hamilton, Ontario. I think it is a great city and would have no problems living there. Its got some stunning attractions – a great waterfront, numerous waterfalls, urban walking trails, great parks, super sports teams (except for an NHL team!!), a castle, a cute downtown area, beautiful houses, fantastic malls and shopping areas, a Botanical Garden that rivals the best in the world, and a thriving arts and culture scene.

There is one thing about Hamilton, however, that sends the chill of fear down my spine every time I think of driving there.

Every time I drive to Hamilton I get lost. In fact, everyone I know gets lost driving in or through Hamilton. This is a city that both a GPS and Mapquest have difficulties sorting out – in fact it was following Mapquest’s directions that landed us in the wrong side of Hamilton (we should have trusted the GPS!!).

Hamilton is a city that constantly challenges my sense of direction – and generally wins. I’m not exactly sure why this happens. Maybe its because Hamilton is located south of Lake Ontario, and I’m used to being north of the Lake. This tends to be somewhat disorienting. Or maybe its all those one way streets throughout the downtown and surrounding areas. One wrong turn and you’re lost. Two wrong turns in a row and you are really lost.

Whatever the reason, I’ve managed to see more of Hamilton from dealing with being lost than I would have otherwise – and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen. Being lost provided us with a very pleasant drive through some really pretty parts of Hamilton this past weekend. We finally started trusting the GPS and, despite the fact that it seemed to be taking us in the wrong direction, it eventually led us to exactly where we wanted to be.

And that’s when it hit me – being lost isn’t always a bad thing. It’s not something to always be fearful of.

As long as you have your Plan B and are prepared to trust your sense of direction, or trust your maps, or trust your GPS, or trust that you will ask for directions, then being lost can be a good thing. Being lost gives you a chance to explore and to discover, and that can be exciting.

So, how do you deal with the thought of getting lost? Is it one of your fears? Or do you enjoy the challenge and excitement of being lost?

TTFN

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