 Hey welcome back you guys! Today let's talk about moving abroad. Why I think you should move abroad, the mindset you need to have moving abroad. If you don't know us, we are a family of six that have moved from the US to New Zealand and have been here for almost nine years. And I'm excited to share all of this insight with you today. Here we go. Okay first of all, why you should move abroad? First of all, look at this. Look at this. This is where I live in New Zealand. You guys, it is amazing. So if you are thinking about moving to New Zealand, click the link in the description about the free 50-minute class that gets you started on all those details. So I could definitely help you with New Zealand. But I just want to talk about moving abroad in general because I think it's a great idea. I think that 2024 is your year and sometimes you just need a little motivation and this video is your motivation. This year you're going to make it happen, okay? And if your visa doesn't get approved, you didn't quite get there in 2024, that's okay. But you started the process, you dove in, you are intending to move ahead. So let's talk a little bit about why moving abroad is important and some of the mindset things you kind of need to have in order to be someone that can live and thrive abroad. So here we go. If you're going to make 2024 your year to move abroad, join me in my move abroad boot camp that's coming up in February. The link is in the description. Just fill out the form and I'm not sure how much it's going to be. It's not going to be expensive, but like let's sit down and talk about these mindset issues because what I find is that most of my clients, they are, they struggle at the consideration stage at the stage where they're not sure if this makes sense and they need somebody to talk it through. And that's what we're going to do at this boot camp. We're going to talk through all your concerns. This doesn't have to be only for people moving to New Zealand. It just needs to be people moving abroad in general because principles apply. Okay. But if you are moving to New Zealand, I'm happy to answer more specific questions in that as well. Also want to let you know that I have my a couple more copies of my American cookbook. Link is in the description. It's all your favorite of your recipes using New Zealand Australian ingredients. And then adventure trek. It's a new board game that we are coming out with. My husband created it and we are coming out with it next month, available worldwide. Like pedal climb, trek your way to the finish. It's going to be great. So check that out. Just want to let you know if you are considering moving abroad, join the boot camp and just message me if you need any help moving to New Zealand. I'm here for you. So I moved my family to New Zealand here. This is my Kiwi American shirt that I got from a company and so I just thought I'd wear it. It's not something I wear a lot. But anyway, I moved my family here in 2013 and I just, I guess I didn't really think about mindset at the time. I was willing to do something new. The adventure sound amazing. Of course it's hard to leave family and friends and to just kind of, you do hit those moments of panic, right? Okay. We're going to be all honest with each other here. You're going to hit moments of panic. We're just going to be like, what am I doing? Am I crazy? Am I giving up my job? Am I selling my house? Am I selling everything? Am I literally crazy? Yeah, you are a little bit crazy, but it's the crazy people that make a difference in the world that live, in my opinion, the best life that they can. Okay. And so it's okay if you're feeling like overwhelmed. I was overwhelmed by the power of this place. But I really think you need to focus on your why. I think that if you can just pinpoint, if you have family, like I had four kids, like there were six of us that moved here, you need to know that that is an amazing chance for your family to grow, to get closer together. This is one of the main goals that I had when I first came is I wanted our family to be closer because as the kids get older, you notice they start to getting into all their own things and the just the connection isn't the same as when they're little and they just, they only had you and it was just a different world and it's all good. Like that's how it's supposed to be, but it was just such an opportunity. And then when I came here and the connection was so much better even because then I had even anticipated because nobody knows how to do anything. We are all learning on the same, there's not a lot of times in your life where the playing field is leveled, where adults and young children are all kind of learning the same things at the same time. It's not a lot of situations. And so because of that, it helps you grow close as a family. So that's a big reason why you should. Also personal growth, personal growth. When you have to go and do things differently, drive on the wrong side of the road, different side of the road, function differently at work situation, people using words, you have no idea, a strong accent so you can hardly understand. I'm telling you you learn a lot about yourself and you learn a lot about how to function and how to change and how to thrive and adjust and be flexible and pivot. All of these skills that you want to be able to do, you're gonna get them when you move around. So this is another big why. This is another big why, okay? Because you will get all of those skills. And my kids have traveled internationally since they've turned 18 and it's just like and it's been really great to see them just like not have a lot of fear around things that they shouldn't and to just go for it and to have these experiences because that's what you should when you're in your 20s, when you have no responsibility. Anyway, that's a different topic but I mean personal growth, family togetherness and family growth I would say, understanding a new perspective, you can't get by reading an article. You can't get by watching a documentary. You can get a little bit, you can get ideas but experiencing it totally different. You know, so like a lot of you listen to my videos on what the education is like, what the healthcare is like, what you know working here and the food that they eat and you're like oh it's all, it's all interesting. There's a difference between learning from informational standpoint as opposed to like really learning through experience and I'm telling you that's another reason why you should do it. Listen to me and this is going to be some hard truth for you because I've helped, I have a consulting business where help people move to New Zealand and so I've talked to people for hours at a time about all of the concerns that people have and the biggest fear that everybody has is that they're making a bad decision, that they're not going to like it, they're going to go through and they're going to sell everything and ruin like ruin their whole life and to try this new thing and then end up hating it, okay? This is what I have to say about that. That may be true. I have helped people move here that then didn't like it and went back but the learning that they had doing that was second to none and learning that you don't like something is just as important as learning that you do. So there's your takeaway. Repeat that after me. Learning that you don't like something, can you see I'm a teacher, is just as important as learning what you do like, okay? So if you this let's just say worst case scenario you sell everything, you leave everything, you go, you move to a country and you're struggling and I've had people like that in definitely other countries and they're struggling but the things that they learned about themselves, about their family, what they liked, what they valued, you can't get that without that experience. So in the end you win. Okay, so now that we know the why, let's talk about the mindset. What's the mindset that you need to have in order to move abroad? So a couple things. Number one, you need to have a growth mindset. You need to be able to be open to new ideas, new perspectives, new ways of doing things and I can't even tell you, you won't realize what you actually believe until it's thrown up against something that's different. I have learned so many things and changed so many opinions because I didn't really know I had that one until somebody was very different. I'm like hold up, wait what did you just say? And you know and it's through that experience, through getting to know people that grew up in a totally different culture, like you can't you can't talk to another American, you can't talk to another Canadian, you can't talk to you know another person from Japan or wherever you're from and really gain the same perspective as throwing yourself into a whole new culture and learning that way. And so I think that that you just have to have a very big growth mindset. If you're not familiar with growth mindset, let me know. I can send you some stuff or just google.com. Yeah, that's where you can get most things. So growth mindset is huge. You also have to have the mindset of being open to getting rid of stuff. I don't want it anymore. I just think that at the end of the day you have to be open with that because I have talked with people that are really not and like there's ways around it like you could have a storage like you don't need to sell everything like guys like do what makes sense for you do what you're comfortable with so if it makes sense for you to put it in storage or store it at your parents house or whatever do it because we've stored we've stored six huge bins you know because you have like all the stuff when your kids are growing up like there's things that you can't buy okay and so you store that but like if you're really struggling to sell your couch cushion or you know little stupid things um yeah so that's a struggle so there's a mindset shift you need to really be thinking about what's really important to you how important are these material items and just really kind of evaluate and do some real good self-awareness if they are very valuable to you there are ways of shipping it and I can help you with that just let me know I have lots of thoughts on that actually but there's also ways of storing it so it's not like it's impossible but don't let that hang up your idea of moving abroad that's my point okay so you're gonna have to have a growth mindset you're gonna have to be willing to give up material things I'm gonna say this I'm gonna say that another thing that you need like mindset you need to have you need to be open to the idea that you may really love it and I'm not saying that because that was my experience I'm saying that because I've heard that story over and over again I plan to come here for a year and it's been 23 years I came here for two years and that's been 50 years you know like I hear the story over and over okay because I just know my mindset when I left Milwaukee everybody was like oh you're never gonna come back here you're never gonna come back here and like in my mind I had no sense that that would ever happen that you can't really imagine it you can't really imagine not being in your hometown I guess or like I don't know what felt like home home country even but like be open to the fact that you might really like it you don't need to stay you can just still do your year or your two years or your three years whatever that is and then go back and that's fine but just realize that you may really like it it's not bad and then the fourth mindset that you need to be aware of I think it's very important that I am very honest with you about what it's gonna be like is that you need to be open to the idea that home gets blurry when you start to try to define what home is it starts to get really blurry because you grow so much when you move abroad that you're a different person when you go home everybody else will seem like they're the same to you because they haven't probably had as much growth personally as you have and that's hard and then you start to have that reverse culture shock I've done a video on that it's a big thing and then you start to feel that there isn't a spot that you are that's home you know like when I go back to the states it feels like home but like yeah not fully I would say not fully and so it's nice because it's familiar and all the people and your family and that's all really good but it's um yeah it doesn't feel it doesn't totally sit well and it's not a bad thing but I just think it's important in your mindset to be aware of this there's a book called third culture kids you can check that out that's like when you live in one culture and then you move and you live for a significant time in another culture you become what they call a third culture kid and they just you don't really know where you fit you can't really be like this feels like me because I know that my kids um some of them are still in the back in the states and you know it's this an adjustment in your mind like am I Kiwi am I an American what am I I think it's okay to be both hence Kiwi American Kiwi American why not be both why is it not better than on both right you might just be American you might just be Canadian you might just be Japanese Chinese whatever I'm a Kiwi American so I have I think I just walk around with growth I think I've just grown I think I'm thriving I think um I've learned so much I think like when I travel it's so much easier because your perspective of the world isn't feels much smaller like you feel like oh I can understand it it's not this big scary thing out there it's small and I can understand it and I can function in it and that's a really good feeling not small in a bad way you get what I'm saying now I got you I hope that this was helpful please comment below questions you have experiences I love reading all of those and I'm here for you if you're moving to New Zealand oh also I'm doing a move abroad boot camp in February so this is just to talk about these mindset issues so if you want to talk about those in more detail join that this just fill out the little form um and we'll do that in February don't forget my Kiwi American recipe book and my husband is coming out with a new game next month available in the US and New Zealand well really anywhere in the world I can ship it to you it's called adventure trek bike pedal climb trek your way to the finish so it's pretty fun you'll like this game check it out and I'll see you guys next week