Global Courant 2023-04-15 16:49:48
The author reflects on how to face the challenge of starting a journey far from home. What to do and mistakes to avoid.
Almost a billion people live in a country other than the one in which they were born. 12.5% of the world population. However, we know that this is not an easy decision to make. It requires several steps, reflections, renunciations and, above all, open-mindedness to change the “family” environment that we have built in our life history.
Emigrating is one of the most intense experiences for a person and their family, which is why a humble procedure manual, a little training, or an enthusiastic list of tips, can help those who have the idea of changing their home -with capital letters-.
1. The door of changes opens from the inside out, so the spirit must be tempered before buying tickets, filling out forms or preparing business plans. Because finding opportunities requires an open and mature attitude. A peace of mind that allows you to look at reality from a different angle.
2. Spiritual strength, curiosity, passion, having a goal, will be the main strength of an immigrant before adversity. Likewise, it is important to learn the delicate balance between enjoying the present, leaving the past behind, and knowing that you will always be an immigrant. Even if you decide to return to your place of origin, because life there also took its course.
3. Another crucial point is to close your ears to those close to you, since more than advice they are anchors for the trip. Perhaps the most beneficial thing for an immigrant is respect for success. Because the central actor of immigration is the immigrant himself: the person, his attitude, his aptitude and his circumstances.
4. In this sense, the first question to ask yourself is why I want to leave. There are no right or wrong answers, the important thing is to understand the real reasons. Any reason can be valid, as long as we are aware that behind the borders there are no magical solutions. When the foundations of change are not well established, the perseverance and courage it takes to succeed will collapse at the first setbacks.
5. Therefore, the requirements of the elf of success are the mental openness to assimilate what is different, the humility to incorporate reality instead of fighting with it, and the flexibility to adapt to the new.
6. It’s all a matter of knowing how to choose how to assemble the backpack. We can load it with the stones of the past, in which case no matter what the destination, they will always be there to bend our backs, burden us with regrets, guilt and old mandates. But we can also choose to bring all the energy to look at reality with fresh eyes, without the ballast of those who have always lived there. This gives us a huge advantage that can be translated into creativity, new paradigms and success.
7. Also, among the most precious personal belongings, along with the phone number of a friend of a friend and illusions, prejudices are hidden. There are different fur and sizes, positive or negative, but it is always convenient to keep them at a distance so that they distance us from reality.
8. Earning money is seen as an indicator of effort and talent. The challenges are many, the competition strong, but the paths are open for those who want to advance. Envy is not an epidemic, and on the contrary, it is very frowned upon, for example, in the United States.
9. But if someone thinks that dollars are going to fill the emptiness of the soul, after having lived only to earn them, they will discover how quickly internal anguish and anxiety can erase the difference between a Ferrari and a Cinquecento.
10. What should stimulate us the most is not money, but something much more valuable, like free time from worries to go from the epileptic rhythm of life of emergencies to start listening to the subtle murmur of desires and the whisper of the inspiration. The language of the spirit is timid, it only manifests itself before the sounds of silence.
The author is an economist and writer
