102. Brave enough to move to the other side of the world

Step into a world of courage and new beginnings in our latest podcast episode!  🌏

Join me as I share our inspiring journey of moving from Sydney to New Zealand, thriving for 7 incredible years.

Embrace the empowerment behind embracing change and venturing to the other side of the world!

Chapters

00:00 - Intro
02:53 - Is it a scary decision to move?
04:11 - How did the moving process go?
06:12 - The key to bravery
07:41 - How to alleviate heavy pressure?
09:33 - There are pros and cons to moving
11:34 - Start by making a decision
13:41 - Outro

Connect with me on Instagram @fridakabo and share your thoughts on this episode!

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Transcript

0:00

And I think it's easy to think that other people are brave and putting other people on pedestals. And that is something definitely something that I've been working with, not putting other people on pedestals because I know what will happen. They will wobble and fall off. We're all human. Everyone in this world, humans are human. And yeah, we're, we have human doubts, human fears, human joys, and all of those. Very human things, and I think that's part of why we're here, part of why we're in this experience, in this human experience. Welcome to the Sensitive Success Podcast, where we explore the unique challenges and opportunities that comes with being a sensitive changemaker in today's world. I'm your host, Frida Karbo, and I have spent the last decade recreating my life. I moved from Sweden to New Zealand and now live in the beautiful bush with my husband and two kids, homeschooling and creating a life and business that works for me with the help of my sensitivity and support others to do the same. I'm excited to share conversations with experts, thought leaders, and fellow sensitive people who also see the world through the lens of sensitivity. Thank you so much for being here because it means that you're creating sensitive success too, which is precisely what the world needs. Let's get started. Hello, it's Frida Kahlo here. And in this conversation, I wanted to talk about a question that I've been getting. And that is, how did you become brave enough to move to the other side of the world? And for you who don't know me, yeah, I moved from Sweden to New Zealand and we've been here about seven years now. And I just wanted to unpack this question because I think it's very valid for a lot of situation, whether you are thinking about moving to the other side of the world, or if you are thinking about doing something else, starting a business, doing something that is a bit out of your comfort zone. So I think it's such such a good question, and I wanted to unpack some of the things that I see in there. First of all, brave. My experience is that brave is a term that we usually put on others, or that we can see in ourselves. Reflecting backwards, it's usually not something that we feel in the moment or that we think about in the moment, we can sometimes we do like I'm so brave I'm doing this, but usually we're so up in the moment that. I definitely was when we were packing and preparing to move to New Zealand. I did not think of myself as brave. I just did what I wanted to do and just focused on the process and took one step in front of the other. Was I afraid? Was I scared that it wouldn't work out? Sure. Definitely. Yes. I was scared. I was full of doubt if it was the right thing to do. I was, all of these things was coming up for me, of course, but also this trust and inner knowing that yeah, this is something that I really want to do. It's something that I want to try and I will regret if I don't do it. And I think it's easy to think that other people are brave and putting other people on pedestals. And that is something definitely something that I've been working with, not putting other people on pedestals because I know what will happen. They will wobble and fall off. We're all human. Everyone in this world, humans are human. And yeah, we're, we have human doubts, human fears, human joys, and all of those. Very human things. And I think that's part of why we're here, part of why we're in this experience, in this human experience. And if we put people on pedestals, they fall down and we get disappointed. So it's that you see that they are human. And yeah, it's easy to see that someone else is brave when That is something that we also have in ourselves. So yeah, how did the process go? Well, it was not out of the blue. Of course, I just did not wake up one day and thought, Oh, I'm going to move to New Zealand. So it was small steps. I've always been restless. I think it's my high sensation seeking. side of me that always wanted to explore, always wanted to get out of my comfort zone, do things that not really in my highly sensitive, uh, security, uh, side. And I've, I've been really reflecting on why do I have to go and do all these things when it's just giving me uncomfort and stress and all of those things, like, but it's my high sensation seeking side. And I really. Yeah, I feel better when I can explore things, new ideas and new places and meet new people. And I really need that variation of, of things and experiences. So yeah, the, I've talked about it before, but being highly sensitive and high sensation seeker is like putting the gas and the brake at the same time. And it's interesting to really work out the, the balance there or the ups and downs with that. So yeah, moving was not out of the blue. It is really small steps. I've always been restless. I've lived abroad before. I started to go on a tourist season to Cyprus, and a year in Italy, learning Italian and working in a restaurant. And yeah, I had thought of New Zealand. I thought of that. After my, I had finished my master's, I thought I was going to go to New Zealand to get some experience and, and explore the adventures here. And then someone said, well, aren't you going to start your career now that you have, have your master's? I'm like, yeah, of course I'm going to be adulting. That's the right thing to do. And yeah, I met my now husband as well. So I stayed in Sweden. But here's another thing about being brave. I was not alone. So my husband has always wanted to live abroad. And I always love to travel. So I was not alone in the process. He was a really driving factor in the process as well. And We, we helped each other and that's it. You don't have to do it alone. If you are thinking about doing something, you don't have to do it alone. Uh, even if you might feel alone right now, there's, there's some awesome groups out there. I know when I moved to New Zealand, I joined groups for Swedes in New Zealand. I joined, uh, I looked up people that had done it and. Um, there's so many ways that we can connect to people now and just reach out and ask, Hello, I want to do what you're doing. How did that work? Or ask in a Facebook group. There's so many groups. Don't do it alone. Don't have to do it alone. He's always wanted to live abroad. And he said a lot of different places. But when he said New Zealand, we aligned. And I said, Yes, let's go. Let's do it. But it was also feeling like a really big step. Right. So. We said that, okay, let's try for a year, even if he was like all in like, okay, I'm, I'm willing to try for a year. I can't say that we're going to move there indefinitely. It feels just so indefinitely for me. So to put the pressure off me, I'm like, yeah, we can try one year and then we see how it goes. And yeah, we're still here seven years later. But really, especially as highly sensitive, like really put the pressure off ourselves. And in any creative, creative process, I'm, I'm thinking about actors, like, what if they really, when they go into the acting role, what if they saw themselves on the movie screen in the movie theater? They can't like worry about how they are going to be perceived there, when they are in the process of creating the movie or in the process of creating a scene, they just have to focus here and now. And I. I see that the same thing as no matter what we do, like if, if it's moving or if it's starting a business, we need to process, okay, where am I right now? What is my next step? What is my smallest step that I can take right now? And really focus, focus on the process. And take that pressure down, down a bit and yeah, really see that that is possible. Talk to others that have done it, like I said, and see that it's possible. See that people have enjoyed it. And also we moved within Sweden and got it better. So we saw that, yeah, we can, can move and get it better. And, and yeah, this is something that we really want to do something. We really want to try. And. Not caring too much about what other people think because yeah, there were people that of course didn't understand why we would move to New Zealand or why I wanted to move that far away and of course family that I miss a lot as well. But also like, why are you moving there? Don't do it. And yeah. There's pros and cons to everything. There's, uh, I've learned and experienced so much by moving here, and I love it here. But also there are things that I miss, and, and I think that's also an important part to realize that there are parts that we're going to miss, there are things that we're going to miss, and there are what ifs that we're going to, going to miss. We can sometimes mourn the life that we could have had. Right? Even if we know that we have done the right choice or that we have done what really aligned with, with where we want to go, we can really still feel like, Oh, what if, right? So really focus on and mourn it. That is okay to, to really know that, that all the feelings are going to come up and that is okay. Totally. Okay. And then we, yeah, make the decision that is a really, really important step, make the decision. We made the decision to move to New Zealand and we did, uh, all these steps that we needed to, to make. We wrote down everything that we knew that we needed to make, and then we added on things as we saw them coming in. And it took us nine months from when we had said that we wanted to be here to, to where we're actually here. And. It did feel like a long time at the time, but now looking back, it was quite a short time for such a big move and big decision. We like sold off, sold our house, sold off everything and my husband got work here. I have my business online, so I was good with that. But we also got all the papers and the medical things in place and all of that. So there was quite a lot to do. It was quite an interesting. Uh, journey and an interesting process, but just being two together and taking one step at a time was really, really helpful. So yeah, make the decision, focus on the process, have the bigger goal vision there, but focus on the process and the now. Take small steps. How can you lower the pressure? And. Remember, you're not alone. Even if you don't have a husband or a partner that wants to do exactly what you do, you can find that support in other places. You don't have to have one person in supporting all the things. And also you build your brave muscle by doing it. Not, that is not something that you need to feel like you're brave enough to do it before you do it. You build that muscle while you're doing it. So, whatever. It is that you're thinking about doing. Just do it. Just start. Just see. Explore. What if it's amazing and what if it's exactly what you need and exactly what you're meant to do right now. Explore and see there's going to come up new information, there's going to come up, um, new things, ideas and information from you starting and you putting that out there and you actually doing it. And then you can say, no, that was not for me. And then move back again or stay like I did. It's, it's nothing wrong either. Or, and. Yeah, we're in this exploration called life and it's not, nothing is right or wrong. It's not more right to move to New Zealand than not move to New Zealand, right? There's nothing wrong or right. It's just what do you feel like? What is your heart calling you to do? What is it that you really, what are you curious about? What do you want to do? And then just start experiment. What would happen if you actually did it? What would be the first step? And then. Just do it. That's how you create your sensitive success and that's how I became brave enough to move to the other side of the world. I did it. Have a great day. Talk to you soon. Go for your dream. Thank you for listening to Sensitive Success. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and share it with someone who could benefit from this message. And come over and connect with me on Instagram at FridaKarl. And remember, sensitivity is neither good or bad. It's what we make of it. Embrace your sensitivity and use it to create sensitive success your way.