You want transition to a different life, and to help you get there, I’m sharing lots transition tips to provide you with a working example of the planning, strategy, and decision-making involved with transitioning from a life that no longer feels right for you to one that you love.
First, we’ll look at a day in the life of a traveling family, mine, where I’ll reveal the real decisions I’ve made and continue to make with my own ongoing life change transition. In my case, a commitment to travel while balancing work and kids.
Of course, a life that feels good looks different for all of us, so the life change transition tips I’ll share can be applied to any life transition, yours included.
TRANSITION TIP #1
Think of starting fresh and transitioning to your new life as both a personal and business project. This framework will set you up to reach your goals by using action plans, specific decision-making approaches, and strategy as a foundation to get you where you want to go.
A Day In The Life of One Woman’s Ongoing Life Change Transition… Mine
Summer 2019, Northern, England
I scrolled through my phone at the end of the day, saw this photo at the top of the page of my ten-year-old, and thought, Jeez… My life is so magical!
Here we are at Alnwick Castle in the heart of Northumberland England…where the exterior shots for the first two Harry Potter movies were filmed… And, my kids are taking broomstick riding lessons with muggles from all over the world.
I’d booked a two-hundred-year-old cottage across the street from the castle for three whole days…because anyone who knows me…knows that I Love everything Harry Potter. Once you pay the general admission price, the castle gives you an annual pass for FREE, so we went all three days.
Back to the muggle world.
“You’re so lucky!” This is what most people tell me when they find out I’ve traveled to so many places with my family.
What I’d like to point out is… I don’t feel lucky. What I do feel is an enormous amount of gratitude to be healthy and have wonderful people in my life.
I’m also thankful that seemingly magical lifestyle situations can be made to exist when applying intention, your intuitive gifts, clarity, planning, and action together as part of a system that works to get you where you’re going.
Why Don’t I Feel Lucky?
Because I didn’t win the lottery. The reason my family is able to travel is because my decisions over the course of the last fifteen years have aligned with traveling and developing my consulting business.
TRANSITION TIP #2
How Can You Apply This Type of Decision-Making To Your Own Life Change Transition?
Your Decisions Must Align With The Results You Want.
I want to show you how this works because it’s important to understand that you can live the life you want without having to be lucky or fearless. I happen to be an introvert and here I am putting myself far enough out into the world for you to have found me.
And now that we’ve found each other, I’m telling you from the inside out… Luck has nothing to do with it. But keep in mind, you do have to set up the right foundation for your life change transition.
THREE TRUTHS:
No matter who you are or what you want, the following applies…
ONE: You’ve got to get clear on what you want.
TWO: Put a specific plan in place that includes a timeline.
THREE: Take action toward the life you want.
TRANSITION TIP #3
Usually, the questions that hold us back from taking on a life change transition are never asked:
Here are a few questions you may need answers to:
Is Transitioning To A New Life Scary?
It does seem that way before you begin.
Though, when you complete a couple of action items you never thought were possible, you’ll look in the mirror and whisper… “I DID IT! This is awesome.”
It’s important to celebrate every step forward. Make sure you celebrate, even if in the smallest way. And tell someone what you’ve achieved. What you’re doing matters!
Will You Encounter Obstacles?
Sure you will. But consider this, an obstacle is a temporary problem waiting for a solution. If you don’t know how to resolve it, get help.
Will it be worth it?
Only if you’re working toward the life you really want, not what someone else wants.
Make sure you also check in with your internal guidance system…your intuition…to make sure you’re aligned with the life you’re setting up.
MAKING LIFE CHANGING DECISIONS IS A CORE PART OF CHANGING YOUR LIFE
In order to transition to my current life, I made a lot of decisions along the way.
TRANSITION TIP # 4
It’s just as important to check in with yourself on a regular basis to make sure that the life you wanted and got… is still the life you want now.
But just because you waver on some parts of your new life, that doesn’t mean that you should abandon the life you want when things become unexpectedly bumpy or feel temporarily off track. It merely means you should employ self-awareness, follow your gut, and adjust certain areas as they need tweaking.
LET’S LOOK AT MY LIFE CHANGING DECISIONS:
In order to travel with my family while maintaining my consulting business, I decided to:
- Purchase everything using a credit card that offers travel rewards and no foreign transaction fees because they offer points for airfare, car rentals, and hotels.
- Rent an apartment six or seven months out of the year in the United States during the years we travel. We travel every other year. Boca Raton, Florida is our base camp. As a result, we pay for one living situation only. When we’re on the road, that’s our home. There’s no mortgage or rent paid elsewhere.
- Move every six or seven months on the years we don’t travel in order to house sit and save money towards our next trip. We house sit for a family member. I really miss having a permanent home! If I ever give it all up, this will be the reason. Meanwhile, I just asked my husband what he thought about traveling this summer when we aren’t supposed to go for another year. Seeing the world and learning about different cultures gets in your blood.
- Homeschool my twin boys. Great decision all the way! Update: They’re teens in high school now (2026) and don’t want to be road warriors at the moment.
- Work online or locally in South Florida as a business consultant and executive advisor in order to work from anywhere in the world.
- Learn new words and phrases from other languages as we visit new countries. I used to carry a pocket translator, but I never needed it. Did you know? Hey, means Hi, in Norwegian. Most people speak English. It’s not a big deal. And the best part… Learning new languages rubbed off on my kids. Both are on their second year of Spanish in high school and loving it.
- Chose not to get another dog when my last dog, Rudy, died a few years ago. I really want a dog soon! I’ve been thinking about a possible DOG SHARE situation…don’t know if that exists… Let me know if you happen to know please.
- Roll with one car instead of two to save money on insurance, maintenance, and storage when we travel. Sharing a car is a pain in the butt! We store our car for free at a family member’s home during the months we’re gone. Otherwise, we’d have to pay for storage on a second car. I’m still wavering on getting another car. Update (2022): We are now a two car family again. Yay!
- Chose not to buy real furniture because it’s cumbersome to move and takes up more square footage during storage. We store our belongings in an air-conditioned storage space when we travel for a $100 to $150 monthly fee. We shop at IKEA a lot.
- Commit to being my own booking agent when we travel... Sometimes we move cities or countries every three to fourteen days. This is by far the most stressful thing that comes with traveling as much as we do. I’d recommend staying a minimum of two weeks to a month before moving on to the next location. Though consider exceptions… Like when you’re visiting a remote town in England where there’s a castle you just have to visit. Think Harry Potter locations. Then beyond the castle, there’s nothing but wild country for miles and slow grinding WiFi, so you pick up your suitcases and drive on.
- Be open to learning about different cultures and the unpredictable flow that accompanies a life of travel. Each time we move cities or countries, we experience a different house, apartment, or hotel, new bus route, new grocery store, a different set of circumstances, new friends for the boys, or stove and washer directions in new a language.
TRANSITION TIP #5
What’s next for me is my favorite question to ask. Now, it’s your turn.
Ready To Make Some Life Changing Decisions?
Five Ways To Begin Your Life Transition Today:
ONE: Look in the mirror and ask yourself… Is this the life I want to be living?
TWO: If your answer is a big fat no, get started by writing down what you don’t want in your life anymore. Keep writing as long as it takes. Sometimes, knowing what you don’t want is the clearest path to finding out what you do want.
THREE: Begin here to make your first decision: Ask: Where do I need to start with decision making for my life change? Once you’ve answered that, you’ve made a big decision.
FOUR: It’s easy to find a million assumptions for why something could get in the way of exchanging your current life for one that feels meant to be, but in most cases it’s a matter of doing the research or sampling the lifestyle you want to live.
FIVE: Feeling overwhelmed? Make one decision at a time, as long as it moves you forward in the direction of your new life and whatever else you want to add in to complement your new sense freedom or whatever you want in your new life.
