After all, why not?
There is no going back
"Looking for a better, more balanced lifestyle, professional opportunity, the quest for a new adventure... There are many reasons for leaving behind the familiar for a new country. But behind each choice is a common denominator: “Those who take the plunge are often looking to make up for something lacking or out of kilter in their own lives. A change of environment offers opportunities, but also answers... And that’s what makes expatriate life so appealing!” says Anaïs Honorez, Business Manager at Smart Traveller.
For the past seven years, Smart Traveller has been helping individuals and companies with their expatriation plans. Becoming an expat is a major life decision,” Anaïs continues. “Some people sell their house, leave a secure and established life behind them… There’s no going back. But these are people who have reached a turning point – they’ve had a breakthrough, they’re trying their luck. Once they’ve settled in Mauritius, I have to say they never regret it!”
One disease, several remedies
Expatriation is not the only option for those who, dissatisfied, decide to change their lives. Th e many stories of retraining, career changes and escapism that fl ood the web and our networks bear this out.
From advertising manager to painter, from accountant to pastry chef… Or, like Julie, from marketing manager to interior decorator: “I was feeling like my job had lost its meaning. Then one day, something clicked; my career change plan slowly took shape, even if the path wasn’t always easy. Today, I’ve been making a living from this new career for five years and I’m much happier!”
Leaving it all behind - to give yourself a second chance, to re)discover yourself, or to turn things around. Once seen as an eccentric choice, this need to follow a new path now makes perfect sense, but what’s the raison d’être?
In search of yourself
We put the question to author Anaïs Vanel. Her first book, “Tout quitter”, was inspired by her own experience: she too decided one day to leave behind a daily life that was no longer fulfilling her, and embark on a new chapter. “What motivates these big changes,” Anaïs says, “is above all a search for balance. So you have to be aware of imbalances and listen to yourself.” In “Tout quitter”, Anaïs Vanel recounts, in the style of a rambling diary, how, faced with the astonishing simplicity of nature, the ease of encounters, and the beauty of living in the moment, she came to terms with herself.
Looking back, she says: “Today, I see it as letting go of things that no longer nourish us, to make room for other experiences. It’s simply agreeing to move towards the unknown by stripping ourselves bare.”
But in the end, isn’t leaving everything behind an act of escapism? Th is wish is often expressed as the need to change something that will, we tell ourselves, drag the rest along in its train. According to Anaïs Vanel, such an escape strategy rarely works in the long term: “No matter how big the change, it doesn’t erase the past, the pain, certain traumas. On the contrary, on this blank page, they will be all the more visible”. The answer may lie elsewhere, but for the author, one thing is certain: “We focus far too much on a fantasy goal rather than appreciating the path and what it has to show us.”
So, as for Elizabeth Gilbert who, in her autobiographical novel “Eat, Pray, Love”, takes a sabbatical to refocus on her own happiness, change can simply take the form of a break... Time to yourself is the ultimate indulgence!