180° in 18 days
18 days passed between the day I left my family’s home in Kenya’s lush countryside and the day my dad picked me up at the train station in France. In those 18 days, I sold most of my belongings that were in my apartment in Nairobi, I sold my car, Suzie, I packed and shipped the items I wanted to send to France, I made travel arrangements from Nairobi to my French hometown and I launched my latest venture, Align the Dots | Coaching & Consulting.
When I really think about it, it’s pretty crazy. 18 days and my life did a 180! So I’m trying to reflect on how I made this happen so I can consciously learn from it and share it.
Here are the factors I believe contributed to my ability to do a 180 in 18 days:
- I was mentally prepared. I made the decision to leave Kenya in July 2019 and meant to leave around April 2020. I ended up leaving just a month later than anticipated.
- I had no doubts about my decisions. That is in my nature, once I make a decision that comes from within, I stick with it for as long as it feels right.
- I was present, in the moment, every step of the way. I didn’t worry about what had happened the days before nor what would happen too long ahead. I focused on what I had to do now and within the next few days at the most.
- I prepared myself as best as I knew how but didn’t expect things to go according to plan. Here are a couple of examples:
I had all the paperwork the French government required to enter and move within its borders but there were no clear directives I knew of regarding quarantine so I didn’t make any arrangements beyond my arrival on French soil. For all I knew, they would have changed the rules while I was in the air and may have had to quarantine upon my arrival. Thankfully I didn’t and instead got to take a physically distant stroll in sunny Paris.
My plan was to rent a car in Paris and drive 600 km to get to my dad’s. The night before I was flying out of Nairobi, I realised I didn’t have my French driving license with me. It wouldn’t have been possible to rent a car with my Kenyan license without an official French translation which was impossible to get at 9 pm on a Friday night. So instead, I spent a night in Paris and took the train the following day.
- My new venture is run digitally so why wait? I genuinely couldn’t find any reasonable excuses to not go ahead with it.
- I check in with myself all along my journey. I am going through an important transition, relocating to Europe after 10 years in East Africa, and I want to make sure I fully experience this transition and acknowledge any emotion that shows up along the way.
What I am learning throughout this process is that I know I’m going in the direction I’m meant to go and I feel supported and loved by everyone who’s with me on this journey, and thanks to video calls there are many!
When you make big changes in your life, what steps do you take? What is important for you to focus on?
