‘Should I move to Australia?’ is a question I get asked a lot! Moving to Australia is an idea that a LOT of people have, but it’s something that very few people actually go on to do.
When we were discussing whether to move to Australia, so many people I knew told me they were going to move to Australia one day – they were just getting a bit more work experience under their belt/saving up a bit more/finishing off their home renovations and so many other reasons. More than half a decade on and none of them have moved. I think most of them have actually forgotten they even said they were going to do it! The one person who I know was serious has had visa issues out of their control but they are determined and I’m pretty sure nothing is going to keep them from finding a way into Australia! But that is one out of many.
It’s really really easy to say you’re going to move to Australia ‘one day’, and then let it slide. It feels good to say you’re going to do it – like you’re being an action taker following your big dreams – but it feels even better to have given yourself a get out clause for the time being. Saying there is something you need to do first before you can follow that dream can sometimes (often) be a self-imposed obstacle. It takes it out of your hands – you need to do something else before you can move and then you have that thing to blame as to why you didn’t do it. You didn’t choose not to go – that thing out of your control stopped you.
Before you know it, some time has passed, your kids are loving their school and have heaps of friends and you’re five years down the line entrenched in the realities of life and jobs and home extensions or house moves or whatever. The idea of moving to Australia has long since passed and you didn’t even need to make the difficult decision not to go – you slid it all under the carpet until there wasn’t even an option to go anymore and the people around you have forgotten you had even mentioned it.
I see this happen so often and it’s really sad. Because, when you make the decision about whether to move or not, it is much more powerful than just saying ‘one day’ (and then that ‘one day’ never arriving). Whether you’re saying yes and actually doing it, or choosing to say no and getting on with your life – both of those are positive choices and they put you in a position of power.
For this post, I wanted to focus on the reasons that I hear the most often about what stops people from making the move to Australia. Some of these might be familiar to you as you might have said them yourself before! You’re likely to have heard them from other people though. Have a read and let me know if you recognise any of them…
What is it that stops people from actually going through with it and making the move to Australia?
Why is moving to Australia something that lots of people talk about but don’t actually take action on? Here is a long list of reasons that people give me for not taking action on their dreams. Are you guilty of thinking or believing any of these?
I love my family and friends too much to leave them
I don’t have the money to make the move
I’m not eligible for a visa
I don’t know where to start
Australia is just too far away
I have a secure job where I am
I can’t take the risk – my life is easy and fine right now, why would I put that in jeopardy for an unknown future?
I’ve heard that it’s too expensive to live in Australia
I’m too old to start a new life all over again in a new country
I don’t know how much money I’d need to move to Australia
I don’t know how to find out if I’m eligible to move to Australia
I worry that I’d be too homesick and I’d spend my time there missing everyone too much to enjoy it
I have pets here and it would be too hard to take them with me
I don’t know anyone in Australia
I’ve never been to Australia/I haven’t spent enough time in Australia
I have a house and too much stuff to think about packing it up and moving to the other side of the world
I don’t know anybody else who has done it
My family and friends have asked me not to go
It’s too hard to think about making such a big move to Australia
Staying where I am is easy and comfortable
I’d struggle to find a job in Australia
What if things aren’t any better over there
I don’t think it would work out and then I’d have to move back as a failiure
It’s too hot there for me
Australia is dangerous – there are poisonous spiders, bush fires and extreme weather issues there
The stories we tell ourselves
Do these all sound like solid reasons not to move to Australia to you?
The truth is, they are just stories. Everything in our reality is just a story we’re telling ourselves and the way in which we interpret our reality comes down to how we see the world and the lens that we’re looking through.
We tell ourselves really good stories, so good that we actually end up believing them. Then we become trapped in our stories and it feels impossible to get out of them because they feel so real. These are just self-imposed restrictions we’ve placed on ourselves.
One of the reasons for this is that our brain is trying to protect us. Back in ancient times, it was important to stay with your family group for survival. You’d stay close to where you know for protection and you’d live in a close pack. Our brains haven’t evolved as much as we have, unfortunately, so they think they’re helping to keep us safe when in reality they are actually stopping us from following that thing that is pulling us to do something more with our lives.
The people we surround ourselves with also has an impact on what we think is possible. The people we knew in the UK were all settled where they were – we didn’t know others who were thinking about changing their lives so drastically. We were often told by family members some of the stories I’ve listed above about how Australia is too expensive and that it wouldn’t work out and we’d have to come home, or that it was too dangerous to move over there because of the spiders and snakes. As you’re used to listening to advice from your family, it’s easy to take those stories at face value and believe them, but really most of the time people are just telling you the stories they’ve been told or they’re telling you things in the hope that it puts you off making the move because they love you and want to keep you safe.
A couple of the above points could pose issues around you making the move but they don’t need to be obstacles that stop you from following your dream. These are the points around eligibility and finance to pay for the move. If you really want to make the move to Australia, then both of these are things that you may be able to figure out, if you’re determined enough and you get the right support.
Should I move to Australia?
The question is: do you recognise yourself and any of your stories in this post? And if you do, what are you going to do about it?
