By Barb Brady
Special to Relocation.com
You've decided you want to relocate -- now you can choose where you want to move. How exciting!
But where do you start?
Start with a blank slate. Don't start picking out towns or states that interest you; imagine you are creating your ideal place from scratch. What ingredients do you want in this relocation recipe? Get out a piece of paper and answer the following questions.
- Family/Friends/Community -- What kind of people do you want to be in community with? Conservative or liberal? Friendly or reserved? Ethnically diverse or homogeneous? How close do you want to be to your current friends and family?
- Lifestyle/Temperament -- What size is your ideal community? Is it a big city like Dallas or Chicago, a smaller city like Kansas City or Charlotte, or more a town feel like Santa Cruz or Taos? What kind of lifestyle do you want? Laid-back or fast-paced? Materialistic or earthy?
- Work/Career -- Describe how your current work fits into the place you are visualizing. Where do you see yourself working -- in a corporation, from home, outdoors, or someplace else?
- Spiritual Connection/Religion -- How important is spirituality/religion to you? How do you experience your spiritual connection -- going to church, being with people you care about, being in nature; through art, music, or some other way.
- Leisure/Cultural Activities -- What do you see yourself doing for fun? What cultural and educational activities are important to you? What sports do you enjoy? What volunteer activities would you like to participate in? Restaurants! What kind do you like?
- Finances -- What (if anything) would you need to change in order to be financially comfortable in your new place?
- Physical Environment -- What kind of flora, fauna, topography, and weather energize you?
- Health -- Imagine you're very healthy and energized all or most of the time. What do you need in order to have the ideal health on all levels -- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual?
- Transportation -- List all your preferred modes of transportation, and when you enjoy using each. For example, subways, buses, walking, biking, moped, driving, flying, etc.
- Personal Connection and Energy Check -- What is it about the place that you imagine feeling most connected to? Is it the people, the views, the smells, or a combination? How do you want your body to feel in this place ideally, and how do you want your energy to feel?
Exercise: Your Ideal Day in Your Ideal Place - Imagine it's tomorrow morning and you've just woken up in the place of your dreams. Write down a detailed description of your ideal day in your ideal place Make it come alive to your senses. Ask yourself "What am I seeing?" "How am I feeling?" "What am I hearing?" "What am I smelling?" "What am I tasting?"
Now you've got a picture in your mind of what you want. Next…
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Get a map and highlighter. Highlight all of the potential areas/places your ideal place could be.
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Start talking! Tell everyone what you're looking for, especially people who are living in or have traveled to areas you are interested in.
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Go to the library or a bookstore and peruse books and websites on the places you highlighted in step one. (I've included some resources below).
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Get personal. Go there! You will never know how connected you can actually feel until you experience the energy of the place yourself.
Recommended Reading and Websites:
Places Rated Almanac – David Savageau & Geoffrey Loftus
FindYourSpot.com, a great Internet resource with a helpful quiz to help you decide specific locales where you might want to live.
Sperling's Best Places provides data on thousands of metro areas, cities, and neighborhoods.
Your Next Move:
The Relocation.com Guide to Choosing a Mover
Barbara Brady is a Life Transition Coach and author of the book "Make the Right Move Now: Your Personal Relocation Guide" designed to help people discover and move to their ideal location. Visit her website at: http://www.mycoachbarbara.com/