Fast forward and step back

When we thought we had reached our peak, that’s where the journey just began…

25th January 2015, 11:25am

Breezy, cold morning at Leeds Bradford Airport, United Kingdom. After 2hrs flight in a crowded low-cost airplane it felt like a relief. And that motivating thought of the unknown ahead. I knew two things for sure. I’ve spent enough time living in one place. And that I’ve used up my lifetime allowance for being just busy. It was time to move the needle. The real journey had just began.

The plan was simple. To gain international experience, earn some money along the way, and just casually see what the next chapter would look like. Networking, inspiration, personal growth. Improving English language skills (well, I made some lads genuinely laugh when I said that in Yorkshire). Nothing extraordinary here. A typical expat story I reckon.

Yes, I would consider myself an economic migrant. Looking for a better future, better opportunities. But also an avid traveller. Some sort of a tourist, who travels, works, and just casually enjoys life. To some, this still sounds brave or extravagant. Perhaps it’s this shameless pursuit of happiness that can be easily traced in such behaviour… Luckily, these days we have a term for that. A digital nomad is how we call it.

Fast forward, almost 5yrs ahead…

That’s the fast forward part. To proudly look ahead.

23rd November 2019, 3:05am

We were totally drained after a full week of packing our belongings. We were moving. Abroad. Again. Trust me, we humans hoard too much stuff. The value of things is always subjective. In any given time, a thing has a certain value to a given person. This subjective value is a function of time. Therefore, there are things that gain value over time… and of course, quite the opposite. Very few physical objects would hold exactly the same value over years. That’s pretty much unheard of. They either lose it, or gain. Often exponentially.

So I was pulling the car over for a 3rd time that night to get another 15 mins nap. Few more hours ahead to board an early morning ferry towards Santander in Spain. Three cubic meters of goods have already shipped the day before, others have been sold or donated, and finally, all remaining items filled our car to the roof. Never again so much stuff to move – I thought. I become true minimalist. Let’s see for how long.

We’ve welcomed December in sunny Ericeira, Portugal. The warmest winter I’ve ever experienced in my life. Holidays? Nope. I think I must have mastered the mysterious work-life balance by now. When I work from home, I take calls by the ocean. When in office, we go for an after work run along the river Tagus in Lisbon. We call it Unit4 Moves… Anyway, how did all this happen? How is this about “Fast forward and step back” at all?

The clue

I was chatting with an old friend this week and we realised that if you asked me 5 years ago what I would be doing in 5 years ahead of that time, I would have no idea whatsoever. Is it bad planning? Perhaps, for some, it might look like that. But what I learned was that I had a tendency to over-plan my entire life, instead of creating environment for things to happen and just going with the flow. Which I’m enjoying now.

So the secret – if we can call it like that – was to give up the fear of failure, and focus on a big audacious goal instead. To define an ideal that resonates on emotional level and keeps me inspired. That’s the fast forward part. To proudly look ahead. Then, occasionally, review accomplishments and take a step back to embrace the journey that took us here. It was a good lesson, I must admit.

Next time I will share what was Unit4’s role in this journey. Which is quite a story on its own.