The Smart Expat

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My latest blog post over at Expat Focus is the first of two which addresses transitioning to life as an accompanying partner and talks about acceptance as the first step in the transition.  You can find the article here.

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Can’t tell you how excited I am that I’ve been invited, along with Louise Wiles (my co-conspiritor on the Career and the Accompanying Partner Survey) to participate in an online discussion with Tara Agacayak and Anastasia Ashman, initiators of the Global Niche. Louise and I contacted Tara and Anastasia to ask for their help in publicising our Career Choice and the Accompanying Partner survey. As we got deeper into the conversation about the origins of our survey, our own backgrounds and our perspectives on the challenges of leading a fulfilling life and career (however that is defined) as an accompanying partner, they suggested that the topic would be of interest to the wider membership of the Global Niche and offered us the chance to participate in an online discussion. Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity.

If you haven’t come across it before, the Global Niche is an amazing resource aimed at supporting “creative self enterprise for the global soul”. Tara is an expat living in Turkey and Anastasia has recently relocated from Turkey to her native US (so recent that she is still surrounded by boxes) so they understand the challenges of living in different countries and cultures. As an accompanying partner you may well find that these words from their website ring true:

“Ever feel suspended between multiple worlds? Disadvantaged in your pursuits and interests, cut off by culture or geography, language or time zone? We believe that limbo state holds your secret weapon.”

Through sharing their own experiences, their creative, social media and coaching skills, and the experiences of other creative entrepreneurs, Tara and Anastasia help other “global souls” (yes, that includes all of us accompanying partners!) to find and tap their own Global Niches. I’ve been a member of the Global Niche since its inception, so I’m very excited that Louise and will be discussing the challenges of being accompanying partner with Tara, Anastasia and the Global Niche community. The call which will be hosted on Linqto, an online video chat tool, is free and open to all participants. If you’d like to listen to the discussion live and participate in the q&a afterwards, here’s the link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/325584220815080/

We’ll be kicking off at 7pm CET/10am US Pacific. If you can’t be with us live, I’ll be posting a link to the recording as soon as its available. Oh, and if you haven’t done the survey yet, please take a few minutes to complete it.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/partnerscareerchoices

Looking forward to seeing you online on Friday.

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Happy New Year! I’ve been in Australia over the holidays visiting family and friends and enjoying some of the sunshine and warmth that I missed during the last Northern European summer. While I was away, I wrote my second article for Expat Focus on Goal Setting. If you haven’t thought about what you want to do or achieve in 2012, perhaps these tips and resources will inspire you to reach for your dreams this year. One of the ways to engender a sense of accountability for a goal is to share it with others so use the comments below to share what you’d like to achieve in 2012.

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I was delighted to be asked by Expat Focus to join their group of expert columnists. As their Expat Coaching for Partners columnist, I’ll be writing about the issues that affect the lives of accompanying partners. My first column, about dealing with some of the seasonal challenges that are particular to expat families, is online now.

To read my seasonal tips for expats click here Like to share your own experience or tips? Comment below or at Expat Focus.

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Remember those moments.  The moments in life where everything changes.  There might be an epiphany; the course of your life is inexorably changed and everything that comes after is driven by a sense of clarity and purpose that didn’t previously exist.  Or there might be some insignificant event; one which alters your perspective which in turn leads to a distinctly different set of actions.  Though the changes are more subtle,  it’s clear that life would have been different had that moment not occurred.

My own turning point took the latter form.  I was comforting a fellow accompanying partner whose youngest child had just flown the nest for university.  She was devastated.  Her whole life, her purpose and her identity were tied up in being a mother to her children.  She had few interests of her own.  She had done little for herself in almost 20 years.  Her life was so focused on others that she had completely lost sight of her own dreams and ambitions.  Her youngest child had left taking his mother’s purpose in life with him and she was lost.  At the time, I was already uncomfortable that I had not worked for the last 7 years and at that moment, knew precisely where I didn’t want to be when my children left home.  In the course of that one conversation, I strengthened my resolve to reconnect with my own dreams and develop a career (paid or not) which gave me a sense of purpose beyond my family.  The journey is ongoing and there have been a couple of major detours along the way, but I can pinpoint that moment as a turning point in my life.

In her new book “Turning Points”, launched today, Women’s Development Coach Kate Cobb brings together the stories of 25 women entrepreneurs and the moments that changed their lives.  In the introduction, Kate looks at how we can recognize turning points and how we can maximise their power of transformation.   Each of the 25 entrepreneurs tell their own stories, sharing not only the moments that sparked change in their lives but also how they made the change happen, what they learned along the way and what resources they used to inspire their journeys.  Two of my favourite expats are featured in the book.  Fellow expat coach Louise Wiles, with whom I am currently collaborating on an exciting new project (more about that in a couple of weeks) tells the story of how she created her own business so that she could have a meaningful career which accommodated her peripatetic life. Also featured is Linda Janssen who writes for a number of expat publications and is the author of the Adventures in Expatland blog.

If you’d like to read these inspiring stories, Turning Points can be purchased from Amazon and, as if the stories, tips and resources are not reasons enough to buy the book, the authors have committed 10% of the royalties from the book to the charity Seeds for Development which supports farming families in Uganda.

P.S. I’m a bit slow in getting my blog post out today, but if you do buy the book before the end of the day today, log your purchase at www.theturningpointsbook.com to be eligible for some amazing launch day bonuses.

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