I am about 90 percent sure we will be moving from Brooklyn to Lisbon next summer. It’s a move that has been percolating in our brain for the past year and certain events in our lives, increased comments from my kids about hating gun drills at school & a hard ask to ourselves about the quality of life we have v. how much we work and earn has made this decision easier.  

It’s not a permanent move but I’m also not going into this with a hard return deadline. 

But I am scared sh*tless.

Every time I actually think of leaving my beloved Brooklyn community and my country to move further away from family and friends, I get that voice that whispers, “Just don’t do it.”

It would be so much easier to not do it. To remain in the same existence as we have been. But there is something soulfully deeper calling me to try on another experience for a handful of years for my family. And I recognize that voice.

It’s the same voice that called to me when I was going to go back to Corporate America after having a really hard first year in working for myself but it said, “not yet.” It’s the same voice that told me to “put $10K on a credit card and learn how to create digital revenue streams” even though I was adding to my already substantial credit card debt.

The voice that whispered, “apply to that internship in London” when I was desperately trying to get a media job in Chicago in my late 20s.

Every time I have listened to that voice, my life has gone to happiness levels I never had dreamt were possible. Adventures and experiences that enriched my life that I didn’t realize could happen.

Had I listened to the OTHER voice. The voice telling me to “stay put”, my current life state would look very different and I’m not sure it would be a life that I really even wanted in the first place.

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear” is a quote I keep coming back to these days.  I know this to be fact.

There are a lot of things to figure out and it’s not FOR SURE, but in my gut I think I know we will take a risk and see what it’s like to live in  another country for a few years and try on that European quality of life that is not urban legend.

My two older kids are amped. Cass thinks his family is crazy because he’s been in approximately 84 different sleeping scenarios since June so who knows what he thinks.

Is there something in your life that you are not doing because you’re scared?
What voice are you listening to? The one that tells you to “stay put” or the one that says, “go for it because you have no idea what amazingness awaits you”

What would happen if for once you didn’t listen to that voice that told you to “STAY.” What if you listened –like REALLY listened – to that inner voice that is telling you exactly what you really want?

Can you imagine what your life might look like?
Deep down I know had I not gone through this exercise in the past, there is no way I would move across the ocean with my 3 young kids and try a different life on for a while. It’s all too scary. Too many unknowns. “What ifs”, etc.

But like a muscle, the more you take risks and the more you make yourself uncomfortable…and see yourself flourish, it becomes an easier practice. Your confidence in your own ability starts to override any of the fear -which is always still there.

And even if the risk doesn’t turn out exactly how you imagined, usually it ends up better than you could have imagined or at the very least, you end up a bit wiser.

For example, I took that London Internship expecting to finally get a media job from it, only to have my Visa expire and needing to leave the country….but I ended up meeting my future husband in that time period, so we moved to NYC, which was never in my life plan. But my God, an even better life plan than I had envisioned for myself.

Thanks for reading this and while I feel a new chapter coming on, what I will still be doing is keeping my NY brand video business up and running -sadly I cannot convince my entire video team to move with me so Operation Patrice Poltzer Creative NY will still remain – and helping entrepreneurs tell their stories.  So DO NOT WORRY MY CHILD:)

I’d love to hear from any of you who have made big moves with their families -specifically internationally -and could share your wisdom, advice and pitfalls!