Questions for ourselves: “How much do we want it?” “What sacrifices are we willing to make to see this project succeed?” “Have we ‘moved’—lock, stock, and barrel—to our inner Paris?
Steven Pressfield, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be
In talking about our inner Paris Steven Pressfield said, "We’re talking now about the third-level meaning of 'Put your ass where your heart wants to be.' Commitment over time. Commitment in the face of adversity."
For several years I have had the desire to take a year off, a sabbatical if you will. I've been working since I was young, very young, like many of us. I want to do something unique to recharge my batteries. I want to bank some exceptional memories for when I age out of being able to do things.
This last year I took a mini-sabbatical of sorts to test out the concept. I took a risky 60 days off of work to walk the Camino de Santiago with Cristina. It was fantastic. When we finished we took a train back to Madrid, Spain and spent a few extra days in the city that never sleeps. When I got home I no longer could stay with the brokerage I had committed too. My life-career-real-estate-agent plan fell apart as the brokerage ceased operations before my eyes. What could I do? I set another goal. But this time I set a goal that I find even scarier than committing to walk with a backpack 500 miles from across Northern Spain with 432,000 other Pilgrims.
Walking the Camino de Santiago was what some might call a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for me. Two years earlier I could barely walk 2-3 kilometers, and my previously broken ankle would swell up from osteoarthritis. I had to take a day to recover before walking again. 2 years later, Cristina and I on the Camino often walked 30 kilometer days with 20 pound packs. I chose the Camino as a goal but more as the challenge and a reward for getting myself back in shape. It was an elegant way to work through the depressing lockdowns we all suffered during COVID, and not let COVID diminish our dreams.
I likely don't need to tell you, and you can probably guess where this is going, but I now want to go live in Madrid for a year before I get to too old to physically enjoy it. Madrid is a walker's paradise. I like the art scene there, the music, the little cafes, bars and restaurants. But I don't want to stop working, either. Not yet.
And, I was in need a goal to get me to dedicate myself to doing real estate at a higher level from here into my retirement years. I'm using the "Call of Madrid" to prepare financially for retirement, like I used the "Call of the Camino" to motivate myself back into shape and improve my physical mobility.
My next best opportunity to be an expat will likely be when I turn 62 in a couple of years. After that 65. I can definitely do it when I am 67 and fully retired. But what will I potentially miss out on with age? To stay in Madrid for a year, I will need to get a Non-Lucrative Visa, which means I cannot be earning any money anywhere in the world or the New Digital Nomad Visa which allows me to earn money from outside of Spain. The Digital Nomad Visa, which came out in January, has just the right tax advantages for our situation.
So this is not so much a sabbatical that I am shooting for, but rather to be an expat, living in Spain, but still working my real estate business back here in Orlando, virtually.
To be able to make all of this work I will have to recruit, coach and mentor quite a few agents in my new brokerage Radius Agent, LLC until my income from running a team meets the requirements to qualify for the Digital Nomad Visa and I can support Cristina and I living overseas while not selling everything here in the States. And, then I will need to continue to support those agents from over in Spain to keep the money flowing. Tall order? I believe it is entirely doable now with the advances in technology we enjoy and the fact that we belong to a virtual brokerage that enables all of this. I just have to stretch myself into being a valuable coach, mentor and team leader. So valuable the my agents don't abandon me for the next shiny object brokerage opportunity.
I tell you all of this because I want to put my aspirations and goals into the Universe to attract all of the otherworldly support I can attract. I view writing this blog post as part of me moving to my "inner Madrid." It is a visioning exercise to help me fully commit. Just like I moved to my "inner Camino" in preparation for walking 500 miles in 37 days. Before we went to Spain, I had walked the Camino several times over in my mind and I physically superimposed the kilometers and Camino stages on the neighborhoods around Champions Gate. I researched, planned and prepared for the journey. And the experience was everything and more than I could have imagined. Think of it like the inner game of tennis or baseball. See the ball, be the ball. I saw the Camino, I walked the Camino.
The question is, do you have an inner Paris or an inner Madrid that you have moved to? What is it you are working hard to achieve, so hard that you are willing to put all of your heart, might, mind and soul into the journey? Maybe it's to pay off a house. I may go there one day. Maybe it's a Panama Canal cruise or even an around-the-world cruise? What is your inner Paris that you can move to now, virtually?
Why?
Because, the grind is real.
The years go by fast.
Set a goal and make it happen with your real estate practice.
I will help coach and mentor you. Schedule a call with me at http://Lance15.com and we'll work on it together.
And then set another.
And another.
