Anyone decided to change their life completely?

[hercules1]

I dont mean the usual having kids etc but say for example giving up your career to do something completely different, moving far away to start a new life etc that sort of thing.

Dh and I are thinking of doing something to change the current course of our life but dont know quite what. Everything is fine but we dont want life to always be this. We want to try different things and ways of living etc blah de blah.

You should do it. There's nothing like shaking things up a bit to prevent that blah, blah, blah feeling that comes from living the same old life, in the same old ways.

We moved from London to rural Devon, and don't regret it.

i moved from london to ibiza on the spur of the moment, then to gibraltar on the roll of a dice, then ibiza again - foregoing a job on a ship in the caribbean - to keep a friend happy, then london again to pay off debts, and australia to rescue my sister - again at the drop of a hat. last minute decision to come home to save up for further travels led me to a temp job where i met dp 5 years ago, and the rest, as they say, is history.

i think its totally fabulous if you both want to do something drastic and exciting - i hope you can agree where and what to do. id love a total change of scenery myself. we may move one day, as a family, but not a for a long time i think.

Inglis, we have often thought about that and seriously looked into it earlier last year. Had a thread on it. I'm from Devon and we went and looked at houses last year there. Trouble is to buy a house we'd need a job there first and I would never earn there as much as I do in London so couldnt buy a decent house on my wage alone (dp is a sahp).
Still a dream of ours though to move there. We're even considering buying kennels there and living and running business there.

Herc, what is it you want to achieve? What is it you like and dislike and want to change? No time now but may come back later!

I did.8 years ago I had a well paid job with a big company,but lots of responsibilty & attendant stress.Was also working opposite a dump used for toxic waste,a big power station & next to the motorway,so not the healthiest environment.

I took a day release course over 2 years & retrained as a gardener.In 2002 I gave up my job & went self employed & have been ever since.I love my job,it has the downsides of no paid holidays or sick pay,but I work when & where I want & only work school hours.

Incidentally,we were TTC for years before I gave up my job.5 months after jacking it all in,I was pregnant.

I am very happy with life as it is and we are very lucky in many ways. But I dont want to spend the rest of my life living in outer London. I'm a country gal at heart.
Trouble is I have a job I love, kids are in great schools and doing well.
Ideally I'd like to take all that with me and live in Devon.
We've done loads of research on it, house hunted, looked at school etc but it would be too much to lose to move at least for the next few years.

But I still hanker after having a big change!

I'm sure if you hanker after change, you will do something about it at some point.

There is a charming book I'm reading at the moment called, We bought an Island by Evelyn Atkins, about these two sisters, in their fifties, who swap Surrey for a rugged island off the cornish coast in the 1960s. It might inspire you - you can find it on Amazon.

Don't worry too much about what you will lose, for, in spades, you will gain... just be bold.

I grew up with parents that where always spontaniously changing their lives and 're-inventing' themselves, so I guess I've never known a life that stays the same really, but I did give up a good job a few years ago to start a business instead, and even now can't imagine doing this forever and will probably move on to something else in the future. Who knows what life holds? My parents just used to shrug their shoulders at other people's concerns and say "things always work out for the best", who knows eh?

me and my DP r moving away soon, but we ve got no choice, its with his job with the police, i dont wanna move im happy where i am but it mite only be for a few years hopefully we ll be back by the time ds is starting school. im hoping!!

i think that if u all feel the same then why not go for it, we ve only got one life and we need to make the most of it!!

love Fanargadeb

DP and I moved to Paris for a year - just because. It was fun.

I DEFINTELY feel like that but unfortunately dh doesn't

We had lived in outer London for all our lives until 18 months ago. My husband had his own printing business and we had paid off our mortgage. Due to the down turn in printing in this country he sold the business for a nominal sum (so the other employees could keep their jobs) we sold our house and downsized to house 8 miles from Bath.

Life has completely changed for us as dh is now semi-retired, he works doing various part-time jobs and we have a small pension and interest from capital left from the sale of our house. Our expenses are much less, our daughter is at a school with much less class disruption, and life is not nearly as stressed. We wish we had moved many years ago.

I packecd in a dull job to become a m/w. To be honest life is pretty much the same, although work is more interesting.

I want more of a change and hanker after emigrating to NZ. DH not een though.

I often wish I hadn't tied myself down with a mortgage and dream of jacking the rat race in to hitchhike round the world picking grapes or something.

Why don't you save up and take a 6 month sabatical. Then you can taste it without giving up your exsisting life completely.Unless your children are 11 onwards they will be fine with you both home schooling them.

Or if you have a good job can you move to another international city.

You are more likely to regret not doing anything than trying and not liking it.

not read all thread, but I am in proicess of doing this

It is scary

yes

we are emigrating to Australia this year

been thinking about it for a while (BIL lives there) and about 18 months ago we thought fcuk it, why not?

olive wow and and as even though we haven't met, you'll be too far to meet now!

olive is it THIS YEAR? blimey!

in answer to OP, yes, we upped sticks and moved from London to New Zealand

not a total shot in the dark as my parents (and now sister) are here too but a big old change nevertheless