What is your biggest frustration right now and what do you plan to do (if anything) to resolve this situation? (If you want, you can name more than one here.)
I’ll go first. I’m frustrated that I have so few opportunities to wander the globe the way I used to. Plus, my current job monopolizes my time when there are so many other more important things I want to be doing.
My solution: My wife and are in contact with real estate agents about buying a home outside America and trying something new. I’m almost certain we will be able to pull all this off in the next several months.
I see this as a great opportunity to publicly confess something that might be weighing heavily on you and to see what others might have to say about any plans you might be making.
I look forward to reading your comments! Thanks for participating!
Check out the blog directory (below) and register your site!
I could demand the contractors halt all massive racket going on inside my house, but then the project would never get done. So, I sigh and keep moving. I’ve often thought about moving to another country. Do tell how it’s going. It doesn’t look like an easy thing to do, but I bet it’s going to be fun.
Hi. My wife and I had new flooring put down throughout our house not long ago, so I can commiserate. I actually spent about twenty years living and working abroad, so I know how it’s done. It helps that I’m married to an Egyptian. Many Americans could retire quite early if they thought outside the box and realized the world is a large and welcoming place. Moving abroad isn’t as hard as you might think.
I have traveled the globe and actually am quite content at present state of life. My biggest challenge is what to writ about next. I am retired but a prolific writer and reader. Good luck
I’m curious about where you’ve been. I lived outside the US–my home country–for nearly twenty years. I hear you. I’ve published between 150 and 200 pieces on this site alone. Sometimes it’s difficult coming up with a topic. But then I realize that just about any sort of subject–even minor occurrences–can be fair game. I think the secret is to pay attention and be “in the moment” when moving through life. If one lives in such a way, there always seems to be a topic at hand. What do you do when you find yourself faced with the dreaded writer’s block?
Dropping things on the floor all the time. Having heaps of Physio to get better at holding onto things but just not plain sailing. Right hand doesn’t grip things well and fatigues so easily. So frustrating. Dropped a containers last week and rice went everywhere aaargh!
I can totally relate. When I was young, I played competitive sports and tore the ACL in my knee which also caused considerable meniscus damage. I have had two knee surgeries and know that my damaged knee will never be normal again. I often joke that I have one 25-year-old knee and one 75 year-old-knee. These type of things are those we just have to learn to live with. I’ve had this knee situation so long now that I no longer thinker of it as an abnormality. Being a person with a problematic knee is just who I am now. I wish you all the best in your continued therapy.
I have a brain disease with no cure, am tired of travelling only back and forth to be put in the hospital at the specialty clinic for my condition. I wish someone would invent a cure so I could work fill-time and have enough money to travel. I have not been overseas in two decades.
I hear your frustration, Jen. I’d like to say that I understand what you’re going through, but I can only imagine what your situation might be like, and there is a big difference between imagining something and truly understanding it. Like you, I feel trapped. I left a job in Cairo, Egypt, brought my Egyptian wife to the US so she could have a bit of an international experience and then found myself getting stuck here. Had I known I would get stuck this way, I might have taken a different path back in 2015 when I left Africa. I guess we make decisions with the best information we have at the time but then can get very surprised about how things play out. I never would have dreamed that I’d have my wings clipped in the way they’ve been clipped. I wish you al the best in everything you do. Thanks for sharing your story.
Thank you kindly.
Wow, Troy – that sounds so exciting! Can’t wait to see how this unfolds for you all and to benefit from all the stories you will have to tell!
I am excited by the possibility of doing something very different in a very different place in the near future. I believe there was a time in your past when you lived a more international life. I’d like to hear more about those times in a blog. Do you still have the opportunity to travel some? Do you miss those days?
You have a good memory, Troy. I lived in the Philippines as a kid and as an adult used to travel to climb mountains around the world. Since my kids are so young, it doesn’t feel like the right time to do a lot of international travel with them but I know that time will return. But I love to relive them so I’m sure my past travels will come up in future posts!
Thank you for sharing so openly, Troy! I read the potential plans of you and your wife with great excitement! I’m not saying that I don’t have the occasional mild frustration, but these days when a sense of self within me attempts to complain (as it used to), I find the center again and let it pass. I am, excited, however about growing my second career and travelling again too. I know (for I loved riding so much), that there will be another motorcycle.
You are welcome, Art, and thank you for all you do! I’ve long had this weird need to live on the margins. I love not belonging to places (if you know what I mean). I love being a “foreigner.” When one lives in a place where one doesn’t understand the language and such, it sort of forces a person to look inward. Plus, I really feel that I am a natural-born anthropologist and sociologist. I’m just good at finding a corner and observing from afar. During my life, I have met many people who were terrified by the possibility of being somewhere strange. They always talked about such places as being “scary.” (I find myself more scared by being in a place where everything seems too commonplace, too familiar.) (Had I been born centuries ago, I would have signed up become a sailor of the seven seas or some other type of explorer.) Does that make me a weirdo? If so, I fully embrace my weirdoism.
Dear Troy,
I found myself smiling (still am) as I read your comment! I “so” relate! That’s me, too. I don’t want to fit within the bounds proscribed by others. If I’m not living my life, then whose am I living?
Wishing you a wonderful day, brother weirdo. In this together!
I have so many things to do and learn which don’t happen even after some efforts. But never failed to give my level best to see where and how it goes. I am happy for you and your wife not many attempts out of the way things to try and this is very important to take risks and face it what may come.
Giving effort and trying your best is always a win in my book. It is not so much what we accomplish; it’s what we try to accomplish that matters. Thanks for the cool comment.
My biggest frustration at the moment is that I’m trying to get everything planted for spring and I have so many things to do that I can’t even see straight lol. Farm life is complicated but once everything is growing I know that I’m going to be absolutely thrilled
My family was fairly unstable, so I spent a lot of time living with my rancher grandparents. I recall how many chores there were to do. I was always out and about with my grandfather. People think that those who live in the countryside and on farms are living “the simple life.” I think nothing could be further from the truth. I wish you and yours a bumper crop this year! Thanks for the comment.
To answer this question ” What is frustrating me right now?”, Things taking time because I want a job and it seems like chances are taking forever to come but it’s not that big of a hurdle😂
Nothing sucks more than looking for work and getting no bites day after day. By the way, I’ve been there and done that, so I definitely feel your pain and frustration. Something will come up, though. Just keep on keeping on. Maybe a little outside-the-box thinking my be helpful right now? Thanks for the comment and good luck!
Thank you Mr. Headrick🙌
My biggest frustration is with a colleague. I am new to a team of translators, yet I am constantly having to remind the most longstanding team member of the most basic elements of translation and team work… And he takes every possible opportunity to try to throw in my face any time that I make a mistake (I am fine with constructive criticism, I invite it. But the way he offers criticism is not constructive. The way he criticizes feels more intended as public shaming). This team member I feel frustration towards has been in the team for 13 years (I have been here for 6 months, and the other team member for 2 years). Me and the other newer team member can tell that our elder team member does not respect us, the work, or our boss. He doesn’t take the job seriously and he has got away with doing the bare minimum for so long that he is extremely comfortable keeping up that level of effort. He is also good friends with our boss, interestingly, so there seems to be nothing to do. It’s really too bad because the job is otherwise very fulfilling, and I just wish we could find a new team member that is coachable and has good work ethic. Is that too much to ask?