Losing your identity, finding a touchstone

Do you feel you’ve lost part of your identity when you left your home country and moved to a foreign place? Do you move around a lot? Are you constantly starting over? Are you a ‘trailing spouse’? Are you ‘bringing up brits’ as a non British parent? I think when we leave our home countries to start a life in a foreign place, we sometimes lose some of our own identity or we start to question parts of our identity and feel lost or adrift for a while. We may lose confidence in ourselves and it might take more time than we thought to adjust to our new environment.

When I moved from Tokyo, where I had been living with my British boyfriend for nearly 3 years, to England, in my mind, it felt like I was moving ‘back home’, back to a ‘Western lifestyle’ and it almost felt like I was going back to America. Probably because I had never lived in the UK before so had no idea just how non American it would be! I just knew I was coming back to the land of real beds and carb-based foods. I could not have imagined that I would feel less at home than in Tokyo or Prague and more lonely, more like a foreigner and less in touch with myself and what I wanted or thought I wanted. It took several years for me to find my feet, gain back my confidence and really get my life and my career to a point where I felt happy and confident in myself and what I was doing.

I want to share this inspirational video interview with expert Colleen Reichrath-Smith who is the co-author of Career in Your Suitcase, 4th Edition with Jo Parfitt. Colleen talks about the 6 secrets to a portable career which is not only helpful to those who’ve just moved to a new country but also for those who are at a crossroads in their career or are just starting up a new business. It struck me while watching this video that these 6 secrets that Colleen describes can be applied to all aspects of our lives, not just our work, our careers. For me, it is a reminder to continue to be open minded and reflective; to continue to be helpful to others and offer some of my own advice and expertise to help those who are just starting out here in the UK or with their own businesses; to continue to believe in myself as that will enable me to lead a rich life with friends and family and in my career as a designer and writer; to be more proactive and more positive in my thinking and in my actions.

Heidi, who is my co-author on Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs does a fabulous job of interviewing Colleen and talking about what we can do to help ourselves get our confidence back, to move forward to meet people and make friends and to start believing in ourselves again and gain back some of our own identity and to find a touchstone.

Reflect, Learn, Connect, Believe in yourself, Visualize, respond with ‘Yes AND’ – from Career in Your Suitcase 4th Edition

Watch this and you WILL be inspired.

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Meghan Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd.  And, she is an award winning expat blogger.