What happens when all your excuses suddenly disappear and you’re face-to-face with your real dreams?
Sometimes things happen that you don’t immediately recognize as opportunities, like a pandemic such as COVID…
When the world suddenly hits the brakes, you get time to think. No daily traffic jams, no overpacked schedule, no ‘just quickly squeezing something in’. The calm brings space and space brings clarity.
What do you really want in life?
self-reflection COVID
It started with silence
Working from home immediately felt like coming home: no chatter, no distractions, just me and my laptop. I worked faster, more concentrated and had more energy left at the end of the day because no time lost in traffic, no small talk on the way to the printer, no long lunch breaks anymore. As if someone had turned down the volume button of my life a few notches and that turned out to be refreshing. I was happy, simply in my own cocoon. No loneliness, just overview, peace and focus.
remote work lifestyle
Memories of sun, sea and Spanish culture
In the silence you have time for memories. As a child we went to Fuengirola every year, a town in Southern Spain where my parents had an apartment. We stayed there the entire summer vacation: my love for Spanish culture and the southern rhythm was born there. My sister recently reminded me that I already said back then: “Later I’m moving to Spain.” I had forgotten it but the longing clearly remained dormant somewhere.
realise dreams
The foreign bug had been in my blood for a long time
At nineteen I booked my first solo trip, a last-minute to Rhodes, after my then-boyfriend called it of. No desire for self-pity or drama, so off packing my suitcase and leaving. That vacation even got me my first job offer. I politely declined, because ‘being wise’ was still at the top of my list back then. And as with so many, reality took over. Studies, work, career… it rolled as it rolled. But looking back, the urge for adventure was already there.
Not so strange, by the way. My family is quite… internationally scattered.
My mother once stood on the verge of moving to Spain herself, until she met my father and decided to stay in Belgium. But with family in a.o. France, Greece, Brazil and Australia, it’s not surprising that I too dreamed of a life beyond borders. Maybe it’s just in our DNA.
living in Spain
And then comes COVID. And everything lies open.
Suddenly I had time to feel what I really dreamed of. And that was clear: more peace, more sun and more freedom. Less hustle, fewer obligations and less ‘having to’. We started dreaming, talking and planning with concrete steps. And today we live in Spain, not in Fuengirola, but on an island where the sun shines daily and life follows a different rhythm.
As a Virtual Assistant I can work perfectly remotely and the quality of my work has only improved. More focus, more balance, more satisfaction. My workday now starts with focus instead of traffic jams.
working from home as self-employed
No big life lesson, just a good story
Life here is slower, more intense and simpler. And no, I don’t think ‘I should have done this earlier’, because everything that preceded it brought me exactly here.
lockdown life change
What did the pause button do for you?
For me there’s clearly a BEFORE and AFTER COVID.
COVID gave me the space, the time and the push to finally choose my dream life.
Maybe it made you realize something too?
What did that period bring you?
Did you also change something in your life – big or small – that you might never have considered without that silence?
