You may think at first this post has little to do with a move to the Philippines. But read it through, with a thoughtful mind, and perhaps you may just see a connection for yourself. Or not. As we say on the ‘Net, YMMV.
Is He Making it Harder Than it Has To Be?
One of my admittedly obscure heroes was a fellow who designed airplanes, and somewhat wacky flying cars and a great many other unique inventions. In his drafting room, he had a sign which said “SIMPLICATE AND ADD MORE LIGHTNESS.” His name was William Bushnell Stout. (You can read a lot more about Stout here if you’d care to, he really was a unique and innovative inventor in the truest sense of the word.)
“Simplicate and Add More Lightness”. In other words, perhaps you are …
Move to the Philippines — Looking For An Excuse
… really just hanging out here trying to find the “showstopper” reason that will turn off the idea of changing your life for the better, the way I did and the way thousands of other expats have done.
Well let me put your mind at ease over one issue. If you want a reason NOT to Move to the Philippines, stop looking. There are thousands of good reasons to stay right where you are … just pick one, any one, and spend your time in some other endeavor. No need to agonize over the make the move to the Philippines/don’t make the move to the Philippines conundrum.
Move to the Philippines — The Right Excuse
Here’s some cogent thoughts on “pre-finding” excuses for failure from my blogging colleague (and another crazy-mad inventor of things digital and unique, Seth Godin
Looking for the right excuse
by Seth Godin
This is the first warning sign that a project is in trouble. Sometimes it even begins before the project does.
Quietly, our subconscious starts looking around for an excuse, deniability and someone to blame. It gives us confidence and peace of mind. [It's much easier to be calm when the police car appears in your rear view mirror if you have an excuse handy.]
Amazingly, we often look for the excuse before we even accept the project. We say to ourselves, “well, I can start this, and if it doesn’t work perfectly, I can point out it was the …” …
Here’s an alternative to the excuse-driven life: What happens if you relentlessly avoid looking for excuses at all?
Instead of seeking excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses. If you relentlessly work to avoid opportunities to use your ability to blame, you may never actually need to blame anyone. If you’re not pulled over by the cop, no need to blame the speedometer, right? (Thanks, Seth)
Move to the Philippines — Just Stop Making It So Damn Hard!
That’s about the most important piece of advice I can give anyone regarding moving to the Philippines. Stop Making It So Damn Hard.
I continually get people, often very worried, agonizing over things like simple cost of living prices, when, as I have seen numerous times, the folks with the “burning questions” aren’t even thinking of moving for several years.
Do you know, in the pace where you live now, what, for example, gasoline will cost in two year’s time? Or your electric bill? Or your property tax and so on?
If you do, then you are a doggone good prognosticator, that’s for sure … because I surely don’t know what things are going to cost in the Philippines or in Punkin Corners in two year’s time.
Or here’s a huge, “evergreen” question. What visa to use? Goodness gracious I have written probably a dozen articles on this relatively very simple question, yet it’s never enough, it seems. Know what? It really doesn’t matter that much.
Shocking, I know, but you can get your 13
in the US before you come, or you can get it here in the Philippines after you come, or you can com eon a tourist visa and live here, literally for years and years, or you can get an SRRV, or you can take as P999 Peso trip out of country every year (trust me, you wife deserves the break from housework) and live here, totally free of visa charges, annual reporting/head tax, etc. on a Balikbayan privilege stamp.
Or you can hire a lawyer who specializes in Quota Visas and pay for one of those if you can meet the requirements. There is always a way.
It just isn’t all that complicated, folks.
And for the plan, plan and then plan some more ahead crowd, consider this:
In 2 year’s time or ten years time on whenever … thing will change. Not “things may change”, but things “will” change, trust me on that … so stop worrying so much now. One method will work pretty much as good as another … it’s not worth making things so darn hard. IMO, anyway.
Here’s a couple thoughts you might want to keep in mind to make this whole Move to the Philippines project a little less stressful and worrisome, and above all SIMPLER:
Most people spent their whole lives waiting for an opportunity that was good enough, and then they died. While seizing opportunities would mean that all sorts of things went wrong, it wasn’t nearly as bad as being a hopeless lump. From Harry Potter, I am told, courtesy of my friend Aviatrix’s blog (who has nothing whatever to do with moving to the Philippines), but has a way of making good sense about life.
And here’s something I like which really points up how we, as Americans, seem to have become obsessed with so many unimportant issues that if makes me wonder if it is still my country any more. I watch shows like “Real Housewives of New jersey” and I get the feeling that there are fictional movies that are more true to life than those supposedly real, self-important plastic people? No wonder I often fail to mention I hail from New jersey as well … like hiding a dirty family secret … but my New Jersey, back then, certainly wasn’t the self-indulgent bubble they live in, for sure.
I believe the mini-bubbles above are different ripples in what might call the surface of a superbubble: an opulence bubble. Here’s what I mean by opulence bubble: our conception of the good life, as I’ve discussed with you, has been centered on what I call hedonistic opulence — having more, bigger, faster, cheaper, now.
But we might be finding out, the hard way, that the pursuit of lowest-common-denominator industrial age stuff might have been steeply overvalued, in terms of its social, human, and financial value. The Opulence Bubble by Umair Haque. Hat tip: Tim Bray and Paul Kedrosky.
So what are you doing to Simplicate and add more lightness to your move to the Philippines?
