Comments on: Is Our Physical Location In The World Beneficial Or Detrimental To Our Personal Growth?

By: Todd McPhail

Todd McPhail — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 02:32:35 +0000

You physical location most certainly influences you life as much as any other factor can. Whether it’s a benefit or detriment will vary from location to location. Every community has a culture. Every culture is influenced by religion, tradition, finances, education, etc. Many communities even have subcultures which alter the spheres of influence in a community.

All of these influence the mindset, emotions and feelings of entire groups of people. I live in an area where the culture is 15 years behind the rest of the country. Every time I travel, I come home full of energy and ideas. A few weeks of the same old “ho hum” energy sapping culture push my energy and ideas back into the corner of “Things I’ll get to some day”.

The most important thing you can ever answer concerning your financial future, where can I be the most successful? Which business model? Products? Education? Economy? Standard of Living?

My business partners father-in-law made multiplied millions investing his business cashflow into commercial real estate at the right time during the 80′s and 90′s. He tells us now, he’d never do that in where we live in this economy. So what worked once, might not work again as situations evolve. If you never try anything different, you’ll never get anything different!

By: Josh Lance

Josh Lance — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:24:27 +0000

I grew up in the Northeastern part of the US, mainly central NJ, where it has 4 distinct seasons, average amount of rain and humidity. In 2006, I moved to Santa Fe, NM to pursue my art career. I like the dry air, the amazing scenery. To my surprise, it snows here as much as NJ sometimes more (except this season, Philly area received record amount of snow, ha ha!). Santa Fe’s 7000 feet up so if it was only 2000, it would be more like Phoenix, and probably a lot more people would move here too. That’s why it’s a high desert, it’s not hot all year round. But I would love warm weather in the winter, and there’s very few places with weather ideal all year round (hence San Diego, and I’ve thought about it). But for now, I’m sticking here and see how things go. My personal growth has increased big time, but I’ll tell you, I’m a water person and do miss the ocean sometimes.

By: Eric Hamm

Eric Hamm — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:04:07 +0000

Thanks Nancy for the great advice/thoughts.

We have a 9 month old, but he’s not old enough for a move to matter right now other than not being able to see ‘grandma’ on a regular basis, which, by the way, is pretty important.

For now, Liz and I are staying put, but who knows what we’ll decide to do when we’re ready to upgrade to a larger house, which should be soon. Eric

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:19:08 +0000

Hi, Eric.

Good discussion.

My thoughts are

- being near your family and friends, if you love them and they give meaning to your life, is no small thing. I am 3000 miles from my family of origin and have been for almost 20 years.

- The cold rain … I used to live in Vancouver and Victoria, Canada, and found that when we got out into the rain (usually not on a bike, walking with umbrellas) it was far less depressing than being inside feeling blue. Those cities are very green and leafy, and even more so on most rainy days. Charlottesville might be the same?

- it sounds like you might not have kids … if you’re planning to have children, I would suggest that you might consider a move prior to having them … knowing that you can go home to your family and friends if you decide to, later. Family members are a great help when you have a newborn, especially.

- I am in a small town of about 25,000 people in Canada. I am from a city in the US that has 6 million. (Long story … but this is where my husband is from, and we came back here so he could start a business in his field. It’s been generally good for us, business-wise, for us to be here. But it’s never felt like home to me.) We’ve been here for 13 years.

I’ve learned, to my great surprise, that this city girl doesn’t need to live IN a city. Learning about how a small town works has been fascinating. I have met some of the best people I’ve ever met in my life here. This little town spoiled us something rotten when we had our daughter. But I would pack up and leave right now if we made the decision to do so – just because it doesn’t feel like home and I don’t see myself here forever.

Just some thoughts.

Lastly, as a good friend said to me, “There are no wrong paths, there is only the path you choose.”

Good luck!

By: Vilde

Vilde — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:08:28 +0000

What a wonderful discussion!
I live at 60 degrees, with a 3 month summer, 1 month spring and 2 month fall. Our winters can be pretty rough – not so much cold as really, really dark and icy, although we do not have the true dark season that people in the north suffer (that is further north than here, usually meant to be about 70 degrees). We do not have proper vegetables in the winter and you will not believe the volume of clothes we wear. I’m still postponing starting my indoor kitchen garden as I’m not sure it will be possible to plant the saplings out in may. It is really difficult for me to understand how anybody will want to stay indoors if there is some sort of daylight and the temperatures are above freezing – frequently our summers don’t get any better than that. I really love the cold, this area was first populated about 7000 years ago, and I carry some of those genes. I’m truly adapted to this climate, as are my kids and our dog. We travel as much as our wages will allow and get really hot and uncomfortable and extremely afraid of large bugs. I cannot understand how anybody would voluntarily live in places like India, Egypt or Mexico, and this no doubt proves the point that people are different.

By: Lisa B

Lisa B — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:56:22 +0000

New to your blog and late to this conversation, but find it a great post. Funny thing is that since I was 9 years old, I have wanted to live on Walton’s Mountain. Charlottesville is one of my favorite places in this country and it will always be a great place to go home to if you decide to move.

I grew up in a small town in NW Ohio of less than 1500 people, attended college in Tampa where I knew NO ONE, got married and moved to Los Angeles for 3 years, got pregnant and moved to Phoenix for 7 years, got promoted and moved back to the midwest in Central Illinois. After 9/11, my husband got a job in NYC and we lived there a year and then back to Illinois when my company decided that a telecommuting IT manager was not acceptable. I still have a dream of living in the Pacific NW and Switzerland. I hate where I live now for lots of reasons but mainly because the people I live around have never lived outside their small communities and their attitudes reflect that.

I can’t say that I have lived anywhere that I absolutely loved. I wonder if it’s because I wasn’t happy doing what I was doing. With an internet-based business, I say, pick up and go. The growth you experience from being in a place where you don’t know a soul is..well, priceless. And you can always go home.

Let me know if you need a housesitter.

By: David Latto

David Latto — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:59:40 +0000

wow reading that back it seems awful negative hehe. It really is a lovely country though but I would consider leaving for Canada just need to rack up those immigration points!

Dave

By: David Latto

David Latto — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:52:16 +0000

Hi All, I definitely think that where you live has an impact on your wellbeing. Im from Scotland myself and the weather here is often miserable. It rains about 200 days a year and it never gets consistently warm in summer but in winter it gets quite cold. Its quite relentless and can definitely dampen your spirits and wear you down. We’re also too far north to recieve adequate vitamin D uptake from the sun in Winter and so Seasonal Affective Disorder is commonplace. After spending the summer this year in Canada and visiting Spain and other Southern European countries often the pace of life and sense of community is stronger than it is back home. People here are often insular, youre either at home or at the pub- I put this in part down to the weather.

By: Eric Hamm

Eric Hamm — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:59:27 +0000

Hey Sandy, that’s a great rule of thumb! I was just saying to my wife, Liz, in the car today that I’d never let a JOB dictate our happiness. I know that can be easier said than done, but I really just don’t understand why people are willing to be SO controlled by their work. Like you said, I’d rather figure out how to live off less than be forced into an unhappy situation because of my work.

Thanks for adding your excellent insight (you really have lived many places here in the US) and adding to the discussion. Eric

By: Sandy Mitchell

Sandy Mitchell — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:20:01 +0000

An interesting topic, and one I’ve thought a lot about. I grew up in Detroit, MI, and spent my first 27 years there… when I finally left Detroit to live in East Lansing, it was like moving to another planet, in terms of the freedom I felt in getting away from Detroit (at the time I left it had been rated ‘Murder Capitol of the World’ for many years – and I’m sure they’re still pretty high in the standings!). I thought: “What the hell took me so long?” You couldn’t make me live in Detroit again for any amount of money.

Since then I’ve lived in many locations in the U.S. – New Orleans, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Palm Springs, New Haven, Kentucky, to name a few. And I’ve learned made a point of ONLY living in places I really, really wanted to live in. That’s the only rule that’s worked for me.

I never could understand people moving anywhere just for a job; the one time I did that, it taught me that I’d rather make less money while living in a location that I really loved, than vice versa…

A harder lesson was that it also didn’t work for me to move just to be with someone I was smitten with – I had to do it three times before I swore off that bad habit!

I’ve ended up in a place where I can hike on a mountain every single day, and not have to fight traffic to get there… unlike Seattle, where I moved in the late 80′s for it’s easy access to the outdoors, but found that getting out for hikes, and coming back in meant contending with horrendous traffic both ways.

Not to mention having that same problem every bleeding day of the week!

I’ve found my little spot of heaven – I ain’t leaving again, not for love or money!