Uncertainty is stressful. Marc Miller describes the process of planning, preparing, and waiting to move to Mexico and how uncertainty manifests itself in the process.
Listen in for ideas on preparing for major changes in your life.
Key Takeaways:
[:44] Marc welcomes you to the episode and announces that downloads continue to exceed his expectations. Marc invites you to share this episode with like-minded souls. Please subscribe wherever you listen to this podcast, share it on social media, and tell your neighbors and colleagues.
[1:25] Marc gives an overview of the podcast series. This month, the series is out of the normal order. Two weeks ago, in Episode 64, Marc interviewed Camille Knight, a logical creative who married her love for data and creativity into making beautiful Tableau dashboards for executives. She transitioned in her fifties.
[1:58] Last week, in Episode 65, Marc interviewed Hannah Morgan of Career Sherpa fame. Hannah started in the career space right before the Great Recession. Marc interviewed her about job searching in 2007, in the present day, and about her projections for 2028. It’s a really good episode.
[2:32] The third in the series is a topic of Marc’s choosing. This week it is an episode about uncertainty and FOMO or fear of missing out. This affects Marc and other people about to make a major change. Marc’s major change is his planned move to Mexico.
[2:49] The last episode in the series is the Mailbag episode where he answers your questions with Elizabeth Rabaey.
[2:54] Marc introduces the episode, a discussion of what’s going through his head around his to move to Mexico.
[3:02] Marc was driving to a workshop in Dallas the previous weekend and was listening to the Freakonomics podcast -- “An Egghead’s View of the Superbowl.” On offense the players knows the play. The defense is always on their toes, not knowing what is going to happen.
[3:34] Stephen Dubner, the host, said a lot of social science research tells us that uncertainty is exhausting. We make really poor decisions under uncertainty. Marc has been going through a lot of uncertainty for about the last year-and-a-half, and it is exhausting.
[4:02] Marc retells how he decided to move. Listen to Episode 55 to hear the full story. Around October of 2016, Marc’s health insurance bill went up by 50% and he didn’t know what to do about it. They got on the Healthcare.gov site and found a plan, but things were really uncomfortable. Then came the election of President Trump.
[4:51] Worrying about healthcare insurance created a lot of uncertainty. Marc and his wife decided that they would start exploring leaving the country. Mrs. Miller is just over a year away from Medicare, while Marc is several years away from it. They are both self-employed and they were worried.
[5:14] In 2017, the Millers spent $25,000 on Health Insurance and Healthcare, and they didn’t reach their deductible. In 2018, it is worse. In 2017, they spent a lot of time exploring options for moving and spent some time in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Mrs. Miller had health issues there, but she neglected to follow up with a doctor.
[5:57] Several months later, the Millers went to Cuenca, Ecuador, at 8,000 ft. elevation and Quito, at 9,000 ft. Mrs. Miller crashed. They came home early and she was admitted to the hospital. Her condition is being resolved, but they have uncertainty. Meanwhile, Marc’s business went down 60% in the first half of 2017.
[6:44] Marc attributes the drop in business to uncertainty about the current U.S. president and what the government will do. Marc has a strong dislike for both U.S. major political parties, and the current president. Marc is affected by all the uncertainty.
[7:12] Marc has decided to move forward with what he was going to do. They started making plans, and the next step was to visit Ajijic, Mexico, outside Guadalajara. They made the decision that Ajijic would be the place where they would start their expat life. It may turn out to be their final destination.
[8:02] The Millers will spend a month at Ajijic starting in the middle of March, shopping for doctors, insurance and rental property. They found an Airbnb one-bedroom condo to rent for a month at $800. They will come back and then move down, probably semi-permanently, in June or July.
[8:41] Marc started wondering if he was making the right decision. They started getting rid of things like books. They’ve already down-sized in 2009, from 1,700 square feet house to a 1,000 square foot condo. Now they have to start getting rid of important stuff.
[9:10] First thing to go will be George, a massive, 8-foot-tall, 45-year-old ponytail palm on the third floor balcony. The YMCA will probably take that. Next is Marc’s mother’s furniture and her unburied urn. The next question is what to do with the cats. It is all uncomfortable for the Millers.
[10:50] They want to move in phases, as they did when they moved into the condo. It looks like they will delay renting out their condo. They will go for three months and then come back. Mrs. Miller will retire from her job at that point. Marc worries what he will miss out. If they don’t rent out the condo they will be out the rent money.
[11:30] The Millers are uncertain about what rental properties will be available when they move down to Mexico. The visit in March is to take care of some of the uncertainty by finding a place for June. When they went in October of 2017 they took care of a lot of the uncertainty.
[11:58] Marc has a lot of clients and listeners who have a tremendous amount of uncertainty about change. We don’t know what to do and that makes it very uncomfortable. Marc lists some uncertainties for the Millers. Episode 40 was about walking into an unknown world when Marc left a corporation to teach high school math.
[13:17] All of the process of becoming a high school teacher was incredibly anxiety-provoking. No one wants to tell how you get hired to teach high school.
[13:41] Marc realizes now that all the uncertainty he felt before he started teaching contributed greatly to his anxiety. After two years Marc decided he could no longer teach high school math and he took nine months to figure out what was next. More anxiety. It was one of the few times in Marc’s career he was lost with no idea what to do next.
[14:11] Marc went through a whole variety of behaviors and feelings popped up. Many of you listeners who are trying to figure out what’s next are feeling the same thing.
[14:24] How much of this anxiety, the problems you run into, is caused by uncertainty? Make a list of things you don’t know that you will investigate. Marc bought a book on cats, including how to move them. Learn to manage your uncertainty.
[15:12] Marc’s final thoughts: What are you uncertain about? How can you manage that? How can you ‘not make stuff up’?
[16:06] The Career Pivot community website is in production. This is the only online community anywhere in the world focused on job seekers in the second half of life. Marc is now soliciting people for the third cohort. Join the waiting list at the link.
[17:17] Check back next week when Marc will answer listener questions.
Mentioned in This Episode:
Please pick up a copy of Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life, by Marc Miller and Susan Lahey. The paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats are available now. When you have completed reading the book, Marc would very much appreciate your leaving an honest review on Amazon.com. The audio version of the book is now available on iTunes, Audible, and Amazon.
Marc has the paid membership community running on the CareerPivot.com website. The website is alive and in production. Marc is contacting people on the waitlist. Sign up for the waitlist at CareerPivot.com/Community. Marc has two initial cohorts of 10 members in the second half of life and they are guiding him on what to build. He is looking for individuals for the third cohort who are motivated to take action and give Marc input on what he should produce next. He’s currently working on LinkedIn and blogging training. Marc is bringing someone in to guide members on how to write a book. The next topic will be business formation and there will be lots of other things.. Groups will be brought in 10 at a time. This is a paid membership community where Marc will offer group coaching, special content, and a community where you can seek help.
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