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The safety net

Adventure and exploration are amazing things. They do however sometimes involve accidents, hiccups and things that can be very unpleasant to deal with. Today we’ll give you both some practical tips and some mindset gold on what to do when things might not go your way.

Some practical things to do when you start your move or travels:

  • ALWAYS have travel insurance! Make sure that you know what it covers and what it does not cover (lost or damaged belongings, cancelled flights, certain adventure sports, what regions).
  • If you travel or relocate with someone else – make sure that you both have a copy of your passport, your insurance and contact details to one or two of our key contact people back home. Both paper copies and electronic copies of these (saved via email or dropbox) are definitely good to have in case of emergency.
  • Save the most relevant person as an emergency contact in your mobile phone address book. If something was to happen to you and someone found you and your phone, they know who to call straight away.
  • If you are living overseas without a partner or your family, but instead with friends, colleagues or fellow students it’s good to nominate someone you trust in your house or closest circle of friends as your local contact person. Introduce this person (in real life if possible, otherwise via phone or email) to your parents or other key contacts back home. It’s great for this local person to have ways of contacting your family if something should ever happen to you.
  • Dare to explore, but remember to be street smart! Travellers and expats are super friendly and helpful people, but there will always be exceptions for everything. Stay smart, safe and enjoy your travels!

Emotional check points when things go wrong:

  1. Depending on your situation and what’s gone wrong – ask yourself the two key questions that will keep you on track. ‘What’s the worst that can happen?‘ and ‘Can I afford/handle it?‘. There is a way through everything in this world and ou are not the first person to have encountered this challenge/illness/unfair obstacle.
  2. Remind yourself that you can handle anything that comes your way as long as you choose to believe in your own ability. If you need help to work through something difficult, just ask for help! If you’re afraid to ask people back home because you worry it might upset them or give you a side order of “I told you so” ask someone else to help.
  3. Remember your ‘why’! If you have not already done so, check out our blog post about defining your ‘why’. If things get really tough – check in with your ‘why’ and evaluate this with what’s just happened. If thing have change and the ‘why’ is no longer strong enough, move on. If it’s just a rough patch and your ‘why’ is still strong and valid, stick it out.
  4. Only you can make a call if it’s worth staying or not, but make sure to not stick a bad situation out just based on pride or fear of failure or what other people will say. Sometimes things change and we need to reevaluate. Allow yourself to do so if things come up and you no longer enjoy where you are at.

Have you ever had to make a really tough decision on the move? If so – what is your one key tip to others in a difficult situation?