This week I’m shaking things up a bit. I’ve been feeling a bit burnt and a tad bit uninspired, so to get out of my head, I’m doing something called a “Pattern Disruption”, which is just a fancy way of saying ‘do something that breaks your habitual behavior’ and see where it takes you. SO we went for more podcast-vibes this week and an off-topic topic for career pivot…where do you actually need to live to be happy?!
It started at a brunch last weekend around a table full of women I’d mostly just met, and somehow we ended up deep in the question: if nothing was tying you to a place -- no job, no family obligations, nothing -- where would you live?
I’ve been obsessing over this question for years, spent way too much time looking up my astro-cartography (yes, that’s a thing), and I thought I had the answer. And well…I was wrong. What I landed on instead actually surprised me, and the research behind it kind of blew my mind.
Fold some laundry, run some errands, go for a stroll and take a listen <3
In this episode:
* Why I stopped searching for the perfect location (& what I’m looking for instead)
* The 4 Berlin families who moved to the burbs and came right back
* The neighbor I was low-key furious at for months before I finally said something
* A concept from urban planning that might be the actual key to happiness
* What Japanese toddlers running errands alone can teach us about how we live
I’m curious … if nothing was holding you to where you are right now, where would you go? Drop it (or anything that resonated!) in the comments. I want to hear it.
ALSO! if anyone is down for a pattern interruption challenge, leave a comment! I’ve got something brewing.
Thanks for reading/listening to Where Change Begins! If you enjoyed it… follow along 🏄🏼♀️
about ashley emma
I’m Ashley Simcox: American in Berlin, mom, and a woman who left the traditional career path and found out the hard way that the leap is the easy part. I write ‘Where Change Begins’ for ambitious women in the messy middle: after the exit, before the next chapter, savings doing a countdown they never agreed to. A decade of behavior change work inside global companies taught me that people don’t move because someone handed them a better plan. They move when it feels safe enough to try. So around here we don’t just ‘manifest’, we make moves your nervous system won’t veto. 🌞
ready to go deeper?
🌞 Book a call with me to start building your next work chapter. It’s free (🙃) and in 20 minutes we’ll sketch your next steps, sized to your savings and your sanity.
🌞 Take the quiz: What’s Your Career Reinvention Superpower? 3 minutes to find out why the smartest thing about you is keeping you stuck. Plus one move to start working with it. 💃🏼
Building work that gives more than it takes. Come hang. 🪐
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ashleysimcox.substack.com
