What will you do differently? In these first few days of 2025, we have time to change.
As 2024 ended and 2025 began, we witnessed presidential deaths and the killing of people in New Orleans. If we can breathe, we must maximize and appreciate every experience in life. One day, it will end.
Regardless of who sits in the White House, we are not powerless. The next president will advance an oppressive agenda, but there are aspects of our lives we must fight to maintain. Every day, we can improve ourselves and strengthen our families and communities.
Many people will create resolutions and start January excited to achieve various goals. By March, the reality of the discipline and support required forces some to reconsider their ambitions. They fall off the New Year train's cabooses of optimism and determination.
I understand your struggle.
In 2016, my family of five compressed our lives in the United States into ten suitcases and moved to Mexico. We left family, friends, and many possessions behind to pursue goals of more mindful time together and entrepreneurial income. Multiple CNBC articles, an HGTV episode, and years of blog posts and YouTube vlogs captured our experiences.
We experienced success. Through our passion for writing, we wrote and sold books. My wife started a copywriting business.
There were also failures. While I traveled for speaking engagements, created courses, and offered coaching services, the income could not meet our family's long-term needs. After two years in Mexico, we moved to Antigua and Barbuda.
The American University of Antigua College of Medicine in the Education Enhancement Department hired me as an assistant professor. I taught courses, advised students, led mentoring initiatives, volunteered in the community, and served on faculty committees. After six years of making meaningful contributions to the campus and earning a promotion to associate professor, our island life ended.
Multiple factors influenced the need to leave the university. Changes in the administrative leadership team's priorities, low student enrollment, and faculty downsizing pushed me to the campus's shoreline. An employment opportunity with the Umoja Community Education Foundation provided impetus to uproot our lives again.
Before leaving Antigua, we invited friends to the house to help us pack. They hugged us, bought and took some items with them. It was surreal to say goodbye to the people who became family during our time in the Caribbean islands.
I hope our paths will cross again.
Feelings of regret surged through my mind, body, and spirit as we boarded the plane. We left the US with intentions to accomplish our familial and financial goals. For a while, we were successful, but it didn't last the way we had envisioned.
We had hoped to stay abroad for another 7 years or until our youngest went to college. Lisa Nichols says, "Plan A is your plan. Plan B is God's plan." As I stared at my small kitchen in the US while trying to warm my hands and type these words, Lisa's message made sense.
When conceiving life-changing goals, anticipate challenges. Implementing comprehensive responses for every outcome is impossible. Regardless of life's unpredictability, we can pursue tasks with unbreakable will.
Problems can act as caution signs, causing us to slow down before proceeding or red lights forcing us to stop.
In this first week of tragedies and anticipated catastrophes under a repeat administration, beginning in January, I received confirmation.
Returning to the States is a faith test. For eight years abroad, I learned, developed skills, and studied for this exam. I am prepared to pass this phase of life with honors and distinction.
On New Year's day, I received a notice of my latest publication. It served as one more sign of things to come.
If you want help to get the answers to your life, subscribe to this blog or explore my coaching services. I can help you identify the clues to pass life's tests.
Watch the vlog episode below to see footage of my family's departure from Antigua and arrival in the US. Providing motivation and education for families interested in living abroad was the primary goal of the YouTube channel. Now that we're stateside, the video will be the last upload until life moves us again.
The faces tell a lot from your photo. The kids look less than happy, but they are pretty resilient. And the parents' big smiles spell success in the making. It was a change for me to be back on US soil, but I am glad I did make the move. So many opportunities seem to be right around the corner. Peace and blessings to you and your family, dear Dr. Lindsay. You and your wife have great potential here.