Have you ever lived in a different country? I mean really lived there, not just visited? Radically changing your environment can do very well in radically changing your conception of yourself. Does the large multinational corporation you work for ever give people in your department a chance to relocate? That might be a great growth opportunity for you.
+1. living in another country helped me expose and get rid of some of the bad habits i've wanted to get rid of, and start doing new thing i've wanted to do as well.
you probably won't know many people, and this removes a lot of the obligations and expectations that are placed on you by the people you've known for a long time back home.
this doesn't seem like such a big deal, but try changing your behavior and see what kind of reactions you get. very often you'll get negative reactions because your changed behavior threatens peoples' own understand of the world and their place in it.
a bit OT but one of the best things i've heard about someone's reaction to something you said or did: "it's not about you, it's about them". and 99.9% of the time, it's true.
+1 here too. Living abroad and especially learning another language changed me, and a positive way. Not exactly practical for everyone, but if more people did this the world would be a more understanding place.
Did it make me procrastinate less? I'll tell you the day after tomorrow =\ (not really).
What did get me out of the procrastination habit though, was the Getting Things Done book, I'm not ashamed to say. I'm not an adherent of everything in that book, but I followed the basic system it outlines until it became second nature.
The system allowed me to clear my plate enough for me to realize that the cause of my procrastination was a sort of paralyzing fear of all the 'stuff' I needed and wanted to do. The amorphous blob of stuff was completely overwhelming. It can be a very scary thing. And that fear gets converted into inaction. But when you have a reliable framework like GTD to break the stuff down into concrete action steps, that fear is evaporates, and you can actually DO.
I'm an armchair psychologist over here, but this was the case for me. YMMV.
Also, to echo the point of the post above, my girlfriend at the time (now wife) also was totally not supportive of the GTD thing...but later became very impressed with the transformation. Just because people aren't supportive of you changing, doesn't mean they don't love you, and that they won't come around. I catch myself behaving this way towards other people all the time.
I'm not convinced living abroad always engenders positive change. I lived in Japan for a year and I don't remember another time in my life when I behaved in a more unhealthy manner.
Meh, actually that's a good point. My first time living abroad was also in Japan, and come to think of it a good many people there were just there to party. For it to be positive you actually have to try and learn the language and engage in the culture. Also, the fact that I lived with a home stay family and made local friends helped (established meaningful relationships with locals).
I wasn't there to party, either. I was mostly hanging out with 50 year old salarymen! Frat boys on spring break in Cancun have got nothing on Japanese middle managers. I'll never understand how the Japanese have achieved the longest average lifespan. I'm a lightweight... if I had gotten wrapped up in the typical asian expat tweaker scene I'd probably already be dead.
Heh, ah memories, I can somewhat relate. I was a student in Japan, but spent a bunch of time hanging out with Taiwanese business men in southern China after that. The first block of time I spent there (relatively short) I couldn't speak mandarin at all, and it was pretty miserable experience. The second block of time I spent there, my mandarin had gotten pretty decent, and so I was able to flip everything into a learning experience...from learning words in Chinese like "static IP address" to how to politely refuse a karaoke prostitute my host habitually tried to force on me, those are some life and language experience I didn't get in the classroom =\
If you're an American living abroad, 6 months is the minimum, and you should really stay at least 9 months. Why? Language is everything.
Seriously - in most places sufficiently different from the US to be interesting, language will be your first and most formidable barrier, on the other side of which lies one of the most satisfying experiences you've ever had. It'll take 6 months after you arrive to cross the language barrier. Your life will rock afterward, so plan at least 3 months (more is better) to enjoy the awesome part.
Example: I noticed I'd crossed the barrier when I managed to land a gig drumming for a Tokyo funk band, and I was the only Gaijin in the bar at our first gig). From then on, life in Japan was awesome. I could call up and organize scuba diving trips in obscure bays on my own, I could pick up Japanese girls using only Japanese (try that!)
living in another country gives you the opportunity to reinvent yourself and exposes you to different ideas. it's up to you whether you embrace those opportunities or not.
nothing engenders positive change. it only happens if you choose to make it happen for yourself.
yes, I have been in the US for the last year and a half, right now in fact I even have about 6 weeks all to myself since my wife is back in India - so it gives me a lot of time to work on stuff if I can get to keep myself focused!Thanks guys lots of amazing amazing advice!
I have lived in US for a year before too, atleast in my company the work culture is much better here where people come in on time and leave on time and focus while working - so I kinda am more productive here than back home and this also gives me more free time
