By: Maurine Anderson
It’s nice to feel settled and comfortable in one place; but sometimes when you stay in one place for too long, you run the risk of missing out on important opportunities in life. Is your comfort zone keeping you from branching out, or is your current home truly where you’re meant to be? Answering this question becomes even harder if a family is involved. In case you’re having trouble deciding whether or not to move in the near future, here is a look at several good reasons that it might be time for you to move.
Friends and family members are moving away.
Take a look around you, particularly at your social circles where you live. Do you enjoy a strongly rooted social circle where you live, or is it in more of a flux, with many of your friends and family members moving away from your area? Sometimes we stick around somewhere because we have many friends or family members there; but once these friends and family members move away, it can take a while to notice that we don’t really have much reason to stay where we are. This isn’t to say that you should move just for the sake of moving if your friends are doing it. But it does mean that you should stop and ask yourself why you live where you do if many of your loved ones are moving away from you.
The area where you live is changing.
Think about what the area where you live was like when you first moved there and then ask yourself, “How have things in this area changed since I first got here?” This article, for example, lists five states that are seeing the highest migration rates in the country. Maybe the region where you live was once quiet and peaceful, and now it’s starting to see more and more traffic on freeways due to high migration rates. Take a look at how the environment around you is changing and ask yourself if it’s somewhere you’ll still want to be a few years down the road.
Better opportunities await elsewhere.
Of course, one of the biggest reasons that people choose to relocate is a new life opportunity. A new job or a great grad school program can be a great reason to pick up and move to a new city. If you feel that you’re maxing out on the opportunities that are available to you where you currently live, consider casting a wider net. Maybe your dream job is just a state over, or maybe you have a really good chance of getting into your dream grad program at a school in another state.
You’re surrounded by unhappy memories.
If you’ve recently battled through something difficult where you live, such as a death in the family or divorce, sometimes a change in scenery can’t come soon enough. If you’ve recently endured a major life struggle, ask yourself, “Do I need to start fresh somewhere new?”
Your home renovation list just keeps growing.
Is your home one that you truly love, or are you constantly adding to the list of things to do to make it your dream home? Home remodels can be a major ordeal as this article points out, and therefore they aren’t always worth the trouble that they entail. If the list of projects you want your home to undergo keeps growing and growing, then maybe it’s time to consider instead selling your home and moving into a new home that you already love.
You want to shake off old habits.
You need a change of scenery.
Sometimes we simply need a change of scenery in order to remain excited about life. Moving to a new place can be invigorating and introduce us to a variety of opportunities we couldn’t have dreamed of otherwise.