Say Yes First, Then Prepare
Picture a man named Felix, fifty-six, who has never hiked farther than a city park. A friend invites him to walk the last three days of a long trail in the mountains abroad, and before Felix can think of a reason, he says yes.
He says yes before he understands what he has agreed to. That is how many good things begin. A yes that comes before the questions can open a door the questions might have kept shut.
The questions come right after. The next morning Felix calls the guide and asks what could go wrong. The guide gives him a list: weather that turns within an hour, a steep descent on the second day, blisters. Felix writes it down. For eight weeks he walks the hills near his home with a loaded pack, and he buys boots a size up and breaks them in.
On day two, the descent is as steep as the guide said. Halfway down, Felix wants to turn back. The guide slows the group, shows him where to put his feet, and tells him the next twenty minutes are the hardest. He finishes.
At the bottom, Felix learns something that has little to do with the mountain. For decades he had assumed that certain things were not for him, and he had never tested it. The yes was easy, he says later. The preparation was the real work.
You might say a yes without understanding is reckless. It can be. Felix’s yes worked out because of what he did next. He asked what could go wrong, he trained, and he went with someone who knew the trail. A yes that comes first and a plan that follows can work together.
A move abroad can begin the same way. You could say yes to a month somewhere before you understand the country. Then you could ask what could go wrong, learn the rules, and go with someone who knows the place: a local friend, a guide, a lawyer, a neighbor who has lived there for ten years.
A first yes costs little. The plan that follows is where the work is.
You could keep a list of the invitations you have turned down because you did not understand them yet. You could pick one, say yes, and spend the next week learning what you agreed to.
Our calculator can answer one of the questions to ask after the yes: what would a year there cost?
What is the last thing you said yes to before you understood it, and how did it go? Tell us in the comments. Someone reading may be holding an invitation right now.
Tell us in the comments