The Times They Are a-Changin'

byMark175

194 followers

Updated 5 years ago

I find that a recent family tragedy has brought other matters into focus, such that I am at a substantial crossroads in my life. Both at the micro, personal level and at the macro, national level I am faced with carrying on with a descent into despair and madness or effecting a meaningful change to reboot my life. The times they are a-changin', I need to change too.

Personal change: the deaths of a loved family member, and of an abusive relationship

Yesterday the funeral service was held for my dear mother. It has been a strange, lonely yet busy couple of weeks since she passed away at-home as she had wished, with just me, her only child, with her.

To compound matters, I decided that my near eight-year relationship with an unreconstructed alcoholic also had to end. This decision was taken after much thought over recent months as more and more evidence accumulated that alcohol would always take precedence over me.

So, it is now less a case of moving on, rather it's time for complete reinvention.

My country has changed for the worse

The United Kingdom (UK) to many visitors is a curiosity. England, with its history and historical pageantry, pervasive class system, and strange, sometimes endearing, sense of polite but condescending entitlement can offer an attractive, quirky destination for visitors to explore. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland offer different histories, cultural perspectives and often searingly beautiful landscapes. Despite its brief flirtation with a Cool Britannia image in the late 1990s into the first decade of this century, the term Fool Britannia better describes the political stasis, increasing xenophobia and general intolerance that have become pervasive, particularly in England, since 2016.

The UK's governmental and parliamentary structures are anachronistic and plagued with petty, old-fashioned conventions as exemplified by its uncodified constitution (a feature shared with only Israel, San Marino, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia) and perversely undemocratic form of law-making in its structure of government:-

• For the lower of its two law-making chambers, it has a first-past-the-post voting system, which ensures that many millions of voters are repeatedly and effectively disenfranchised. Aside from some members of its former imperial colonies (including those in North America), it shares this form of 'democracy' with proud paragons of people power such as the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
• For the upper chamber it has lawmakers, all of whom are either appointed or have an inherited right to their position. None are elected.
• All this is overseen by an unelected constitutional monarch, who is a largely ceremonial head of state.

The above is what has passed for normality in the government of the nation, with argumentative, confrontational politics being thought of as adult and effective.

Graft onto this a flawed, so-called referendum in 2016 bought with (on the winning side) excessive spending using foreign money, the result of which, legally, was only advisory for lawmakers to consider in its interpretation. The narrow, nihilistic result has paralyzed government for nearly three years and we have rightly become a laughingstock internationally. The winning campaign was particularly characterized by outright lies, willful misinterpretation and no realistic vision - 'helped' by a history of dishonesty over many years in large sections of the national media. Even worse, the country's Electoral Commission found the winning side had broken the law but our Prime Minister does nothing about this - she came to power on the result of the criminally flawed vote result so, unsurprisingly, is unwilling to act.

Malign forces of the political right, and to a lesser extent at the moment, of the left have highjacked the country's post-referendum agenda and future. Uncertainty, ignorance and arrogance pervade the system, whilst international relationships are endangered and friends of the country are estranged. The United Kingdom as it is may not exist in ten years: given the way it is currently behaving, maybe it shouldn't.

The country in which I live, I no longer recognize. I wish to distance myself from it.

Portable capabilities & opportunities - a passport to the wider world

So what to do? How do you escape from an environment in which you are at best uncomfortable or, at worst, threatened?

Have money

Having money, preferably lots of it, is the singularly most effective passport for a comfortable life to most places on the planet. You just have to look at the number of Russian, and other, oligarchs with their wealth originating from dubious sources who have large residences in desirable places.

Winning a few tens of millions of the lottery is another option, though somewhat unlikely. For example, the chance of wining a few million € in the Euromillions Lottery (in Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom) is a mere 139,838,160:1.

So unless you have considerable funds available to relocate to the place of your choosing, be comfortable and provide for such contingencies as health care, other more realistic options are probably a better idea.

Retain or develop in-demand skills

If you're fortunate to have, or be developing, skills that are in demand in a destination of your choice, be that elsewhere in your home country or abroad, then you are in a lucky minority. You can relatively easily work in other countries, subject to recertifying your qualifications if necessary (should you, for example, be a medical professional) and having proficiency in the national language(s).

Great, so if you're a skilled plumber, builder, medical professional or other in-demand individual, get your work visa applications ready with a view to obtaining residency and maybe, ultimately, citizenship in your new adoptive homeland.

But is there an alternative?

Be an entrepreneur

Yes, there's an alternative: be an entrepreneur.

Too many are dissuaded by the term 'entrepreneur', thinking of the likes of Jeff Bezos or Larry Page and Sergey Brin with their unattainable $bns amassed since the earlier days of the Internet revolution. Don't be.

There are many online opportunities for generating a sizable income over time - all you need is an interest in a specific area, a 'niche', from which you can leverage an income stream by gaining commissions on the sales of others' products and services. This is the basis of the concept of affiliate marketing.

So, don't be intimidated by the term 'entrepreneur'. It derives from the 13th-century French verb entreprendre, meaning "to undertake" or, more simply, "to do something".

Do that something today by joining one (or more) of several affiliate marketing training programs and learn how you can take the first steps to building up an income over time that can enable you to consider alternatives to where you may be stuck right now.

==> To read more about the program I recommend, Wealthy Affiliates, click here.

Any affiliate program that you join should offer a free membership option that allows you to become acquainted with the concept and, ideally, help you construct a website to put into practice the concepts that you are learning. Wealthy Affiliates does this with help being offered by its community of welcoming members. When you choose to upgrade, a plethora of further resources is available to you to turbocharge development of your affiliate marketing business(es).

Perhaps, instead of Bob Dylan's classic as inspiration for the title of this post, I may have more appropriately chosen the quote by Clare Boothe Luce, which encapsulates the freedom an independent income can give you. At worst:

Money can't buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you're being miserable.

As ever, I welcome feedback. Please leave any comments below about your experiences and I'll get back to you.