What Would You Do?
What Would You Do?
What’s that saying? The best-laid plans of mice and men…
My husband and I spent the last 12 months planning an early retirement for him (and semi-retirement for me) which included a move to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Yep, you read that right. The goal was to sell our house, car, and majority of possessions, pack a few suitcases with the bare essentials and fly off to Mexico where we would rent a house for at least 6 months.
Please note that our children aren’t married – so no grand kids yet, and two out of three live out of state. Plus, most of my client work is done via video conference, so it seemed like the perfect time to begin a new adventure.
We researched everything we felt was important: cost of living, safety, health care, social activities, climate, internet access, and transportation. We read tons of blogs, watched hundreds of YouTube videos, reached out to people we knew who live there, discussed it with our financial planner and estate attorney, and dreamed about what it would look like every chance we got.
When we finally visited last October, we fell instantly in love with the city. The “brochure” hadn’t exaggerated. It was magical. The people were amazing, the restaurants world-class, climate perfect, and expenses reasonable. We walked miles every day exploring every inch of the city. There was just one problem – I got sick. I got sick as in four days of nausea and fatigue. I blamed it on the altitude (7,500 feet above sea level) because I couldn’t imagine any of the restaurants we visited would serve tainted food. Plus, all the Americans we knew who lived there never got sick.
We headed back to Michigan at the end of the week and, despite feeling miserable, I never lost any fondness for the city or enthusiasm for moving. Even better, we had another 2-week trip planned in March and I would do everything I could to avoid the altitude sickness.
We arrived in San Miguel on March 17th and thoroughly enjoyed the first few days until it hit me again. All the same stomach issues I had last time, but this time it passed quickly. I was relieved and we went on to enjoy ourselves. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end here – day 10 of the trip I felt the same gripping nausea and fatigue. It just didn’t make sense. The dozens of Canadians we met never get sick. Our American friends never get sick. I didn’t eat or drink anything strange or try a “risky” restaurant. How in the world could this keep happening to me?
I finally decided the only person who could answer that question was a doctor. So, friends arranged for me to see Dr. Ricardo Gordillo, who had an immaculate, modern office and spoke perfect English. As I described my illnesses he listened thoughtfully. “I’m guessing it’s something to do with the altitude,” I suggested. But my perfect blood pressure and heart rate ruled that out immediately.
He then explained what I didn’t want to hear; it was food poisoning from food-born bacteria. And, unfortunately, my physical makeup was much more susceptible to it. Someone else (my husband) could eat the exact same food and not get sick, but I would. Worse yet – there is very little you can do to avoid or improve it. It was awful news and just like that, nearly 12 months of planning was down the drain and our Mexican adventure gone.
How would you react if this happened to you? Would you give up? Get angry? Never plan for the future, again? I could have felt defeated and depressed for weeks and it probably would have been justified. But fortunately, I took another route. The day after I got back, I was right back to the drawing board with my husband figuring out our next step. If Mexico wouldn’t work, something else would.
We all face disappointments in life. This certainly isn’t my first and it won’t be my last. But I learned long ago that success isn’t about having a perfect plan, it’s how you adapt when things don’t go right. It clearly didn’t matter that 99% of San Miguel made sense for us, it was the 1% that I didn’t anticipate that changed everything. And being mentally ready for that 1% is what will allow you to keep dreaming and try, try again.
So, I hope the next time you run into a roadblock or set back like I did, you’ll remember to regroup, adapt and move forward. That’s what success looks like.
P.S. If you want to know more about San Miguel, check out these sites:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-reasons-why-people-fal_n_3721022
https://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/san-miguel-de-allende-best-city-in-the-world
