The Big Decision, Moving to Mexico City & Trusting Myself
- Patricia Abarte
- Mar 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 14
Episode 100 feels very special to me. When I started this podcast, I never imagined I would record 100 episodes, and I definitely didn’t imagine that one day I would be interviewed on my own podcast about my life and my decisions.
In this episode, Coco interviewed me about a big decision I recently made: I’m leaving The Hague and moving to Mexico City.
Listen to the episode here:
Timestamps:
00:48 – Welcome & Coco's role as guest host
01:32 – Why episode 100 matters
05:24 – Amanda announces the Mexico City move
06:47 – Feeling at peace with a big life decision
07:58 – The Hague as a "prison" — when comfort isn't enough
10:19 – The moment everything changed: committing to leave
15:37 – Moving abroad is never the answer
23:03 – How to actually get comfortable with uncertainty
28:24 – Self-knowledge as the non-negotiable for expat life
39:07 – What 100 episodes gave Amanda personally
Feeling Stuck Even When Life Looks Good
For a long time, I felt stuck in The Hague. Not because life was bad. Actually, on paper, everything was good. I had a nice apartment, friends, my routines, my favorite places. But internally, something didn’t feel right anymore.
I think many expats recognize this feeling. Your life looks good from the outside, but inside you feel like something needs to change. The problem is that for expats, one decision is never just one decision.
If you change jobs, you might change countries. If you change countries, you change your lifestyle. If you change your lifestyle, you change your future plans.
So every decision suddenly feels huge, and that’s why many people stay stuck for a long time.
I Made a Decision Before I Had a Plan
At some point, I realized I was going in circles. I was thinking and thinking and thinking, but nothing changed. So I decided to do something different. I decided to leave before I knew exactly where I was going.
That was a scary decision, but it also created movement. And movement creates clarity. Once I made the decision and started taking action, things started to fall into place much faster than when I was just overthinking everything.
This is something I see with many expats: we wait for clarity before we move, but often clarity only comes after we start moving.
Fear vs Intuition
We also talked in this episode about the difference between fear and intuition, because many people confuse the two.
Fear is usually loud and urgent and focused on everything that could go wrong. Intuition is usually calm, quiet, and persistent.
Learning to recognize that difference has helped me a lot in making big decisions.
Every Decision Has a Trade-Off
One of the most important things I’ve learned is that every decision has a trade-off. There is no perfect decision where you gain everything and lose nothing.
If I move to Mexico City, I leave my life in The Hague behind. If I stay in The Hague, I leave another version of my life behind.
There is always a trade-off, so the question is not “What is the perfect decision?” but “Which trade-off am I willing to accept?”
Trusting Yourself
Living abroad has taught me many things, but maybe the most important one is self-trust. When you move abroad, you rebuild your life again and again. You learn that you can handle change, uncertainty, new environments, and new people.
And once you really trust that you will figure things out, big decisions become less scary. Not easy, but less scary.
This episode is really about trusting yourself, making brave decisions, and building a life that actually fits you — even if it looks different from what you originally planned.
This is what I dive into in episode #100 of This Expat Life.
Listen here:
If any of these notes resonated with you, and you would like to explore more of yourself, my programs are the right containers for you to accelerate your growth or your next chapter:
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