I am aware that my insights about this topic will not win unanimous consent, and I am perfectly okay with that. I prefer to pay the price of losing one hundred readers in order to help one single immigrant to shift into an inspired, victorious mode, rather than have a thousand immigrants just skim through my articles with as much attention (and as much life-changing results) as a fish in an aquarium!
I share my ideas because I am motivated by the extreme transformation that the act of immigrating had on me, along with years of devouring self-improvement material and overcoming psychological effects of immigration, of living the life of an immigrant entrepreneur, and of just being madly in love with observing, studying and helping other immigrants. This last aspect just seemed to happen to me on its own, it was not planned; I have not been formally trained for it, but I was literally drawn to it! My goal is not to teach you anything; my intention here is to provoke your own thinking so that you become aware that YOU are in charge of your immigration experience and not the other way around!
Desperation, Passiveness or Inspiration are the three generic states that newcomers can find themselves in.
Desperation is a negative feeling that pairs up with a state of fear, panic, need and dependency, and that can easily slide into the dangerous attitude of either entitlement (“I deserve to be taken care of”) or of complete abandonment and defeat. The desperate immigrant is a liability to both himself and the recipient country.
Passiveness is a neutral feeling because it does not carry any negative energy with it, but it´s not very positive either; it is usually seen in newcomers that are just exploring, looking to find something different but which they don’t know how to describe; there are no dreams attached to the move, nor any major discomfort.
Inspiration is a positive feeling that pairs up with a state of growth, creativity and independence, and can easily be passed on to other human beings. The inspired immigrant is an asset, with an infinitely growing value for himself and for the recipient country.
I personally think that inspiration is conceptually the extreme opposite of desperation, although this differs from the definitions given in most dictionaries.
I have noticed that the emotional state of an immigrant once he or she arrives in their new home country is not always related to the degree of personal negativity, ugliness, poverty, violence and insanity that he left behind in his native country.
We might instinctively deduce that, as an immigrant, if you come from a desperate reality, you will arrive in your new country in a desperate mode, and vice versa; if you come from a positive and comfortable environment, you will be more inclined to be inspired toward abundance, growth and new possibilities. But is this deduction true? Not necessarily.
I have met inspired immigrants coming from tragic situations where leaving their native country was the only alternative to being killed, or others that suddenly lost their wealth at the hand of a tyrannical government! They were people that had every reason for being “desperate”, but arrived in their new country inspired to start all over again, ready to create a new reality for themselves and become a source of inspiration to others.
On the contrary, I have met newcomers that came from realities that were not so terrifying, comfortably armed with monetary resources, with a job position waiting for them and a family in the new country to support them, and who have still managed to be in a state of passiveness, or even worse, desperation!
Why as immigrants do we arrive with these different emotional states? If it is not the situation that we leave back home which dictates our feelings, then what does?
It is our perception of what we are doing!
- If we perceive immigrating as a sacrifice, an unfortunate circumstance, a punishment or the “loser” way out of our problem, then desperation will govern our thoughts and actions, and consequently, our results!
- If we perceive immigration as a trial period to see if we can get more than what we had back home, with an internal dialog that might sound like this: “If it is good, I’ll stay for a bit; otherwise, I’ll go straight back home…”, then passiveness will probably be our emotional state.
- If we perceive immigrating as the chance to create limitless opportunities because we can reinvent ourselves, free of the old unwanted beliefs we left back home, we will certainly be inspired and harvest the fruits of our experience accordingly!
In conclusion, ask yourself how you feel right now, at this exact moment:
- If you are desperate, in panic mode and fearful that your move to immigrate was not worth it, that it was a mistake because your kids are not happy in the new school, your spouse blames you for his/her unhappiness, the money is not enough, you feel lonely… please just stop! You have arrived as a desperate immigrant, but that is just a mindset, an affirmation, a perception which you can change; it is just the way you see things, and not the way it has to be. The way you feel is just your self-image talking to you, it is just your temporary opinion about yourself… Please believe me: because of this attitude, no one more than you needs to experience the power of immigrating; stop limiting your identity to what has happened in your life so far! Your circumstances are not You! They are your creations, based on beliefs implanted from birth in your old environment [native country] … Learn to see the opportunity in front of you. You are in a new country now, it is much easier to trade your old beliefs for new ones that will automatically change your life. This simple but often ignored concept can make the desperate newcomer a very inspired one.
- If you are a passive, calculating person, always hunting for what you can get for the least effort, for an easy way out, always trying to take advantage of situations, please understand that you are not a bad person nor a bad newcomer, you are just in a deep state of unconscious behaviour. Your habits are running your life, and it has probably been like this since you were a kid; most likely, immigrating to a new country will not change the way you act. A desperate immigrant has more chance of turning things around than a passive Despite this, if you are tired of your circumstances and you want to change them, the power of immigrating is the greatest tool you can find… use it to grow!
- If you are inspired, excited, ready to make a difference… Congratulations!! You have most likely grasped the hidden power of immigrating, either intentionally or intuitively. You have probably detached your personal identity from what happened in your earlier life, and have realized that who you are is far greater than your circumstances and that moving to a new environment will facilitate the discovery of your limitless You! If you allow it to.
Stay tuned,
Yours truly, Frank.