A major part of the success in deciding to downshift/relocate is tied up with the kind of person you are. You’ll meet problems and challenges in your new life. There’s no getting away from the fact that personality has a great deal to do with the way you’ll react to them. What are your priorities for your new life? Do you know what you want in terms of location and future employment (or ways of making enough to live on)? How close do you want to be to friends, facilities, entertainment or towns? What exactly are your options? This is what we are now ready to consider in detail.

Action plan 2.1

Some of these reasons are more important than others. It is up to you to judge for yourself. You should be aware of both the positive and negative aspects above which may be real issues for you. Check them through and write the totals of those which you consider to be significant below.

Make a note of any other positive reasons you have for relocating. Are there any more reasons you have for the move that you might consider to be negative? On balance, then, are there more positive than negative reasons? Or is it the other way round?

Assuming that you are still thinking positively about your decision to relocate, let’s now look at the sort of personality you have. Are you suited for this adventure?

Action Plan (2.3)

List six of your main priorities and try to put them in order of importance to you.

Why do you want to downshift?

The reasons for your decision are important. But just as importantly, you should be considering whether they are valid reasons.

Some of your reasons might be negative.

• Tired of your present job. Not really a sufficient reason in itself. What is it about the present job that bores you? The people? The office or work environment? The actual work? You could consider moving to a new job without moving house.
• Working long hours. Again not a sufficient reason in itself. Can you cut down on the hours or should you just be looking for a different job?
• Fed up with the commuting. This is a difficult one. So many people have to live at a distance from their place of work. Your move to the country may mean that initially anyway you are still commuting – perhaps from a greater distance but less often. You might consider working from home part of the week or commuting to a smaller town/city involving an easier journey.
• Jaded with city life. Are you sure of this? Have you perhaps just had a run of difficult weeks? Or is this a more long-term feeling? City life can be both tiring and stimulating – be sure that in your move out of the city you won’t miss the buzz.
• Getting more for your money property wise. This is very tempting but is not the best of reasons on its own. Studying the estate agents’ leaflets or reading Country Life provides a few hours of speculation and fun but is definitely not in itself a solid basis for a future life.

And some of your reasons might be positive.

• Want to bring up children in a healthier environment. Consider though whether the children want to move. This may not concern you, but it should. It is not a problem if they are still fairly young, but once they reach an age where they have established friendships and schools it becomes more difficult. True, many children can make new friends easily, but you will have to sell them the benefits of the move – perhaps a larger bedroom, a school with better outdoor activities, access to new hobbies such as white water rafting, sailing, canoeing, climbing, riding, etc.
• Want to establish ‘real’ values for living. This can be a tricky one. Those ‘real’ values are very personal ones. Do you mean getting away from staring at a computer screen, visiting clubs, pubs and cinemas and being led by the craze of the moment? This is possible, but in this age of easy communication, much of this will follow you wherever you go. The opportunities are there, but you’ll have to reach out and take them. People in the country certainly have more time to spend chatting to you and to each other. Shopping can take longer for all the right reasons. You’ll learn more about your neighbours and they will learn about you. Everything is on a more personal level, but you may find this difficult to adjust to if you’re used to a more anonymous way of life. However, when you’re in difficulties or need help with a practical problem, you’ll hopefully find that in general people are more willing to help. If by ‘real’ you mean close to nature in all its moods, then this is certainly true. We have a private water supply and in the warm, dry weather popular with the guests in our cottages, the rivers run very low. The rain is a welcome relief. Glorious sunsets, amazing views of the mountains with the first snows of winter, and the red and gold leaves of the beech trees down at the lochside in the autumn are all sights we never tire of.
• Want a more flexible lifestyle. Your lifestyle will certainly change and this is perhaps one of the best things about the downshifting ideal. Flexibility in work patterns, in ideas and in day-today living can make a real difference. You’ll be taking more responsibility for your life and will not be so dependent on the decisions of others.
• Have a love of the countryside. Do you spend weekends in the country? Are your holidays invariably in the countryside? Do you dream of looking out of your window at fields and trees? Or at the sea? Have you visited the country in the winter months? In the rain? Do you know about public transport in the area of your choice? Will the school run be a considerably longer one than it is at the moment?
• Want to spend more time with each other and the family. Yes, you can certainly achieve this by downshifting. But then we consider this a vital and enjoyable part of the change. As my friend used to say about life, ‘this is not a dress rehearsal’. Children are only young once and this will give you the opportunity to spend time with them at all the important stages of their growing up. It will also give you the chance to spend more time with each other, making decisions that are important to you both and perhaps taking up new interests or working together to establish yourselves in your new environment.

What kind of person are you?

Are you the kind of person who can make a success of this new life you are planning? These are some of the questions you should perhaps ask yourself:

• Do you make new friends easily?You may well be moving away from all your friends and relatives. Although you will almost certainly be welcoming your old friends at weekends and holidays, you’ll be very lonely if you find it hard to make new friends. Yes      No
• Are you generally optimistic? Much can go wrong on a day-to-day basis when you are building your new life – it helps to see things positively and not to get easily depressed. Yes      No
• Are you unconcerned with career paths? You will possibly be leaving careers behind. Does this bother you or are you happy to lead a less structured life? When your old friends come to visit you and discuss their high salaries and exotic holidays, will this bother you? Yes      No
• Do you have an open mind? Basically, are you ready for anything that is thrown at you? Can you consider new options and change tack if necessary? Yes      No
• Are you realistic? Can you see clearly that there will be problems as well as advantages with your new way of living? And can you deal honestly with those problems? Yes      No
• Are you prepared to work hard towards your goal? It may well take a lot more effort than anticipated to establish yourself in your new life. Your success will largely depend on your efforts and determination to see things through. Initially you may be working longer hours than before and there might be periods of sustained effort which are exhausting. Here I am reminded of the setting up of our cottages when the builder took longer than anticipated to finish a cottage and, with a fixed booking already made for a certain date, we had only ten days to paint, wallpaper and furnish the cottage. Yes      No
• Do you welcome challenges?’Your new life may throw up problems that you hadn’t thought of. Can you deal with new ideas and work towards solutions to unexpected problems? Yes      No
• Can you cope with relative isolation? It may be that you’ll choose a new home at a distance from any town or village. Can you cope with not seeing another human being (except your family) for days? This will have an impact on where you choose to live and is an important consideration. Yes      No
• Can you exist on a low income, at least for a while? You’ll need savings to see you over the gap between leaving your old life and establishing your new one. Don’t underestimate the necessity for this. You may well have to live at a level below that to which you are accustomed. Are you prepared for this? Can you deal with the fact that you can no longer buy special cheeses or an expensive bottle of wine? Or go out for meals? Yes      No
• Are you prepared to get your hands dirty? We mean this literally. Are you ready to unblock a drain? To paint and wallpaper? To dig a drainage ditch in the pouring rain? To grow vegetables (if this is what you decide)? To deal with a broken fence? In fact, are you a practical person? Yes      No
• Can you turn your hand to new skills? Are you adaptable? Tradesmen are expensive and may take some time to come. You can save time and money by doing many of those odd jobs yourself. You can prepare for this by taking evening classes or reading manuals. Yes      No
• Can you cope with the insecurity of an irregular salary? The disadvantages of working at that office job with long hours are balanced by the advantage of a regular income. Can you deal with money appearing at irregular intervals? Yes      No
• Are you unconcerned with appearances? If you are building up a business, most of your money will go towards that. After all, it’s the business which will hopefully support you in the future. You won’t be able to spend money for a while on your house, car, clothes or a holiday. Will it concern you to welcome your visitors to a less than perfect environment? Can you cope with neighbours or friends discussing their holidays? Would you mind if you had to keep the old car for a year or two longer? And do you mind not buying any new clothes except essentials? (It is worth bearing in mind here that you probably won’t need so many new clothes living in the country.) Yes      No

Action plan 2.2

How many ‘yes’ answers and how many ‘no’ answers do you have?

You may have answered ‘yes’ to most of these questions but ‘no’ to only some of them. Can you see a way round the problems you may have identified in making your ‘no’ responses? Think about each for a moment or two.

If, on the other hand, you have a large number of ‘no’ responses, perhaps you should be reconsidering your position fairly seriously at this point.

So, we’ve looked at your reasons for moving to a new life and discussed whether you are the sort of person who can make a success of it. Now let’s look at the future.

Assuming now that you are ready to downshift and have the right sort of personality to succeed, exactly what are your priorities for your new life? What practical considerations are there? How do you intend to live your new life or set up your business?

Changing direction

First of all, how will you live? Will you:

• continue in your present job but to a lesser extent, perhaps working from home some days
• continue the same sort of employment but in a smaller town
• leave your career path and try something new
• combine two options, with one of you maintaining that regular salary and the other taking the opportunity to break into something new?

Looking at the options

If you decide to try something new, are you considering extending a hobby you already have or making a complete break with the past? Some of the choices you might be considering are:

• opening a bed and breakfast
• self-catering
• pottery/painting/sculpture, etc
• running a shop or gallery
• writing for profit
• farming, market gardening, plant nursery
• fishing
• a pony trekking or horse riding business
• opening a restaurant
• running a pub or hotel
• a specialist service, possibly in such areas as website design, garden landscaping, etc.
• a trade – plumber, electrician, painter and decorator, etc.

Getting down to detail

Your list of priorities will depend on your choice. To run a restaurant successfully you will need customers. Some of the restaurants in the tourist areas of Britain, for example, close down during the winter as there is not a sufficient local population to support them. A hotel may be a seasonal option too, particularly in the remote Highlands or by the sea, unless you pick your location carefully. Can you get supplies easily? If you are keen on organic produce, is it available there?

Running a shop or a gallery may well require a town setting. Are you considering the right size of town with likely potential customers?

If you’re set on farming or market gardening, you must decide on the type. Are you interested in arable, dairy or sheep farming, for example? The countryside of Britain is full of variety and the type of farming you plan will of course affect your choice of location.

If you’re considering running a bed and breakfast or holiday cottages, you will not want to be in an area where there are large numbers of similar establishments and yet you need to be where the visitors will come. There is usually a range of existing businesses on the market, but what in your business plan makes you convinced that you can have better long-term success than the present owners? Will you want an area where there are already well-known tourist attractions – castles, beautiful scenery, stately homes, distilleries, national parks? If you are planning an all-year-round business, would you think about being close to climbing or skiing territory?

Clarifying your priorities

Once you’re clearer in your mind about the type of business you may be running, you will be able to focus on possible locations and the priorities that are high on your list. Consider the following questions.

• Will you still need good links to London?
• Do you need to be in or near a town?
• Is living in a tourist area essential?
• Is it important to be close to good schools? Will a local village school suffice or do you need a secondary school within reach?
• Will you need efficient local public transport? Country areas are notorious for poor transport links. Tied in with this might be the need for two cars. Will you be able to afford to run them?
• What will you need in the way of land? You might be considering farming or keeping horses.
• Do you still want to have access to cinemas, theatres, concerts and restaurants?
• Do you want to live in really remote country? Or close to a village?
• Must you be within easy reach of friends or relations? How easy? We are at the opposite end of the country from our daughter who lives on the south coast but we can fly from a local airport in the Scottish Highlands to Gatwick in a remarkably short time.
• Would you like to live by the sea? Or a large lake? Or on a riverbank?
• Do you want close neighbours or would you prefer to live at a distance from other houses?
• What will you require in the way of property for your new life and business? Do you need a workshop, studio or extra space in your house for a study?
• One of your main priorities should be the happiness of both or all of you. Is there enough for both of you to be happy and occupied in your new location? If one of you is dissatisfied, the project will not be a success.

Moving forward

We’ve taken a look at the reasons why you want to downshift/relocate and whether they are positive or negative. Only you can decide at this stage – and later on – whether there are enough positive reasons for you to make the move. Beware, though, if you’re thinking of going ahead without being convinced on the positive front.

We’ve also considered whether you are the sort of person who will succeed in this new life. What about your partner? Do you form a good team for the venture? Do your personalities complement each other?

Now it’s time to start thinking positively about the future. Your answers to Action plan 2.3 will help you to plan your way forward. Let’s take the next step!