Isn’t it funny how two people can experience the exact same situation but come back with two wildly different stories?
Often times, what we think is reality, is just our perception of reality.
There are a bunch of folk tales from different cultures and religions that describe this, so it must be important. My favorite is the two shoe salesman who get sent to a remote village:
One writes back: “No one here wears shoes. Hopeless market. Coming home.”
The other write back: “No one here wears shoes. Unlimited opportunity! Send stock!”
Since so much of life depends on how we perceive things, it could be worthwhile to seek out perspective shifting experiences.
Perspective shifting experiences — that’s the theme of this weeks Sunday Serendipity…
There’s a great reshuffle taking place in the world order right now. I see a lot of people are considering exit plans and moving somewhere else.
The big difference between this reshuffle versus others throughout history is that we live in a very mobile society. Now there’s social media showing us all the possibilities of where to live and digital nomad visas to take care of the legality of it all. If you want to move out of your home country, it’s much easier than it was in the past.
Earlier this week,
put together a roundup of essays from different writers describing their perspective on moving abroad, specifically to Europe:
So many different perspectives on the same subject. There is no clear cut answer. It just comes down to what your values are and what you’re looking to get out of life. We have this tendency to claim absolute truth based on our limited, subjective experience while ignoring other people's limited, subjective experience.
This is why it helps to test stuff out. Experiment. See what fits.
From my perspective, Spain is the best place in the world to live. But I know a lot of Spaniards maybe don't feel the same. There's probably people who were born here who would much rather live in America or somewhere else. Or at least they think they would like to. But it's impossible to know unless you actually go do it.
One of the many reasons I started Serendipity Lab is to talk about how places can change us. When I first moved to Spain, I wasn't planning on living here for the rest of my life, but as time went on, it’s where I’ve felt most at home. So I stayed. Now I could never see myself moving back simply because I could never go back to living a car centric life. I love getting around by bike way too much. When I speak to friends back home who say they could never live without a car, it’s because they’ve never experienced the perspective of living life without a car. People often act against their own self-interests because their beliefs are not so conscious.
It’s possible to shift your perspective through reading and listening, but our biggest perspective shifts come from lived experience. I said earlier this year that I want to do more in-person meetups. And as I mentioned before, our biggest shifts come from lived experiences, not just reading about them.
Over the past few years, cycling has become such an integral part of my life. I rode a bike to school when I was a kid, but rediscovering it as an adult has been magical.
I sometimes wonder, if I didn’t move to Barcelona, would I be as obsessed with cycling as I am now? I’ll never know the answer, but I’m curious if there are others out there like me.
As a way to facilitate perspective shifting experiences for others, I’ll be renting a house in the countryside here in Spain to host a cycling retreat around spring of next year. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, fill out the form below and I’ll be in touch.
For a perspective shifting experience, click here —> Spring 2026 Cycling Retreat
Until next time my friends,
<3 B
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I live in a city which has good cycling infrastructure (Vancouver, BC) but I became a cyclist as a result of going on organized bike holidays. We loved the trips but they were expensive for just 5 days of cycling. Since 2021 we do annual bike tours of between 35 - 50 days, and so far, only in France. Since the commercial tours in 2016, we started cycling more on a daily basis and now it's our primary form of transportation. I don't think we would have become such avid cyclists if we hadn't gone on those first trips, but living in a cycling-friendly city has also had a big impact. I should also add that we are in our 70s and have used e-bikes since 2020.
Bike tour!!!!! Would love to go!