One of the most difficult decisions in the world is perhaps to leave everything behind to start a new life elsewhere, of course, it also depends on the context of each one, especially the economic one. When people have already made the decision and has launched it there are only two paths: either it is glad of what it has done and everything is even better than before, or ends up regretting and wanting to recover their ancient life.
The latter is what happened to Helen Zhao, a worker of a television network who decided to leave her job and everything behind to be a year and a half traveling all over the world. He finally lost all his savings and ended up regretting having left his job behind.
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Helen Zhao, 34, is an American journalist who worked in the important CNBC chain and decided to start a new life ending her routine. Now he has reported for the same chain in which he worked, CNBChow he made that difficult decision and why he ended up regretting.
He left his job because he could not with the pressure
It all started when at 28 he became part of the CNBC multimedia department: “My dream work,” he recalls.
The fact of being in such an important company ended up surpassing it, that is, I could not with the pressure of responsibility. He also recalls that, many times he woke up in the early morning wondering if, over the years and when he arrived at 80, he would not regret having dedicated his life to work instead of having done just the opposite.
“I had chronic anxiety and I had lost my ability to live the present,” he recalls. It was then that he made a drastic decision: to leave his job and undertake a trip to Peru. From there he initiated an 18 -month journey through South America and Asia, in which he invested $ 34,000, approximately $ 31,600 to the current change.
“Every day it was a ‘Choose your own adventure’, which implied good and bad options. I learned lessons in the toughest way on balance preparation, productivity and leisure … and I have reflected on all those regrets that have finally taught me when you must prioritize the happiness of the moment and when it is better to sacrifice in exchange for a better future.”
His obsession with control did not let him enjoy
At first, he confesses, he became obsessed with wanting to control everything. Instead of enjoying the experience he had motivated to leave his ancient life behind, he thoroughly planned each of the destinations he intended to visit.
That obsession took, for example, to leave Argentina just the day when the country won the World Cup in 2022, thus losing the celebrations with the friends he had done there. It also happened to him on his birthday, which happened to fly from Brazil to Bogotá to finish watching him alone in an Airbnb, while watching the Instagram stories how his acquaintances enjoyed the Colombian Carnival.
In other words, instead of letting time and experiences mark the rhythm of his trip, he clung to an unnecessary itinerary. That experience, he says, has taught him to be more open to improvised plans and to accept the changes on the march.
No money for a house and unable to have children
Another of its great regrets is related to the economic and the familiar. The 34,000 dollars he spent during those 18 months represented practically all the savings he had accumulated in his life.
The consequence? Today you cannot afford to buy a home (it does not even have enough money for the entrance, especially living in Los Angeles) and does not feel prepared to have children, due to the high costs involved in forming a family.
He considers that part of this situation comes from the lack of financial education he received, since he did not know or manage his invoices.
“I left the institute knowing how to quote Shakespeare but I didn’t know how to pay the invoices at the end of the month.”
He believes that, if he had planned better, he could have enjoyed his sabbatical year equally, but avoiding running out of savings, without home and without a family project in the short term now that he is 34 years old.
Currently, he tries to rebuild his life by applying the lessons he claims to have learned from that experience and the mistakes made. His goal is that repentance does not mark the course of this “second chance”, which now seeks through a personal website where he shares his career as a journalist and traveler.