It’s late January and I’m stuck inside my Madison, WI home for the third day straight with wind chills in the -20 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit range. My weather app says it’s going to get slightly better next week, but the number of days I feel I can go outside and run in the morning (my running cut-off is 8 degrees above) are zero. The question we keep asking each other (and ourselves) about 40 times a day is, “why do we live here”?
The truth is, Madison, WI is a great place to live and was an intentional relocation when I moved here in 2017, but it may not be the right place for us moving forward. And your location might not be either. If you’ve ever wanted to move, but felt stuck where you’re at, this article is for you. You’ve got one life to live and where you live makes a big difference for your happiness, health, and even your net worth.
You Are Not a Tree
In my adult life, I’ve lived a total of six locations (if I don’t count my semester abroad in Sevilla, Spain and my two months volunteering in Tanzania), and I credit all of them with making me who I am today. I’ve moved mostly for jobs (mine or my partner’s) and only slightly considered whether the location we were moving to fit us well.
When I moved back to Wisconsin in 2017, it was the first time I made an intentional decision about where to move and then looked for a job in that location. Once I returned, one truth stood out to me about the people around me: a lot of Wisconsinites have lived here their whole lives.
Those of us who have left, have grown our careers and networks faster, have typically seen more of the world, and chose to come back intentionally. And, honestly, I feel good about doing both – leaving and returning. But I think a lot of people simply stay close to home and never think twice about it. They are like trees. They stay where they’re planted. But, how would you know the place you’re born is the right place for you if you never leave?
You are not a tree. You have the agency to uproot yourself if the soil you’re planted in is no longer helping you grow. If you are feeling a pull toward a different landscape, a different pace, or a different community, this is your sign. Yes, you can move. And you don’t need a promotion or a crisis to justify it.
The Myth of the “Forever Home”
In the corporate world, we talk about “Technical Debt”, which is the cost of sticking with old, clunky systems because we aren’t prioritizing the time it takes to upgrade. In our lives, many of us carry “Geographic Debt”. We stay in a city because we’ve been there for a decade, even if the city’s features no longer align with our current values.
Moving isn’t running away. It’s a system upgrade. If your current environment is optimized for a version of you that no longer exists like the 25-year-old ladder climber or the person who needed the high cost of living nightlife, it’s okay to let that version of you go. Growth is healthy and often leads to a more fulfilling life. Moving can help supercharge that growth.
Re-Evaluating the Status Quo
We often treat moving as a massive, irreversible risk. It’s not, everything in life is reversible except for birth and death. But let’s look at the factors that actually matter:
- The Mobility of Modern Work: If you’ve spent your career in tech, agile, or consulting, you’ve earned the ultimate location-independent currency. Your value isn’t tied to a physical office in a specific ZIP code. You can take your agile brain anywhere you’d like.
- The Cost of the Status Quo: What is it costing you to stay? If you’re paying a premium for a lifestyle you don’t even use, you are essentially paying for features that are sitting idle in your code. Rip those out and you’ll have a more effective life. I moved from the high cost of living Washington, DC area to a very sensibly-priced Madison, WI and I was able to retire years earlier because of it.
- The Power of a Beta Test: You don’t have to sell everything tomorrow and leave. Take a month. Rent a place in that town you’ve had your eye on. Work from their coffee shops. Walk their trails. Prove to yourself that the world doesn’t end when you leave your current hobbit hole. Then do it again until you find a place that feels like home.
Permission to Prioritize Joy
Often, we only give ourselves permission to move for “logical” reasons like a lower tax bracket, a shorter commute, or being closer to family. But what if you moved simply because you want to see the mountains when you wake up? What if you moved because you want a life that feels more like your time in New Zealand and less like a fluorescent-lit office?
Intentional living is about aligning your external reality with your internal values. If your environment is a constant friction point, if the noise, the pace, the culture, the politics or the weather grates on you, you don’t have to stay.
Your Life, Refactored
In software, we refactor code to make it more efficient and easier to maintain. Moving is the ultimate life-refactor. It allows you to:
- Clear the Cache: Break the old habits that are tied to your current surroundings.
- Optimize the Environment: Choose an “operating system” (city/town) that supports your hobbies, your health, and your goals.
- Reduce Overhead: Lower your cost of living so you can work less and live more.
To Stay or Not to Stay
If the requirements for your life have changed and you are in a new season (perhaps one of semi-retirement and creative exploration like me), you are allowed to move to a place that reflects that change. You aren’t abandoning your life; you are moving it to a better server.
We’ll be staying in Wisconsin for a bit longer, ideally until our kids have graduated high school, but we’ve got our next locations all lined up. That place will have a lot more sun, better food, and incredibly friendly people. We’ll ditch our cars and gain daily markets, ocean walks, and cheap flights to everywhere in Europe.
Where have you been dreaming of living? What’s the one thing stopping you from testing it out for 30 days?
