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Making change work for you - Move to a remote Scottish island - Part 1
Just do it.
It’s the 12th of May 2020 and the world has been in lockdown for more than 7 weeks. I’m sat in our island studio on Tiree reading the news thinking to myself “Scottish island life has been positive and life changing on every level”. However, If you’d asked either of us three years ago what we’d be doing in 2020, none of the answers would include:
Living on a small Scottish island
Raising orphan sheep, or
Finding ourselves in a pandemic lockdown
Thanks to serendipity for 1 & 2 and total disbelief for 3. But they are three defining parts of our life.
So, how did we manage to make a completely fresh start and move to a small remote Scottish island called Tiree?
I hope you don’t think this is crazy but we listened to our gut, took the leap of faith and just did it, without really thinking too much about it. That’s how we made our move to the remote Scottish island of Tiree. I think more importantly the question we’ve been asked by so many people in the last two years is: “Why did we move to the Isle of Tiree?” Because without understanding our why there would not be a how.
Everything changed for us in 2018. Just like that we moved to the little Island of Tiree. When I say just like that, I really do mean it. Within the first 5 minutes of stepping off the CalMac ferry we’d resolved to move. So that week we just did it!
I know that makes it sound far too simple. But it was our “why” that made it impossible not to just go for it. We put thoughts of the logistics, concerns, anything negative to one side. For the first time in years we really did just go with gut instinct.
To start with a little background and explaining the “listening to our gut instinct”.
In 2017 we lived in London, spent our days building up our DUTCH ENGELS business, heading to client meetings, juggling time, fighting congestion and battling ever shrinking deadlines. All of this on repeat day in and day out. It was relentless and there was always so much missing from our work life balance. Our conversations about “making a change”, “focusing on a more balance life”, “reducing stress”, “reducing stuff”, “getting off the treadmill” and “doing the enjoyable things we’d been putting off for most of our working lives” became more and more frequent. Any of that sound familiar?
Before moving to the Isle of Tiree both of us spent our lives as, what we called, global nomads. Living where our work dictated, constantly on the move and although we lived in London, we didn’t thrive or grow, as people, in the way we’d aspired. London was not our home, just a place to facilitate the needs of our work and paying the bills.
We really wanted to change, find a place we wanted to call our forever home. Be near the ocean. Fresh air. Space. Grow roots. But how? We had the why and just needed the what, where and how.
We spent our weekends searching for our forever home, not just a building, but somewhere with a real sense of place and space. For 12 months the search failed. It proved to be a real challenge. We just could not find a place or space that had that something, that feeling of belonging and the possibilities, personal and professional. We’d travelled the length and breadth of the United Kingdom and even looked at the idea of moving everything overseas.
The biggest difficulty we faced seemed to be ignoring the fear of such a big change. A fear that before landing on Tiree kept popping into our heads.
Ignoring the part of our brain that said “don’t change, you’re fine as you are, don’t risk everything”, was hard until I read an amazing book again.
Listen to your gut feelings and move to a remote Scottish Island
The author Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Blink back in 2005 – all about the rationalising part of our modern brain. It turns out that part of our brain stops us from listening to our gut feelings and acting. So, stopping us from doing things like moving to a remote Scottish island for a fresh start. Malcolm introduces the concept of “thin-slicing”, which is basically the technical term for listening to your gut. His book drives the point home that we don’t listen to our gut enough. Which means there are not enough of you moving to little remote Scottish islands in 2020. Well, this time we took onboard his words. This book really did help us change our lives.
I think the American Jessie Potter said it best back in the 1980s .
“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”
American, Jessie Potter, The director of the National Institute for Human Relationships .
Here are a few of the pieces of advice we’d been given by amazing people that helped us just get on with it, pack up and head for a fresh start on a very small, very Scottish, very remote island and make things work for us. The advice really worked and continues to help us as we’ve made our way through the first couple of years of our fresh start on the amazing Isle of Tiree:
Celebrate the little things. Don’t focus on a big end goal
Embrace failure. See it as getting one step closer to your idea of success
Just do it, try new things - and that means everything that pops up
Don’t focus on fitting in, be yourself - it’s why you ended up here in the first place
Accept that change is a good thing. It’s been happening every day since the beginning of time. (Just saying)
Talk to everyone. What’s the worst that can happen - nothing.
Listen to your gut feelings, it’s usually right.
Don’t worry or be concerned about what anyone else thinks. It’s your life so live it
Listen to gut instinct and make decisions quickly
It’s often easier not to make big changes. To put it off for another day. We might feel pain, but we tell ourselves it’s bearable. Big change comes with the risk of the unknown, possible disappointment, failure and any number of negative outcomes – well that’s at least what our brain tells us. Simply too painful. Unknown to us at the time, just doing it and not thinking about it got us beyond the imagined pain of change.
The practicalities of moving to a Scottish Island
The truth is many of the Scottish islands show declining population which is sad, and Tiree is no different. Tiree has seen a declining population for over 20 years. If you look at the population numbers over an even longer period-of-time it’s been in decline for 100’s of years. But there is now a real chance to reverse that decline.
There are many more opportunities to work remotely for companies from around the world. I have to say our internet connection is faster here than it was in London. With a growth in population, even a small one, the opportunities to start local businesses increases. I’m not just saying that, we’ve done it. Last year we launched 2 small business that are all about making items we send around the world. They are not big businesses, but they don’t need to be. We have 4 others in the pipeline. If we can do it you certainly can.
Some may be saying “but that takes lots of money”. We’d say, not necessarily, there so many opportunities to start small island centric business I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them on. The Scottish government is super supportive of the islands via organisations such as “The Highland and Island Enterprises (HIE)” and with some help you can tap into grants, training and support groups to get you off the ground. Although tourism has been hit on a global scale, the making of things physical and digital has been booming. And don’t forget the local businesses that are always looking for team members.
Housing.
There is always something for sale or rent and if like us you really want a challenge you can always build your own. Don't get me wrong, just as on the mainland, there are always challenges to overcome but it seems a whole lot easier when you are surrounded by miles of beaches and crystal-clear water.
What happens after you a make fresh start?
Gut instinct, “thin slicing“, allows for quick decision making, and those quick decisions, however big or small, can be as good as, if not better than, those made cautiously and deliberately. You’ve all heard of overthinking no doubt. And as it turns out, once you’ve made one big change, in our case a fresh start on a small Scottish island, making another even bigger change often follows more easily. We couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.
It started with a simple innocent conversation. An orphan lamb offered to us to look after, followed swiftly by our acceptance, because the thought of it being sent to slaughter was far too painful for both of us. Who could say no to such infinite cuteness? Somehow one lamb turned into seven in the space of a few weeks. Seven adds up to a flock. So, what was just a cup of tea and a chat, whilst we were still settling into our fresh start on our tiny Scottish Tiree island home, ended up being an even biggest addition to our fresh start. And our move to the island of Tiree became a life changing fresh start for 7 lambs. The biggest change yet. We walked out as crofters with a very very small C.
Many a crofter (farmer) must have thought we were bonkers (and probably still do). Not only did we decide to take on not just one, but seven lambs, we also gave them names (Nori, Kelp and Bubble, Popcorn, Noah, Dot and Matrix), and decided that they could just live long and happy lives with us. An upturned IBC filled with hay providing a makeshift shelter. Plenty of space for little lambs to run around and easy for those late evening bottle feeds. It must have been a curious sight; people would stop their cars and their bikes outside the house and come and have a look. Quite a few had never been close to lambs before, and we were never short of bottle feeding volunteers that summer.
“…we watched them thrive and take on their individual personalities as well as their place within the flock.”
Our grass kept nice and short, we watched them thrive and take on their individual personalities as well as their place within the flock. Matrix showing off his leaping skills, clearing even the highest fence with ease, taking turns with Noah at leadership and often fighting over food or attention. Nori turning into a gracious matriarch and Kelp developing her unusual sheepish skill of rolling onto her back for a fleece rub and then jumping right back up onto her feet again. Popcorn with the most unusual bleat it deserves to be named, and Bubble wagging his tail happily at every moment of human interaction. Our happy little flock.
Our minds started to shift to shaping their forever home and how we could make it all work without sending them off to slaughter (which is what most of the crofters do here) or bankrupting ourselves. They would need space, shelter, food, medicine, visits from the vet. Keen to avoid chemicals and unnecessary medication, we embarked on huge amounts of research. Being strong advocates of wholesome nutrition and natural remedies anyway, we found that a number of herbs and spices that would help them fight infections naturally and help them become strong and resilient.
“Keen to avoid chemicals and unnecessary medication, we embarked on huge amounts of research.”
Fortifying their milk with garlic and adding herbs to their mineral feed, not only did they grow much bigger than is usual for orphan lambs, their fleeces also seemed to benefit hugely. That is when the idea first sparked. We could use their fleeces. We could make wool. We could make hats. Who doesn’t like woolly hat? We love a woolly hat. Don’t you?
Why did we move to a remote island?
If you haven’t been to our amazing new Scottish Island home before, the beautiful Isle of Tiree is a three-and-a-half-hour ferry ride from Oban, off the mainland of Scotland, the furthest west of the Inner Hebridean islands. Once you’ve been here for the first time it’s impossible not to feel like just moving and making it home. That’s what happened to us. We’d never been here before and within 5 minutes of stepping foot on the breathtaking miles of golden sand that was it. Tiree had to be our home. And, that’s how quickly we knew we had to make a fresh start here.
“12 miles long and 3 miles wide. You could almost call it a different world.”
A tiny dot on the map, about 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. You could almost call it a different world. Under the strong grip of the Atlantic, the climate here is completely different to the mainland warmer, brighter and more powerful. We do get the odd storm we had a visit from storms Dennis And Ciara but so was most of the UK and I have a feeling it was a lot warm here and more of a spectacular show than a storm.
Summers are filled with long light days, sometimes it doesn’t go dark at all. Endless stretches of white and golden sands, waters shimmering in the sun, the deep turquoise calling for a dip. It’s a little paradise. Winters have a different charm, never falling much below seven degrees, there is no snow or ice to speak of. During this time of the year the Atlantic Ocean unleashes its power from time to time, enchanting the (wind)surfing community and photographers alike, reminding us who’s boss.
Conclusion
Turns out the best way to make a fresh start is to just do it. We didn’t plan ahead too much. Didn’t give ourselves time to think about what we were, actually, doing. We simply found a place to rent on the island, gave up what we were doing in the city and just went for it. Sold our home, put our life in containers and moved. All in a matter of weeks, ignoring the part of our brains that said “don’t change, you’re fine as you are”. And so into the sunset filled field I go, to check on our seven lambs. What an amazing way to end a spring day. They bring a smile to my face and remind of how amazing island life is.