One Apple A Day #227
We landed in Valencia on a Thursday night. We brought with us most of our stuff in two big pieces of luggage and a lot of optimism in our hearts.
The morning after, we left the baggage home but we bring the optimism with us, and we started hunting.
We were sure that with our positive attitude we would find a place to live in a few days. Everyone told us it was easy and websites were full of options.
The first day we didn’t find anything. We talked with a few agencies with poor results. No one spoke in English, and our Spanish is far from good.
And then it was Saturday and Sunday, and we thought it was just the first day. So, we walked to the beach, we enjoyed the sun and refilled our batteries.
On Monday we went for it. We asked to more agencies, our Spanish improving and we got some viewing. The places were not great, but something was moving.
Then, days passed. Every day we went around, asking and waiting. We visited some flats. Most of them were not good. Two were good, but we took some time to decide, and in that time someone else took them. And it was again Sunday, and we walked to the beach. We loved the city, but we weren’t so sure she loved us back.
On the second week, we found some suitable options, but we had issues with our lack of a formal job contract in Spain. We were almost at the end of the second week and our optimism was drying out. We even thought to give up and go home, and maybe try again in a month or two.
Then, one morning we visited a flat. A few days before we saw a flat on a website and we called the number arranging an appointment. It wasn’t right for us, and the agent saw our frustration. She asked us what we need, and we told her everything.
Then she had an idea. She took us to view a flat that wasn’t on the market yet.
It wasn’t nearly close to what we were looking for.
And we felt in love for it.
Two hours later we met the owner, a lovely lady full of energy and we understand that it was it.
An hour later we were standing on the terrace of our new flat in Valencia.
What’s the point of the whole story?
This story taught me a lesson about innovation and exponential mindset. Changes in life don’t always follow an incremental path. But the incremental path is what we learned to expect. If we can’t see thing progressing every day we feel we are not making progress.
House searching is not an incremental process. For the first ten days, we didn’t make any visible progress. It was only when we found the place that I understood the all the journey up to that point was just a preparation. We improved our Spanish, found more clarity on what we wanted, learned how to move around, and how to deal with agencies. No visible progress but it was vital to get our home in Valencia.
But it was hard. With time the difference between the progress we expected and the one we measured grew, and we got frustrated.
But it is there, at the point of maximum frustration that often momentum kicks in and things accelerate exponentially. Are you ready to push through that frustration?