Even when your job can be done from anywhere, the place you call home still matters―a lot.
By the old rules of work, your dream career determines where you live. If you want to make movies, move to Los Angeles. If you want to work in publishing, you must be in New York. And if you’re launching a start-up, you’ll only succeed in Silicon Valley.
But with the meteoric rise of remote and freelance work, more people than ever are becoming location independent. Even doctors, teachers, and other people in more traditional occupations have to make tough choices about where they settle, because living in the right place can still make all the difference for your success and happiness.
So if work won’t dictate where you live, how will you ever decide?
If You Could Live Anywhere answers that question. Melody Warnick unpacks the big-picture concerns that we often miss when we’re writing pros-and-cons lists about potential destinations. Because the secret to being happy isn’t moving, it’s aligning your location with your values. You’ll learn how to craft a personal location strategy that will make the most of your money, your community, and your life, with success stories from people who flexed their location independence to find homes and work they love.
The future of work is clear: it can happen wherever you are. So where do you really want to be?
In the spirit of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project and Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss, a journalist embarks on a project to discover what it takes to love where you live.
The average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was her sixth move, from Austin, Texas, to Blacksburg, Virginia, that threatened to unhinge her. In the lonely aftermath of unpacking, she wondered: Aren't we supposed to put down roots at some point? How does the place we live become the place we want to stay? This time she had an epiphany. Rather than hold her breath and hope this new town would be her family's perfect fit, she would figure out how to fall in love with it-no matter what.
How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong. She dives into the body of research around place attachment-the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being-then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likable locales. She also speaks with frequent movers and loyal stayers around the country to learn what draws highly mobile Americans to a new city, and what makes us stay. The best ideas she imports to her adopted hometown of Blacksburg for a series of "Love Where You Live" experiments designed to make her feel more locally connected: dining with her neighbors, shopping Small Business Saturday, marching in the town Christmas parade.
Can these efforts make a halfhearted resident happier? Will Blacksburg be the place she finally stays? What Warnick learns will inspire you to embrace your own community-and perhaps discover that the place where you live right now ... is home. "With this book by your side, a happier life is just around the corner."-Gretchen Rubin, New York
"THIS IS THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE, AS OLD AND AS TRUE AS THE SKY...."
Mowgli has lived in the Jungle for as long as he can remember. Raised by a noble wolf pack and mentored by a wise panther called Bagheera, Mowgli enjoys the rich, vibrant world of the animals. And while at times it is clear he doesn't quite fit in, he could never imagine leaving it.
But when a vengeful tiger makes a vow to remove the man-cub from the Jungle, Mowgli's world is turned upside down. With help from his new friend Baloo the bear, Mowgli finds himself on a journey to protect his animal family and himself-a journey that could change things forever.
Will the man-cub be able to find his place in the Jungle?
