Almost three years after moving to Croatia, I am packing again. In two weeks, I will be moving to Wales.

We are taught to treat changing our minds as a failure of the original decision, that if it did not last, it must have been wrong. I don't see it that way, and I have spent years explaining the same to other women.

So, before you ask, no, moving to Croatia has not been a mistake, nor does it mean that I don't stick to my decisions. I understand that it might look that way from the outside but from where I am standing it is exactly the opposite.

Croatia was the right choice when I made it. I moved there to live at a slower pace while continuing work I am passionate about, and it gave me exactly that. What changed was not the rightness of that decision. What changed was what I learned by living inside it.

What Croatia Actually Gave Me

I've always known that I am a nester, someone who needs to feel properly settled somewhere to feel like herself and function properly. What I had not seen coming was that splitting my time across three countries, Croatia to live in, and the South of France and Wales to regularly visit my kids and their families, didn't allow for that need to be met no matter how hard I tried. I ended up having no home base that felt entirely mine, and after three years of living that way and becoming increasingly restless, I finally accepted that I could not continue living like that.

That realisation did not undo the choice to move to Croatia. It came from it. I would not have known how much traveling between three countries was costing me without having lived it.

None of this diminishes what those three years gave me. Croatia has everything I was looking for when I moved there. Leaving does not mean loving it any less, and I will always hold a special place in my heart for that beautiful country and its beautiful people.

Nothing Is Wasted

I have always said that reinvention is evolution, not rupture, that each chapter prepares the next rather than replacing it outright. This move is the clearest proof of that belief I have lived so far. Wales is not a correction of Croatia. It is built directly on what Croatia taught me. Without those three years, I would not have known what I actually needed enough to act on it.

A Structure That No Longer Fit

My work is built on the idea that a life is not wrong when it stops fitting, it has simply become too small for who you have become. The work is not to tear it down and start over. It is to look clearly at what still holds and what needs to change, and to build accordingly.

Croatia was the right structure for a specific season, one built entirely around a slower pace of life. It did exactly what it was built for. What it turned out not to be built for was permanence, and pretending otherwise would have been the actual mistake. Revising a structure that has done its job is not admitting the original build was wrong. It is what building consciously actually looks like over time.

Why This Protects the Work, Not Just the Woman

I am not moving to Wales to retire. The goal that took me to Croatia stays exactly the same, a pace of life that lets me keep building the work I care about, on my own terms, without it costing me everything else that matters. Having one true home base, rather than constantly living in transit between three countries, does not threaten that goal. It protects it. Sustainable work needs a woman who is not quietly running on empty underneath it, and I had reached the point of admitting that I was.

Where This Leaves Me

As I write this, most of my boxes are packed, and what I feel is steady rather than anxious, which tells me everything I need to know about whether this is the right decision. I am not leaving Croatia because something went wrong there. I am moving toward Wales because I know exactly what I need in this season of life, and I trust myself enough to act on it.

Croatia was the right choice, until it no longer was. That is not a contradiction. That is what it looks like to keep evolving on purpose.

If this hit home, I would love to hear about a decision you made that was right until it wasn't, and what it took for you to let it go. Leave a comment below or send me a message directly. These conversations matter to me.

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