How do you decide where to live?

Category: Editorial

Richard Winfield - editor and principal consultant For more than a year in my early career I worked in the City of London; in the hub of a metropolitan, cosmopolitan world class city. I was surrounded by cultural activities; a wonderful opportunity. What did I do? Each night I fled home on the train. In the whole time I was working there I attended one event, a carol service at St Paul's Cathedral. What a waste.

Nowadays I live near Birmingham, more than 100 miles away from London and previously I lived in Mid Wales, 200 miles away. In each case I have made fairly frequent visits to London. If I stay overnight I endeavour to get a discount ticket for a West End play.

Very often we do not take advantage of local resources. So do we actually choose to live in places based on false assumptions?

I am writing this in Melbourne. Last week's CorporateCoach was written in Dubai. In an age of communications and convenient travel we have much more flexibility in deciding where to live.

Currently I live in Solihull, where I grew up. The surroundings are very familiar, like home. But, having lived away for more than 35 years, I don't actually know anyone there. The people I have met since my return live in Birmingham. So where is 'home'? Later this year I intend to move into central Birmingham, with its theatres, concert hall and museums. But, after an initial enthusiasm, will I actually take advantage of them more often than if I lived in the country and was motivated to make special trips?

Maybe I shall move to Dubai. Will it actually be different? A key part of my life is BBC Radio Four. But much of this is available in the Internet, and if you enjoy television, satellite channels offer increasing international choice. Amazon can deliver books anywhere in the world.

If you want to keep in contact with your family and friends, VOIP telephone calls can be free or very low cost, videocams provide a more personal contact and digital photographs or video clips can be uploaded or emailed within minutes of being taken.

So, think carefully. Who do you actually interact with? What are the most important physical aspects of your location? How often do you actually take advantage of them? If you were to prepare a specification for a place to live, how well would your current home score and what alternatives could you find if you started to think out of the box?

We live in a world of choice and opportunity. If we take advantage we can have a better quality of life and reduce the pollution and congestion of home to work travel.

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