How to Deal with People I Don't Like

If you reach this blog post, you may be already sick of the relationship that you have with the people around you right now.

I had a similar experience five years ago, so I want to share with you my own personal experience of how I dealt with the people I don't like.

This is a very extreme decision that you can ever make but technically you can do it.

I do not suggest any concrete action for you in this post, but let's just take a look at what I did for myself.

What I did to change my relationship with people 

To say it short, my decision was to become a freelancer to move to another country.

Before the pandemic, I had my own company and at that time, I was the one who had to physically move around and get the contract.

Also Read: Who is Shinji Sverige?

Growing my own business was my top priority back then, so I had to communicate with the people I really don't like only for the contract and income.

Then out of nowhere anaemic happened and I lost my business.

I realised that I was not chasing another dream which is to move to another country because of my business which was also one of my dreams.

After a while, I decide to become a freelancer to move to another country because this sounded much more important than growing my own business in my own country.

Also Read: How to Become a digital nomad with no experience? 

To be honest, I did not enjoy the human relationship that I had at that time, so I wanted completely new friends.

Sweden was kind of an interesting choice for me because the distance to Japan from Sweden is 9,600km.

Why moving to another country is effective to change the relationship?

Layover at Qatar to Finnair flight

Again, this is an extreme decision that you can make in your life but the whole idea of moving to another country to change the relationship with the people is that you can start over the relationship with people completely.

When you move to another country by yourself, it is obvious that no one knows you at the place where you're going to live in.

This has both positive and negative sides to look at, as well as other decisions in your life I assume, and looking at my experience moving to Sweden from Japan, starting over the relationship felt like I was reborn again.

Swedish traditional meal plate cooked by the landlord of my flat.

What I liked about moving to Sweden was I could forget about myself which I really didn't like when I was in Japan.

I am definitely not saying that Japan is not a good country to live in, but personally, the lifestyle and how society moves in Japan including how to contact people in the Japanese cultural context actually did not fit my personal preference.

When my friends in Sweden always ask me why I could move to a country that is really far away from my home country, I always answer them that I cannot choose the country to be born but I can choose the country to live in.

The downside of moving to another country 

Meaning "Welcome" in Swedish

Moving to another country sounds very fancy but moving to another country means that you will be a foreigner, meaning that if you are not used to being a foreigner, the first year may be psychologically very difficult.

I am 29 years old now and I have lived in five countries in my life, Japan, Sweden, America, Taiwan, and Mongolia, the first time I literally moved to another country was terribly difficult.

The people were different, the culture was different, and the food was different, and the rule of society was different; the list goes on...

Sweden is my fifth country to live in so I am kind of used to being a foreigner, and also I have done lots of research before coming here on the Internet and also by asking my Swedish local friends about what's going on in society.

And also, if you can not make local friends efficiently, you will actually be lonely in the worst-case scenario, and you may feel homesick.

Moving to another country was my motivation to change myself as well, so I changed myself to get involved in volunteer work, get involved in the language and culture exchange event, and also go to the same store periodically so that I will also know the people who go there periodically as well.

Also Read: The reasons why volunteering may help your mental health improvement

So, now I am very happy being in Sweden and to be honest, I have no plan to go back to Japan now.

This is all thanks to my friends in Sweden, and the readers who visit to my blog and enjoy reading my posts.