I’m sitting here in our cosy island studio on Tiree, getting ready to head out into a cold and dark field thinking to myself “how did we manage to make a completely fresh start and move to a small remote Scottish island?”. I ask myself because 18 months ago we lived in London, spent our days heading to client meetings, juggling time, fighting congestion and battling ever shrinking deadlines, on repeat day in and day out. But, everything changed so quickly. And, now our life could not be more different living on a remote Scottish Island.

How? We listened to our gut, took the leap of faith and just did it. That’s how we made our fresh start and moved to a small remote Scottish island off the west coast. The biggest difficulty we faced moving to Scotland was without a doubt, just ignoring the fear of change that kept popping into our heads. Ignoring the part of our brain that said “don’t change, you’re fine as you are, don’t risk everything”.

Listen to your gut feelings and move to a remote Scottish Island

There’s a great book by Malcolm Gladwell called Blink – all about the rationalising part of our modern brain. It turns out that part of our brain stops us from listening to our gut feelings and acting. So stopping us from doing things like moving to a remote Scottish island for a fresh start in 2020. Malcolm introduces the concept of “thin-slicing”, which is basically the technical term for listening to your gut. His book drives the point home that we don’t listen to our gut enough. which means there are not enough of you moving to little remote Scottish islands in 2020. Well, we did listen, and our fresh start on a little Scottish island is the result, although our fresh start took place in 2018. I think the American Jessie Potter said it best back in the 1980s .

“If you do what you’ve always done you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”
American, Jessie Potter, The director of the National Institute for Human Relationships

Shortly after moving to this amazing little and remote Scottish island we came across another interesting article that described us (humans) as “pain avoidance engines”. What does that mean?

Think about tax returns or going to the dentist. Most of us put it off because it just feels too painful to do it right now, and besides, we tell ourselves we’ve got all the time in the world and have far more important stuff to do, like washing our hair. But when that deadline gets closer and we risk the pain of paying a fine or ending up with toothache, we take a breath and just get on with it.

Here are a few of the pieces of advice we’d been given by amazing people that help us just get on with it, pack up and head for a fresh start on a very small, very Scottish, very remote island and make things work for us. The advice really worked for us and continues to help us as we’ve made our way through the first few years of our fresh start on this amazing Scottish island.

Celebrate the little things. Don’t focus on a big end goal.
Embrace failure. See it as getting one step closer to your idea of success
Just do it, try new things - And that means everything that pops up
Don’t focus on fitting in, be yourself - It’s why you ended up here in the first place
Accept that change is a good thing. It’s been happening every day since the beginning of time. (Just saying)
Talk to everyone. What’s the worst that can happen - nothing.
Listen to your gut feelings, they are usually right.
Don’t worry or be concerned about what anyone else thinks. It’s your life so live it

Listen to gut instinct and make decisions quickly

It’s often easier not to make big changes. To put it off for another day. We might feel pain, but we tell ourselves it’s bearable. Big change comes with the risk of the unknown, possible disappointment, failure and any number of negative outcomes – well that’s at least what our brain tells us. Simply too painful. Unknown to us at the time, just doing it and not thinking about it got us beyond the imagined pain of change. So I’m writing this in the middle of winter on the remote Scottish island of Tiree. When I say winter, it never drops much below 8℃, does not get icy or snow. Just saying.

Gut instinct, “thin slicing“, allows for quick decision making, and those quick decisions, however big or small, can be as good as, if not better than, those made cautiously and deliberately. You’ve all heard of overthinking no doubt. And as it turns out, once you’ve made one big change, in our case a fresh start on a small Scottish island, making another even bigger change often follows more easily. We couldn’t have anticipated what happened next.

What happens after you a make fresh start on a remote Scottish island?

It started with a simple innocent conversation. An orphan lamb offered to us to look after and accepted, because the thought of it being sent to slaughter was far too painful for both of us. Who could say no to such infinite cuteness anyway? Somehow one lamb turned into seven in the space of a few weeks. Seven adds up to a flock. So, what was just a cup of tea and a chat, whilst we were still settling in to our fresh start on our tiny Scottish island home, ended up being an even biggest addition to our fresh start. And our fresh start became a life changing fresh start for 7 lambs. The biggest change yet. We walked out as crofters with a very very small C.

Many a local must have thought we were bonkers (and probably still do). Not only did we decide to take on not just one, but seven lambs, we also gave them names (Nori, Kelp and Bubble, Popcorn, Noah, Dot and Matrix), and decided that they could just live in our garden. An upturned IBC filled with hay providing a makeshift shelter. Plenty of space for little lambs to run around and easy for those late evening bottle feeds. It must have been a curious sight; people would stop their cars and their bikes outside the house and come and have a look. Quite a few had never been close to lambs before, and we were never short of bottle feeding volunteers that summer.

“…we watched them thrive and take on their individual personalities as well as their place within the flock.”

Our grass kept nice and short, we watched them thrive and take on their individual personalities as well as their place within the flock. Matrix showing off his leaping skills, clearing even the highest fence with ease, taking turns with Noah at leadership and often fighting over food or attention. Nori turning into a gracious matriarch and Kelp developing her unusual sheepish skill of rolling onto her back for a fleece rub and then jumping right back up onto her feet again. Popcorn with the most unusual bleat it deserves to be named, and Bubble wagging his tail happily at every moment of human interaction. Our happy little flock.

Our minds started to shift to shaping their forever home and how we could make it all work without sending them off to slaughter or bankrupting ourselves. They would need space, shelter, food, medicine, visits from the vet. Keen to avoid chemicals and unnecessary medication, we embarked on huge amounts of research. Being strong advocates of wholesome nutrition and natural remedies anyway, we found that a number of herbs and spices that would help them fight infections naturally and help them become strong and resilient.

“Keen to avoid chemicals and unnecessary medication, we embarked on huge amounts of research.”

Fortifying their milk with garlic and adding herbs to their mineral feed, not only did they grow much bigger than is usual for orphan lambs, their fleeces also seemed to benefit hugely. That is when the idea first sparked. We could use their fleeces. We could make wool. We could make hats. Who doesn’t like woolly hat? We love a woolly hat. Don’t you?

Why did we move to a remote island?

If you haven’t been to our amazing new Scottish Island home before, the beautiful Isle of Tiree is a three-and-a-half-hour ferry ride from Oban, off the mainland of Scotland, the furthest west of the Inner Hebridean islands. Once you’ve been here for the first time it’s impossible not to feel like just moving and making it home. That’s what happened to us. We’d never been here before and within 20 minutes of stepping foot on the breathtaking miles of golden sand that was it. Tiree had to be our home. And, that’s how quickly we knew we had to make a fresh start here.

“12 miles long and 3 miles wide. You could almost call it a different world.”

A tiny dot on the map, about 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. You could almost call it a different world. Under the strong grip of the Atlantic, the climate here is completely different to the mainland warmer, brighter and powerful.

Visit Tiree

Summers are filled with long light days, sometimes it doesn’t go dark at all. Endless stretches of white and golden sands, waters shimmering in the sun, the deep turquoise calling for a dip. It’s a little paradise. Winters have a different charm, never falling much below seven degrees, there is no snow or ice to speak of. During this time of the year the Atlantic Ocean unleashes its power from time to time, enchanting the (wind)surfing community and photographers alike, reminding us who’s boss.

Conclusion

Turns out the best way to make a fresh start is to just do it. We didn’t plan ahead too much. Didn’t give ourselves time to think about what we were, actually, doing. We simply found a place to rent on the island, gave up what we were doing in the city and just went for it. Sold our home, put our life in containers and moved. All in a matter of weeks, ignoring the part of our brains that said “don’t change, you’re fine as you are”. And so into the cold and dark field I go, to check on our seven lambs. But I don’t mind. They bring a smile to my face and remind of how amazing fresh starts can be.

Next month the plot becomes woolly…