Week 50: Burnout, Big Moves and Listening to Your Gut – Simon de los Rios on Starting Over in Germany

In this episode of PlusFortyNine, we talk to life and career coach
Simon de los Rios about what really happens when you reinvent
yourself far from home. Simon grew up in Colombia, spent almost two
decades in Miami, studied in Europe and eventually chose Germany as
the “hardest” next step: new language, coldest climate, barely any
prior connection. Behind that decision were years of high-pressure
leadership jobs, a pattern of burning out every five years and
several long sabbaticals that ended in a silent retreat in
Indonesia – and the realisation that something had to change.
Together they talk about migration as a permanent transition, the
pressure to just “take any job” to keep the visa, how to make space
for intuition in the middle of bureaucratic chaos, and why he now
makes decisions based on excitement rather than fear. Sigrid shares
her own crash-landing from diplomat to suddenly visa-less in Berlin
– and why she still chose to stay. This episode is a reminder that
if you’ve managed to migrate, you’ve already done something
incredibly hard. You’re allowed to be proud of that, even while
you’re still figuring out what comes next.