Wanderlust as a Way of Life
Maybe you’re chasing the sun, or maybe you don’t care where you end up you’re just trying to satisfy your eternal wanderlust.
Whatever your motivation, we’re all searching for the same thing a job that won’t tie us down. To older generations this can sound like a crazy idea. No real job is going to let you jet set around the world. Anyways working remotely is a myth…. you don’t actually get any work done anyways. But to many millennials, and Generation Z-ers, the thought of working from anywhere is an extremely appealing idea.
Cue in the rise of the digital nomad. To our parents and grandparents, digital nomads are hippie backpackers who never grew up. To us, digital nomadism is a revolutionary way of working that doesn’t tie us down to one city, country or continent. With the rise of the internet, we’re now free to pick where we want to live and work.
And digital nomads aren’t all famous Instagram travel bloggers the way everyone thinks. That’s not to say that you can’t create a travel blog and possibly profit from it, but that’s definitely not the only way to make the leap from a traditional job to one that doesn’t limit you to one city or country.
There are a ton of ways that you can balance working and traveling. Many tech-based skills lend themselves well to digital nomadism. If you’re a programmer, web developer, graphic designer, community manager, or even a teacher, you can take your skills abroad. As long as you’re willing to get creative, it’s possible to do what you love while traveling. Platforms like fivver.com and UpWork, make the idea of freelancing a bit more accessible. They’re a good way to publicize your skills and start building up a steady set of clients. It can even be possible to negotiate a remote working opportunity with your employer. If your work isn’t something that’s location specific, some employers are open to this opportunity. Other people become nomad entrepreneurs! They just create a service or product while working from different places all around the world.
It’s really up to you. If you really want to commit to the lifestyle there’s a multitude of things you can do to make it a reality. There are a couple things that you may want to take into consideration when taking this leap of faith.
- Internet Access- This is probably one of the biggest concerns that digital nomads face… Will I have internet? Most of us rely on internet to be able to do our work and to connect with our clients. While in the United States it’s common for every coffeeshop to have free wifi that they’re willing to share with customers, that’s not as common elsewhere around the world. I’m currently based in Madrid, and if I want to work outside my house I need to find a “hipster” bar that is geared towards remote working. Most typical Spanish coffee places aren’t accustomed to people sitting around and working for hours and they don’t always have wifi. So make sure that you’ll have steady enough internet that you can work.
- Cost of Living- One of the challenges of the nomad life and the freelance life is money. While it’s always great to have a steady stream of consistent customers, it’s not always realistic. So it’s always good to be aware of how expensive the places you’re living in are in order to calculate how comfortable financially you’ll be living there.
- Co-working/ Coffeeshop vibes- A worry that many people have is how are they going to make friends or meet people. Isn’t traveling alone all the time isolating? That’s why looking into the co-working and general digital nomad scene can be a good idea. They offer a great way to meet other people living the same kind of life that you are, or if not just to meet people within the city you’re living in. It’s a great way to make new friends.
If you want to explore options here’s a cool website that I’ve found that ranks cities based on nomad’s feedback.
Uprooting your life can be scary, but if you, like me, have insane wanderlust or you’re just looking for a change of pace being a digital nomad could be a great idea for you. From personal experience (I moved from the US to Spain right after graduating college), taking the first step is the hardest. You don’t know if you’ll make friends; whether you’ll like the new city etc. But life in general is unpredictable, and from my experience once I took the leap of faith I loved it. One of the positives of being so interconnected is that it’s easier than ever to stay connected with family, friends, clients and even mentors no matter where you are. There are apps and services that help make living abroad and working abroad simpler. Now you can travel the world while running your own business with no setbacks.
Want to ensure that your business is on the right track, but don’t want to be tried down to a physical space for this support? Or do you want to help small business owners structure their business but you’re always on the move? Check us out at Bridge for Billions where you can get the support you need no matter where you’re based.
