Is becoming a digital nomad the right move for you?

In the last 2 years, I've had so many amazing conversations with people about taking the leap to being a digital nomad.

This is how the chat usually goes….

The lifestyle looks incredible! Is it really that great? How do you make it work? Do you really get to sit on the beach and sip caipirinha’s whilst you work? Then the person lists out 10 worries about taking the leap.

My answer - yes it really is that incredible, but it’s not always easy - it really depends on you as a person and what you want from life.

So let me distil all my advice and the story about why I chose to take the leap.

Understand your motives for becoming a digital nomad.

The most important thing to assess to see whether becoming a digital nomad is right for you, is understanding why you would want to be a digital nomad. Your why for anything is what keeps you going, even when it's challenging. It is what allows you to check in and constantly see if you're living your life in alignment to your desires.

My motives.

When I was 22, I made a promise to myself. I promised myself that I would travel before I was 30. In my calculations, this gave me enough time to progress my career, meant I wouldn’t be ‘too old’, and it would give me time to come back home and settle down before I was ‘past it’.

It’s funny how we grow up with these expectations in England about age - but that’s a whole other story!

Fast-forward 4 years, and I broke my hip whilst running a half marathon. A year later, the pandemic hit and I spent 18 months working and living at home on my own.

I had two major realisations:

1. I could completely remote work and I actually really liked it
2. Life really is too short, anything could happen at any moment and I want to live it all now

The conclusion - being a digital nomad would allow me to:

1. Travel for longer, meaning I could live my life now
2. Combine pleasure and purpose, living a life that fully served me

Your motives

Before you decide whether you want to become a digital nomad, you should be clear on your why.

• Why do you want to become a digital nomad?
• Why is this preferable to staying in your home country / living as an expat?
• Which elements will you love so much that mean that you know this is the right choice, even when it is hard?

If you have great answers to all of these questions - then you can be pretty sure that this is the right move for you. I'll cover off the rest off your doubts a little further down!

How do you know whether being a digital nomad will actually work for you?

Sometimes we don’t have all of the answers in life, we have to take a leap and we have to experiment.

Sometimes that leap feels huge and it’s easier to stay in our comfort zone.

I was pretty sure that I would love the lifestyle, but the first couple of months were still hard!

I gained confidence that I would love the lifestyle as:

• I loved working from home and I became bloody brilliant at hosting remote workshops, presentations and engaging multiple teams virtually
• I worked remotely twice (a month each time) before I actually took the leap
• I had already travelled several times
• I was used to going solo - I’d taken solo trips and I lived on my own
• I knew I would miss my family, but I also didn’t see them during the pandemic and I found ways to make it work

If you’re not sure if it really will work for you, see if you can try it out beforehand.

• A lot of companies are offering some level of remote working - even if it’s one or two weeks. Ask your manager anyway and go for it!
• Take a trip within your own country if you can’t go abroad - there are loads of beautiful spots to see, even in the UK!
• Take a holiday to travel, really travel - stay in the kind of places you would stay as a nomad, see if you make friends and see if you feel at home there.

Make sure your pull factors are stronger than your push factors.

Push factors aren’t a bad thing. In fact, I truly believe that the worst thing that can happen to us in life is that nothing is bad enough to drive change. When we’re in that state, we sit in our comfort zone and don’t move anywhere - not realising our full potential state of happiness.

However, if your push factors are stronger than your pull factors - then you might be running away from something, and being a digital nomad won’t necessarily solve that for you.

The better your state of mind and ability to cope with anything is, the more you will enjoy life as a digital nomad.

My push factors

I really had doubts about whether I was doing the right thing. I questioned whether I was just running away, as I didn’t have a conventional British life. I was 29, single, and living in the city centre.

I was watching everyone else buy homes with their life partners, get a dog and really settle down.

Could I really just not cope with the reality that I wasn’t fitting in to traditional British society? Or did I not want to fit in?

Was I just running away from the pressure of careers and work, and not able to create happiness in my own space?

I worked so hard during the pandemic. I also went through a lot emotionally.

I did so much work during that time to focus on my mindset, balance and happiness. & it worked. I really did manage to give myself so many coping tools that I needed and raise my happiness levels. This was the proof and evidence that I needed to know that this wasn’t a push factor, but that I really did genuinely believe that I could be happier living an alternative way of life.

Even if you have push factors, I still think it’s worth trying the nomad lifestyle. You just need to be aware of these, as they might not go away just because you’re living in a different country. However, they’re often a lot easier to work on when you’re living by the ocean in the sun every day!

Going for it - becoming a digital nomad.

All of these factors are just the starting point for assessing whether the nomad lifestyle will work for you. If you’re reading all of this and thinking yes, yes, yes! I know why I want to be a digital nomad, I’ve already tried out the lifestyle, and I know that I’m not running away - then look out for my next articles for more detail on how to become a digital nomad, and how to really make the lifestyle work for you.

If you can’t wait for then, then drop me a message and I would love to chat and the lifestyle in more depth.

PS. No I don’t drink caipirinhas on the beach whilst working - they’re far too strong for that! ??