I’ve been traveling the world as a digital nomad and skiing my heart out for more than 1,000 consecutive days.
That was my biggest childhood dream no doubt. And when I started creating this lifestyle for myself, I had never met anyone who had done it before. This made it terrifying.
I was afraid that I would not be able to figure out how to work for myself online. That I wasn't going to be able to build my van. I was so scared that I would waste all of my time and money just to be forced to take the normal path of society.
And the thing that scared me the most was I thought I was going to be judged for making the decisions that I did.
After more than 1,000 consecutive days of traveling and working for myself, I couldn't be happier with my decision =)
That said, I did learn a few things along the way.
I’ve been in some pretty horrible conditions, namely winter weather.
And sometimes it sucks. I’ll just work or read instead of doing something fun like skiing. Over the years I realized that what's far more important than the conditions outside, is who I am with.
Surrounding yourself with joyful friends who constantly make the best out of any situation is a huge step in being joyful yourself.
Not only that, but sometimes I find myself in a poor and less fortunate part of the world. But the people there are so insanely nice that it became one of my best memories.
And being in many different parts of this world has shown me time and time again, that your physical location does not mean much of anything. But the people I surround myself with mean everything.
Pretty similar to what Jim Rohn once said, you are a reflection of the people you spend the most time with.
Most Americans are quick to give advice. But they are slow to listen to a person's desires and goals.
Our society mostly pushes people to go to school, get a job, get married, buy a house and start pumping out children.
And for some people this is great. For other people, this is a nightmare.
When I was graduating from College in 2019, most of my professors thought I was crazy for wanting to live the digital nomadic life that I am currently living. And it’s difficult for these baby boomers to understand how possible this is because they lived in an era that is so different from today.
Making it hard for some people to give me realistic advice.
Which made me realize that I should only take advice from people who I wanted to be like. Because if I listened to people who lived a lifestyle that I was not interested in, I would end up becoming like them.
When traveling full-time, I had a 30-minute morning routine to start my day. After it, every single day was completely different.
This is super fun and perfect for traveling! But every now and again not having a structured life becomes irritating and makes me feel unproductive.
To be honest, I never fully created a solution to this problem, but what helped to change my mindset the quickest was to do some sort of fitness. If I don’t have much time, 50 pushups are perfect. If I have time, a 1-hour long workout is great.
Coming to peace with the fact that every single day is completely different is a huge step forward in vagabonding.
And leaving your past life behind you, I highly recommend it!! You learn so much about yourself and experience things you’ll never forget.
I frequently meet other travelers who say things like, “I’ve lived more in the last 3 months of traveling than the last 10 years”
And I couldn’t agree more. Go out into the unknown and make your dreams come true.