You all heard about the ancient nomads. They carried all of their belongings packed in a bag, lived their lives under the open sky, and found their home whenever they found drinking water and enough pasture for their cattle. Now, one would assume that in this day and age this kind of life is, for a number of reasons, all but impossible, and one would be right. However, only partially. You see, although the glorious days of ancient riders from the steppes are long gone, nomadism is experiencing a sort of modern renaissance. The only thing that changed in the meantime is the way the nomads are making their living.
Who are the “Digital Nomads?”
The origins of digital nomadism are as old as telecommuting. And, indeed, much like the other telecommuters which are dealing with their obligations using laptops, smartphones, and cloud-based applications, digital nomads are relying on the same tools, but, unlike their stationary colleagues, they traded the comfort of their homes for the freedom to do their job from whatever place in the world they see fit. Sure, you can look at them as ordinary telecommuters with an itch for travel, but it is much more interesting to imagine them as restless spirits, and noble wanderers who changed their cattle for laptops, and pasture for the Wi-Fi. One of these nomads, independent ebook designer Jenet Brent claims that she is not paid to travel. “I simply choose the lifestyle” Brent said.
Are Digital Nomads Really a Thing?
Although the exact number of people who chose to live their lives on the road is very hard to assess, you just have to take into consideration that the pool from which they originate grows impressively large (According to some estimations people which are, at least occasionally, working from their homes is making up 37% of the entire U.S. workforce), and it will be easy to conclude that it is definitely not small. Speaking in the favor of this is the fact that the demand for the jobs digital nomads are doing is also on the rise.
Does that Sound Too Good to Be True?
That leads us to the question if every telecommuting job is capable of supporting this exciting lifestyle? The short answer would be – hardly. Sure, trading stocks and binary options can go you a long way, so it is always wise to constantly look for more info about them, and professions like blogging, freelance journalism, and digital photography can only benefit from the constant travel and new experiences, but even then nomadism can prove to be too challenging for the people who are not really “into it”.
Nomadic Hardships
Jodi Ettenberg, who quit her job as a corporate lawyer to become a traveling blogger claims that the flexibility of her life can sometimes be overwhelming, and that she occasionally has problems staying healthy when she puts her body under stress by moving around. And then, there is a question of where you are going to live. While some cities like Buenos Aires and Berlin prove to be a very fertile ground for nomadism, some other places can easily become a nightmare due to language, limited internet access, visas, and underdeveloped infrastructure.
Living a Dream
So, it seems that if you want to succeed as a nomad, you have to have a talent, find the job that will be able to support such a life, be very choosy about the places you are going to visit, and work very hard to make it all possible. So, is it really worth it? If you ask nomads they would not have it any other way. Another blogger, Colin Wright says that he would not abandon his way of living for some other job unless it would allow him even more freedom. “At the moment, this is the absolute best lifestyle I can possibly think of”, he claims. So, yes, it is obvious that dreams have a price, but how does that makes them any different from any other thing in life? As long as they are able to identify the price of their dreams, nomads will be more than willing to pay it.
That was a short insight into the lives of digital nomads, people who abandoned the life of comfort to live a life of adventure and excitement. What is most important is they found the way to marry their jobs with their passion, and that is, in the end, the perfect recipe for happiness.
