Becoming a digital nomad and working remotely while traveling the world feels like a dream come true. Spending at least a few months of the year abroad, changing your destination frequently and earning a living while working online… This is the definition of a digital nomad.
Working online allows you to travel the world and see many great places. You can live and work anywhere you want and there are many more benefits why you should consider going that route, but of course — life doesn’t all of the sudden become perfect just because you’re globetrotting the world.
The traditional office lifestyle isn’t better than being a digital nomad and vice versa.
Each of these lifestyle choices come with their unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Here’s the reality of what you can expect when it comes to the pros and cons of being a digital nomad:
Pros
- As digital nomads, you have the ability to work when and where you want. It can be a cute café in Paris or a bookstore in Argentina.
- Having the freedom to travel as much as you want.
- Living this kind of lifestyle gives you the freedom to choose when and where you work best, to pick the ideal living environment, the freedom of choice, etc.
- In the most unexpected moment/place/situation you can get a full dose of inspiration and this applies not only to your life but to your work.
- Meeting incredible people, people from all walks of life. Different backgrounds, statuses, ages, cultures.
- When it’s time to take a break, you can step out your door in the afternoon and you could be in a tropical paradise or a historic town in Europe. Paradise is wherever you go.
- You get to choose the environment that gives you the best quality of life.
- Most digital nomads are from countries like Canada, Austalia, France. These countries have the dollar with good buying power, so when you go to live somewhere where the cost of living is much less — your dollar goes much further.
- This lifestyle creates opportunities and life experiences.
- No office politics.
- Professionally, you’re surrounded by knowledged people and that can help accelerate your career progression. When it comes to personal growth, you can learn things about yourself you didn’t realize you needed to learn.
Cons
- The biggest challenge of living a nomadic life is loneliness. But over time you will learn some tricks to manage this.
- People will be fascinated by your lifestyle and think it’s cool, but sometimes they’ll treat you like some traveler who just lives off and trust fund or saving, when in fact you’re growing your career.
- If you don’t prioritize your work, learn when to say no and manage the time accordingly, you’ll find yourself on a slippery slope which will have you burnt out in no time.
- As good as it is that you never have to work alone sometimes you feel like you should always be working.
- You’re going to miss out on a lot of stuff from back home and this can be hard.
- With this location independent lifestyle still being in its infancy, people don’t get it — in many ways.
- Wifi doesn’t grow in trees and guess what? When you’re working online you sort of need wifi.
- Everything is a conscious effort and ca be mentally draining.
Just as life, traditional office lifestyle has its pros and cons, there are many pros and cons for this digital nomad lifestyle, because… The truth is that the grass is not greener on the other side. At the end of the day, you need to do what brings you happiness and fulfillment. If that traveling the world non-stop, great. It doesn’t matter. You do you. We all have different values, needs and wants and that’s what makes the world a beautiful and interesting place.
“Not everyone will understand and that’s ok.”
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