Becoming a digital nomad can be the path that shakes you out of your routine stupor and catapults you towards your ideal self.
Temporarily leaving behind the familiar routines, people, and environments can give you the freedom necessary to more easily recreate yourself, craft out your own personal vision, or to simply figure out who you want to be. The digital nomad lifestyle can offer ample time for self-reflection, self-discovery, and deep introspection. This often leads to a deeper understanding of oneself.
The stability in our daily lives can often be a double-edged sword. To be surrounded by the familiar is predictable, and easy. Family and close bonds are a wonderful thing; they provide safety, security, comfort, and much more. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen from my clients is that there can also be a cost.
Our families and our closest friends like us just the way we are. You are predictable and they know exactly what to expect with you. For them, you changing can be scary on 2 levels. First, they are afraid that they will lose you. And second, you changing reminds them of their own glaring inadequacies and this breeds resentment. Many of your friendships may even be built on certain activities and habits that you don’t want to continue or are holding you back from your potential. Some people who witness you trying to change in a direction that does not suit them will try to stop you.
Waking up in a place where no one knows you may sound isolating and lonely for some. But the reality is that this intoxicating level of freedom gives you the opportunity to become whoever you want. You don’t have to be the person that your family or friends want you to be. You don’t have to be constrained by the people that know you as a certain kind of person. I discovered this for myself when I left my hometown after finishing university. I started traveling Australia and then began working and living at a ski resort in Mount Kosciuszko National Park. And this was just the beginning of my own personal development story. I slowly realized that I didn’t have to be the shy, socially anxious, and tentative boy that grew up as the smallest kid in school every year. I could decide to evolve and be so much more. I realized that I could be anyone I wanted.
You can use your new environment as a platform to develop yourself. You can take the time to decide who you want to be, and simply become it. Embody it. And your new environment will accept it rather than fight to keep you in place.