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5 Reasons to Consider Becoming a digital nomad

So you’re considering becoming a digital nomad? Good. It was the best decision of my life. I became a digital nomad way back in 2010 (you can read my longer story here). I had been working in telesales in Australia (awful) when I decided to start a travel blog, and try to visit every country in the world instead. It changed the course of my life. I worked out how to make money from a blog, and was shocked how much money bloggers make. Soon, I had made my first $1m from my blog way back in 2015. Now it’s your turn. Not convinced it’s right for you just yet? Read on.

I hope these 5 simple reasons will help convince you that it’s the right choice. Taking a leap into the unknown is scary. Who knows what the future brings. Will you make enough money? Will your life be better? It’s impossible to tell, but you have to give yourself that chance, the chance of your dream life. And you know what? I can guarantee becoming a digital nomad is better than what I used to feel, back in the real world, as my weekend started to end, and the new working week was on the horizon.

That slow depression building throughout Sunday morning, the dread growing and growing as the last day of your weekend threatens to expire. You know you should go to sleep because you’re up early tomorrow, but going to sleep means that you close your eyes, only to open them eight hours later and begin the monotonous weekly routine all over again. This isn’t the life you dreamed of. 

The Monday Blues? Don’t Accept them

So Monday comes all too soon once more. Same shitty iPhone alarm going off at an ungodly hour, same groggy rushed shower, same shitty commute using the same apps to keep your mind off the boring journey ahead. Same watercooler small talk, same Monday morning meetings, and same shitty pay cheque at the end of the month. Not quite what you had in mind for your adulthood. Time for a change? I think so. Becoming a digital nomad has never been so appealing.

Becoming a digital nomad

There’s a new breed of people shaking up the status quo. People who worry less about the time of a meeting, and more about which time zone they’re in. Digital Nomadism is in its ascendancy, and it’s easy to see why. Our generation is fed up. Fed up with an awful job market, overpriced housing and a life of middle management. Stupid people are becoming more famous, the Western media are fear-mongering like never before and we all thought that life was supposed to be much cooler than this. And it can be. COVID alone showed us working remotely is more than possible. Now we have to truly embrace it.

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What is a Digital Nomad?

A digital nomad is someone who isn’t confined by office space, office attire or office politics. They can work wherever they want as long as they have an internet connection. There are no set hours, often no boss, and you don’t have to call in sick to skip work because you want to go wakeboarding, knowing that you’ll happily pull an all-nighter tomorrow to make up for it.

Digital Nomads make their money online through blogging, affiliate marketing, social media, ebooks, coaching and a host of other ingenious methods, and often they even have a ‘normal’ job but work from their laptop rather than an office. We’re location independent and we love it.

How Do I Go About becoming a Digital Nomad?

The golden question. Firstly, it may be possible for your current role to become remote. Discuss it with your boss, you never know. Even better though, is becoming your own boss as a digital nomad. For me, starting my blog changed my life. Within 3 years I had made a million dollars from blogging through direct advertising. And I’ve made more than another $1m since then.

I advise everyone who is interested in becoming a digital nomad to start a blog. Whether you want to become a big blogger or not. It helps you find your voice, it allows you to crystalise your thoughts, and it can easily become either a side-hustle or even more. Sign up to my blog and you get a FREE copy of my ebook explaining exactly how I changed my life, and I hope it can help inspire you guys to change yours. If you’re on a desktop, there’s a signup box in the sidebar, if you’re on your phone, click here and scroll down to the sign-up box.

If you want to learn to become a blogger, email me on johnny@onestep4ward.com. I offer 6 sets of 30 minute phone calls for $500. 

Now, If the monotonous routine is getting you down, if you look back at your last five years and think ‘what have I actually done in that time’, then it’s time to shake it up. Here are five reasons why you should become a digital nomad:

Freedom

The best thing about being a digital nomad is undoubtedly genuine freedom. I’m talking full-blown, naked star-jumping, Braveheart style freedom. Anyone who has spent any time in a ‘real job’ will know what it feels like to be confined. Not being able to take advantage of that sweet deal to Paris because you don’t have enough vacatin time left, that sucks. It shouldn’t be that way, and it doesn’t have to be.

Freedom isn’t qualified by the sexy car you have parked out front. Imagine living in Thailand for six months, working on a beach, drinking $1 fruit shakes for breakfast every day. You have an epiphany, you would love to learn Spanish in Colombia. No talking, no social media bravado, no false dawns – you’re off next week. Flight booked and salsa lessons organized. That’s freedom. Becoming a digital nomad means true freedom.

Money

I have had one ‘real’ job in my life, originally I’m from Ireland but after teaching English in Thailand for a while, I moved to Sydney on an Australia working holiday visa and worked in a sales job. Great money, I thought, the first time I ever made five figures in a month. But my mindset was wrong. If I make $10,000, what’s the guy upstairs making?! Now that’s more like it. Now we’re getting somewhere. 

Becoming a digital nomad, you pocket the profit. Sure, we have expenses like anyone else, but the rest, that’s yours. You expand your little empire as and when you want, as the numbers increase so does your bank balance. Making someone else rich is not the grand plan folks. Remember that. Becoming a digital nomad means that money can be your friend, instead of your enemy.

Opportunity

Once you make the leap to becoming a digital nomad, you’ll spend the first year having your mind blown. Cool people doing amazing things all over the place. People starting NGOs, people making six figures in a month, people outsourcing to the extent they work an hour a week – madness.

In the confines of your ‘old life’, a successful person was someone who got promoted a year or two early, someone who saved the deposit for their flat a apartment quicker. Prepare to reset your success-radar. And for every one of these people you meet, network with, befriend, another door will open for you. The opportunities that come your way will never cease to amaze you now all you have to do is catch the right one and run with it. Becoming a digital nomad suddenly gives you access to people and places you could never have dreamt of in your old life. 

Minimalism

The old fight club adage of “the things you own end up owning you” often rings true. Minimalism doesn’t mean wearing the same dirty jeans, and not washing your hair for months on-end. Minimalism represents getting your house in order. The world is a big, sexy place – full of stuff cooler than you can imagine. Focusing on keeping up with the Jones’ distorts all that, big TVs are cool but only if you can afford them without thinking twice. Get your shit straight, keep it simple, and prioritise accordingly.

Now don’t get me wrong. When I first made the leap to digital nomadism I was broke, but I was free, and I loved it. For a few years, I literally owned only what was in my backpack, I rented an apartment in Thailand and I hustled until I could upgrade my life. With the first $100k I had, I bought an apartment in Bangkok, Thailand, in cash and went out and bought the biggest TV I could find. I’m not knocking nice things, just don’t let them own you. Don’t put them on a pedestal, your life comes first, everything else is secondary. Becoming a digital nomad allows you to free yourself from stuff.

Life

Youth shouldn’t be wasted on the young, we should grab it, embrace it and use it. We’re mobile, healthy, ambitious and hungry. Living paycheque to paycheque, paying down credit card debt and overpriced phone bills means you’re doing it wrong.

Never in history has a demographic like ours been so blessed with opportunity. We don’t need to come from a wealthy family, I sure as hell didn’t, we don’t need the right surname, right schooling or right skin colour. If you can speak English and can access the internet then you literally have no excuses as to why your life isn’t meeting your expectations, no matter how lofty they are. In fact, the loftier the better. Take ownership over your where you are right now, and where you’d like to be.

Becoming a digital nomad means you can really live your life. You can volunteer in obscure places, you can watch the wildebeest migration, visit tribes, ride in hot air balloons and climb mountains. You can party till sunrise and you don’t have to feel guilty for it. Life is meant to be lived. Digital nomadism allows you to live your life in abundance.

THOUGHTS ON BECOMING A DIGITAL NOMAD

The world has never been safer, never been smaller. So if not now, then when? Never? Don’t live in fear. Take the leap of faith. Network with the right people, offer your services, inter, learn, do what it takes. Because there’s nothing worse than middle-age and a ‘what if’. So when people ask me about my lifestyle, here’s my honest, brutal answer. I hope I never get sucked back into the ‘real world’, I hope I never have a ‘real job’, you can keep it. You know why? Cos my ‘real world’ is f*cking awesome. Long live digital nomadism. Good luck peeps x

Now if you want to get started, here’s my blog post on how to start a travel blog of your own…  in less than 30 minutes. Don’t be one of the crowd, life’s too short for that.

Travel Insurance for Digital Nomads

Most travel insurance companies won’t cover you as a Digital Nomad. But my insurance company will! I’ve been using Safety Wing from the first day that I heard about them. They cover EVERY country in the world except for North Korea and Iran, so no matter where you are, you’re covered. And it’s only $9 a week, and you can cancel at any time. Pretty epic. I wrote a review about them here. But if you can’t be bothered with any more information, you can go directly and sign up with them HERE.