Nomadic [nō-ˈma-dik]: adj. Relating to, or characteristic of, being on the move.
In our digital age, more and more people work from home. A few common examples are: corporate employees who log in from a home office, entrepreneurs with Internet-based businesses, location-independent freelancers, and students and teachers of online learning.
The rapidly changing virtual landscape is impacting not only how we think about and do our work, but also how we think about and identify ‘home’. Defining home is personal, often changing along with circumstances, relationships, and stages of life.
For me, home has been many things: a place I can’t wait to return to and a place I’ve been eager to leave. A place defined by a specific dwelling, or by a town, city, state, country, continent, or hemisphere. For reasons I don’t fully understand, the most sincere definition of home I’ve held is planet Earth. (Even that at times feels like it only tells part of the story).
Each place I’ve been has connected me not only to sites and culture, but people. Staying with cousins in Italy, for example, and my six-month stay in Australia, where fellow international students became like family.
“Birds need a nest, and they still fly.” Gloria Steinem
It’s said that home is where the heart is. Yet if home is where the heart is, and your heart journeys across continents, defining home is not easy. A citizen of the world, and yet, I also really like the comforts of home. This has presented an ongoing dilemma: How do I establish a nest and still fly?
After decades of experimentation with where and how I live, I have a new kind of home. Together with my boyfriend and dog, I live full-time in an RV, traveling and working from the road. He is a remote employee. I am a location-independent business owner, coaching others on how to create a life and business they don’t need a vacation from. I’ve served clients spanning four continents; despite the miles between us, profound connections transcending time and space have been established.
We love our nomadic lifestyle, and privileged to be helping kindred spirits learn how to do it too. With some creative ingenuity, personalized planning, and intentional design, nomadic living can take a variety of forms and offer boundless possibilities.
That said, prior to making the lifestyle leap, my ability to work remotely felt as much a challenge as it did an opportunity: If I can live and work from anywhere, how do I choose where? How do I select one place when my heart lives so many places? What “nest” will provide the comforts of home, while not imposing limits on how much flying I can do?
Our RV is our mobile nest. We live where we park it, with no rigid itinerary or set destination. We have far less stuff and far more freedom. We explore and spend time with friends, new and old. We visit family across the county – people we likely wouldn’t otherwise get to see, and if we did, certainly not for as long. We cherish this time with the people in our lives.
Our journey inspires our work and our work inspires our journey. We are growing as a couple, and individuals. We experience a mix of city and country: from late nights salsa dancing, to hikes and campfires amidst nature’s unspeakable beauty, to movie nights cuddled up in our 20-foot home.
Our “nest” is small but our life is big. In many ways, life is not that different from how we lived before: we work, play, eat, shower, dance, explore. We have time alone, time together, time with others. As the saying goes, wherever you go there you are.
Repeatedly, others have said things like “I’m so jealous!”, “You’re living the dream!” and “Very inspiring”. I’ve come to realize the longing for mobility is a dream many share. I see others struggling, aching for more freedom and wondering how they too can create it. I empathize; for many years, this was me.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein
Rooted in routine, bound by bills, and fearful of what’s on the other side of the familiar – many feel trapped by circumstances. Trapped by a job, a mortgage, a lease, and by the needs and expectations of others. While consistency and sameness can support safety and efficiency, the downside is that same-old-same-old routines can become monotonous and detrimental, stifling creativity, impeding the spontaneity and fun that comes from the unplanned and unexpected.
“Creature of habit” behaviors can quickly become robotic, unconscious ways of being. Have you ever gotten into your car and gone to work, or the gym, or the grocery store, and after arriving realized you don’t remember the actual drive there? When you take the same route, time and time again, your mind goes into autopilot. This can happen with your life too. Especially for creative thinkers, and innovative dreamers, autopilot gets boring – at best!
Whether you feel a nagging restlessness, a longing for more variety, or motivated to make a big lifestyle change … know that ‘nomadic’ is not only a lifestyle, it’s a spirit and a state of mind. You can create anew from wherever you are by making a conscious shift in your routine. Even a slight change can bring more variety and open you up to new experiences.
Here’s an exercise to support this.
- Bring into focus: What do YOU do, in the same way, virtually every time? What’s your routine?
- Scan through a typical day in your mind and decide on something that you’ll do differently today that breaks your everyday “typical” pattern. Color outside the lines, so to speak. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering to be significant.
- Allow whatever you choose to be a symbolic welcoming of new patterns and experiences.Allow it to serve as a small yet powerful demonstration of your personal willingness to embark on a playful adventure into the unknown.
Here are a few ideas:
- Take a different route to work.
- Wear an outfit you never wear.
- Eat something new or different.
- If you always eat with others, eat alone – or vice versa.
- Call someone you haven’t talked to in years.
- Switch up your workout routine.
- Exit/enter through a different door than usual.
- Silly as it sounds, you might go outside and walk aroundyour home to get from one room to another. J
By stepping outside what’s familiar, outside your comfort zone, outside the everyday same-old-same-old, you are opening yourself up to new possibilities. Here’s to the journey!
