My #1 Piece of Advice For Digital Nomads (From a 1+ Year Location Independent Writer)
People assume being location independent is freeing.
In some ways, it is. Living out of a backpack and having the ability to go to a new city at moments notice is incredibly freeing. It teaches you how large your wings are and how capable you are of flying to wherever has the most opportunity for you, in that moment.
On the contrary, that freedom can become debilitating. Consistently trying to figure out where to go becomes a full time job. It took me three months to burn out, six months to get my stamina back and one year to figure out what I really wanted.
As a location independent writer, my advice is to stay in places long enough to create a community around you.
Don’t hop from city to city because you see all of the other backpackers doing it.
Stay in each city for weeks or months, and live in shared living spaces whenever you can. Shared living spaces is essential because you want to arrive and have the opportunity, personalities abiding, to walk into a community.
I believe, and what I’m working towards, the dream is to have several location independent, like-minded friends who travel around together. This way you have the freedom to live wherever you’d like, without the burden of feeling lonely and unattached.
If this “perfect” community doesn’t happen right away, by staying in places longer you remove the burn out of traveling through several cities in a week.
Here are a few of my other Medium answers that give advice to those seeking location independence:
