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Last updated on December 27th, 2023

There’s a phenomenal hitch in time that you’ve brushed up against in your life: it’s the feeling that every experience takes longer the first time you encounter it. Time slows down on your first day driving to a new job, or shopping in a new grocery store. The second pass at each of these tasks is mentally expedited. The mind switches to autopilot mode quickly and quietly, leaving a vague half-thought in the back of your mind: “This felt so much longer on the way there.” On these maiden journeys, you’re more engaged with life. 

This phenomenon is no accident, and there’s a simple equation behind it. If you want to slow the rate at which sand slips through life’s hourglass, have as many new experiences as possible. There are potentially many ways to achieve this result, but one of the grandest answers is travel. 

Restless feet have always turned to the road when grappling with how we spend our finite amount of time, but that life of wandering would force us to diverge from society at many points. Maintaining a career, relationships, and a silhouette of normalcy was elusive. While travelers who wish to quietly disappear into the currents of the world are still free to do so, it’s no longer necessitated by the journey. Income is now as mobile as we are, whether that be a salaried remote role or freelance opportunities with clients from around the globe. With a laptop and a WiFi connection, travelers can now have access to their careers, relationships, and familiar comforts from anywhere in the world. This is the age of the digital nomad. 

While we may be taking a road that society sees as less traveled, digital nomads are treading down a well-laid path set by travelers over millennia. We do, however, find ourselves in the unique position of being able to explore the world with our careers, income, and relationships in tow. How lucky are we to be alive right now? Whether it be through salaried positions or self-employment, aspiring travelers will read on the coming pages how travel works as a digital nomad, how to make a plan for themselves, and how to thrive abroad, even through life’s curveballs. 

You’ve found a portal into a life where you can have endless occurrences that summon you to awareness. Here’s how to walk through it.

Taken from my book How To Be A Digital Nomad.

Have a question, comment or thought to add? Leave a comment at the bottom and I’ll reply right away 🙂

Quotes For Digital Nomads

While these quotes might not be about the digital nomad lifestyle, they certainly apply and will have wanderlust-ers nodding their heads in agreement.

“Adventure is worthwhile in itself.” Amelia Earhart

“You should be alive as you can until you’re totally dead.” Dylan Moran

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“The journey is the destination.” Dan Eldon

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Helen Keller

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.” Jack Kerouac

“I have wandered all my life and I have traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” Hilaire Belloc

“if discontent is your disease, travel is medicine.” Jedidiah Jenkins

“I would rather own a little and see the world than own the world and see a little of it.” Alexander Sattler