Why I Became a Digital Nomad

The Internet is littered with tales of one-time digital nomads who went onto regret their decision. I'm not one of those, I love my life and being a digital nomad has been the most consistent happiness I've known.

With most of my adult life being spent backpacking, travelling, or living abroad in some capacity, I went into this with my eyes wide open and nothing has really surprised me, but it's definitely not a lifestyle to suit everyone.

Others will have different justification, but these are the reasons why being a digital nomad suits me.

What is the meaning of life?

When I leave this world, I want it to be a better place because I was part of it. That's the overriding motivator for everything I do.

I envision that one day, hopefully a long way into the future, I'm lying on my deathbed looking back at my life, powerless to go back and change anything, and in that moment I want to be happy with what I see.

I'm sure every person that accepts their mortality has a similar vision, and what one person views as success in their life may hold no influence over someone else. For some people money is how they measure success. For others it's power, or fame, or relationships, or inventiveness, or excitement, or adventure, or influence and none of these are wrong.

Until such time that we have plausible explanation for why we're here to begin with, there is no right or wrong way to live. For me though the measure of success I have chosen is I want the world to be a happier, kinder, more positive place because I was part of it. I want to know that more happiness exists because I was here, than if I had never been here at all. That is success and that is what motivates me. And in order to project positivity, the first thing you need is to be a positive, happy person yourself. So the reason that I live like I do? Quite simply, this is a lifestyle that makes me happy.

Perhaps that was obvious from the beginning. After all, why would I live like this if it didn't make me happy? Yet I will meet people with regularity who tell me that I could make so much more money by living a different way, or changing certain things, which is certainly true. However, unlike them money has never been my primary motivator. It is only important to the extent I need it to comfortably survive, but once I have a roof over my head, food in my belly, and a little bit more to bring solace to my lifestyle, then it becomes worthless. At that point I will never sacrifice happiness for wealth.

I have found more happiness from this lifestyle than any other way I've lived. Why? What is it about being a digital nomad that makes me happy?

Routine check-up

You know something I really like in my life? Having a routine. And you know something I really hate? Having a routine.

If I have no daily routine, for example when I arrive somewhere new, then whatever I do on that first day, I'm likely to do on the second day, the third day, and every day after that as well. I'm a creature of habit and find comfort in doing things with regularity.

Yet the more time I spend following in the same footsteps, the more I start to care about the intricate details to the point that the most insignificant deviation can ruin my mood.

For example, back when I lived in Bangkok I used to work six days per week. Every day I'd take the subway two stops to the school that I worked at, and because I did this exact same route almost daily for three years, every tiny detail of it was locked-into my mind.

I went back to Bangkok in 2022, four years after I'd left, and for sentimental reasons I decided to walk down the street I used to live on. It was only then I realised quite how intricately I knew the fifteen-minute walk to the subway station, because four years later I could point-out which paving stones had moved, where there was a new pot-hole or one that had been filled, things like that.

After three years of taking the same route to work everyday, I was so set in my ways that I always stood in the exact same place on the platform while I waited for the train. It was simultaneously the closest set of doors to the exit of the station I'd get off at, while also being right beneath an air conditioner which was always pleasant after walking there in the Bangkok heat.

I would start work in the late afternoon, a quiet time on the trains, and I'd board at a fairly quiet station, so I'd often have the platform to myself. Every few weeks though, I'd come down onto the platform and someone would be stood in my spot, waiting for the train. And while common sense would tell you that's a completely insignificant thing, it's a public platform and there are many, many other places I can stand, when I was so locked-into doing the same routine day after day, it would bother me.

When you get to that point by having the same routine for too long, then it becomes a horrible thing. A huge stressor on your life, and in my experience the only way to break it is to take a holiday, to take a step back, to get away for a while, to look at your life from a distance, and to start again from scratch.

For a short time a routine is a comforting and necessary tool to live well, but over a longer period it becomes a poison. When you don't have a routine, for example if you're backpacking, you long for one. I remember backpacking and dreaming about having a nice, steady job rather than a constant shift of moving from hostel to hostel. Yet how many people in their nice, steady jobs spend their day dreaming about taking a vacation? I know I sure did at times I've been settled.

This was the primary reason that I sought that the digital nomad lifestyle was right for me, and why now living it, I still think it's right for me. It gives me the perfect balance of routine.

While extenal factors, primarily visas, can dictate how long I stay in each place, typically I'll go somewhere for about a month.

In a month I am settled enough that I can build a routine and have comfort in my day, yet right when I start to get obsessive about it, I leave, go somewhere new and start again.

This lifestyle has a built-in safeguard that doesn't allow your world to become too small. Forget about the travel, or the socialising, or the cultural experiences, or anything else that people typically proclaim motivates them to live like this. For me the number one benefit is I'm at my happiest when I get to move location with moderate regularity, but not so much that I feel like a constant tourist.

Work in progress

In much the same way that keeping the same daily routine for too long leads to a level of insanity, working too hard, especially in the same job, can be equally damaging.

While happiness may be my overriding goal, a lot goes into trying to be a happy person, and perhaps the most imporant factor is health. If you're not physically and mentally healthy it's hard to live with a smile on your face, and human beings weren't designed to work for forty hours per week. Estimates differ, but the hunter-gatherers that took responsibility for a large part of our evolution used to 'work' about fifteen hours per week. Fifteen hours hunting/gathering. That's roughly what we evolved to do.

I don't know where the idea of a forty-hour work week came from, but I have never held a full-time job and been happy or content. Even in the better jobs, my employment has always been accompanied by a level of misery, where I'm being worn-down mentally and I'm too exhausted to take care of myself physically.

I count my blessings that I was born where I was, not because I hold any pride in being British or have a patriotic bone in my body. No, my thanks is simply that we're one of the richer countries on earth, which means we also have high salaries compared to much of the world. And while living in London might require me to work five days per week to be comfortable, I can take that same wage to cheaper countries and be comfortable working two days per week, so that's what I do.

If you look where I go as a digital nomad, it is not North America, it is not Japan, Korea or Singapore, it is not Australia, and it is not northern or western Europe. Why? Why would I go to an expensive country when I can get an equal or better quality of life for significantly less elsewhere?

I recently had a friend who was coming to Athens, where I was at the time. She asked me when I'd be free and responded by laughing when I said "I'm free from Tuesday evenings to Monday mornings."

I'd never actually put it in those terms before, but I had to chuckle along with her because in the current cost of living crisis, the fact I can have so much free time while still being comfortable is a rare and beautiful thing, and the only thing that makes it possible is being a digital nomad.

When I graduated university and started backpacking when I was 23, the motivation I told myself was "I don't want to spend my entire life sitting in an office." That was before remote working was really a thing, but even now, fifteen years later, I still feel the exact same way. I just don't really think that a person can be happy while working forty hours per week. No matter what your job is, your mind needs variety. And if you're responsible and smart with your money, that's what this lifestyle offers. It offers you the chance to live in a far more cost-efficient manner than is possible in a typical developed country.

I have a five-day weekend every week and I cannot overstate the mental health benefits compared to when I've had full-time work.

Winter is coming

I don't like winter. Never seen the point of it. It's cold and dark and depressing. You can't go outside without wrapping yourself from head to toe, you get a deficiency of sunlight because even when you do go outside, your skin isn't exposed, and who wants to have six hours per day of daylight? When stationary you have little choice but to live with this annual depression, but now I'm a digital nomad, I don't.

I own no trousers, only shorts. I carry one hoodie with me that'll occasionally make an appearance for flights but apart from that I just have t-shirts, and the reason is if I ever find myself somewhere so cold that I can't be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt, I leave. I don't want to be there.

I hear people say things like "I like the winter because it makes me appreciate the summer."

What utter bollocks. People in hot countries are so much happier, so why expose yourself to seasonal misery when you can swap hemispheres or move closer to the equator when winter arrives?

Find your why

So that's it really. That is my motivation for being a digital nomad. I would love to tell you that it's about experiencing culture and having adventure, and maybe that does play a very small part, but the truth is that I've spent so much of my life abroad that I get zero excitement from going somewhere new and I've never cared much for culture. In truth I don't really know what it means.

When you ask people they'll tell you things like "it's the food and the music," but if that was true you didn't have to fly all the way to India, you could have just gone to the local curry house.

Perhaps as a way of justifying the expense, people always want to embelish their overseas trips and make it sound like they've had these life-changing experiences. My experience tells me that people are pretty much the same the world over, and having some different food doesn't justify flying 6,000 miles. For me it's really that regular change is necessary so I don't fall into the same routine and start to care about things that simply don't matter. Couple that with the financial benefit of being in cheaper countries, and the physical and mental benefit of going places that are warm and have at least twelve hours of daylight, and that is why I live like this.

I remember five years ago, towards the end of my time living in Bangkok and the end of my career as an English teacher, one of my colleagues said to me that "you're always so angry." And she was right, I was. I was stuck in a routine, doing the same things everyday, and I did not enjoy my life.

I've been quite sociable in Athens, going out partying a couple of times most weeks. And someone said me the other day "I'm glad you come out. You're always so happy."

At that moment I had to take a step back and reflect, because it showed me how much this lifestyle has changed me. I was once the guy that no one wanted to be around because I was always in a bad mood. Now I'm the opposite.

This lifestyle isn't for everyone. There are sacrifices you have to make to live this way, and many people aren't willing to make them. For me though, for my personality, it's the only time in my life I've known consistent, long-term happiness. It's the perfect balance between backpacking and settled. I don't move too much, but I don't move too little. It gives me just enough comfort and security without it turning into mundanity. And for me, and for what I've chosen as the measure of success in my life, it is the best way that I can live.

My reasons won't work for you, you have to find your own, but I hope this article can point you in the right direction to know where to start looking.