My Next Nomadic Adventure - Finding Freedom & Balance

I’m super excited to announce that in less than a week I will be embarking on my next and most exciting (and scary) adventure yet.

After four months of being back in Australia to see family and working my absolute ass off in a full-time desk job at a games studio. As well as juggling a second freelance online job and living so cheaply, it would even make college students appear to be living it up. I have managed to save up a bit of cash and am ready to take the next exciting step in both my travels and life as a digital nomad.

Digital Nomad Life So Far

Ever since I started this blog and my first nerdy adventure back in late 2012, when I was building up from rock bottom, I had aspirations of one day becoming a digital nomad. To truly live free from location, supporting myself through online income. In mid-2015, that dream was finally realized when I moved to Chiang Mai Thailand with less than a couple of months of money to my name and no income. Sure, enough it was a success, and I found online work and discovered an amazing community of freelancers and entrepreneurs. During those four month’s I discovered a lot about the digital nomad and freelance community and grew personally more than I had in any part of my life.

My Apartment in Chiang Mai

However, unfortunately, this did not come without sacrifice. Although I had found work and was earning enough to support myself. The reality was that I pretty much spent the entire time doing 50-70 hr weeks living in coffee shops and stressing about money, work and what I was going to do next. Ultimately this left me completely unbalanced and burnt out.

Digital Nomad Life 2.0

Learning from My First 3 Months As a Digital Nomad, This time round I am doing things a little different. Firstly I am taking more than two month’s money (Over 5 months worth) . While sure it is true that you don’t need much money to start out as a digital nomad (especially in Asia), and it is true low money can be a great motivator to give you that push you to need to hustle and do things you otherwise wouldn’t. However it goes both ways, You can have all the freedom in the world but if you don’t have any money the reality is your options will be very limited, and you will probably be stressed out and worried about trying to make money short term instead of focusing on your longer passions.

Can’t beat vegemite on toast for a cheap meal 😉

On this next trip I want to focus on balance. This is something I have struggled with my whole life, especially over the last few years. I seem to either be on long extended backpacking trips, relaxing on the beach and being carefree or I am stuck working 50+ hour weeks at a desk job I dislike.Even during my time in as a digital nomad in Chiang Mai where I was surrounded by amazing sights and people I was working 50+ hr weeks and lived my entire week stressed in a coffee shop in front of a laptop.

Future Plans & Finding Balance

Which brings me to my next adventure, I’m really excited to be heading to DNX digital nomad conference in Bangkok in early March where I can reconnect with my digital nomad tribe and catch up with friends and work more on the online money making side of things. I even managed to fit in a 24 hr stopover in Singapore on the way.

After Bangkok, I have no set plans. However, I know that I want to take a break and get back in touch with travelling again. I have loose plans to check out India for a couple of months and focus on my spiritual and adventurous side (I have been really getting into yoga and meditation lately).

Me getting my hippie on in Guatemala

However as always these plans are completely open to change. For me the true beauty and fun of travel and life as an independent location nomad is just taking life as it comes and going with the flow.

I look forward to sharing my future adventures with you all and I have an exciting new post on the way about how I’ve downsized from 60L main pack + 33L day pack to travelling with a 38L carry-on only.