NOT KNOWING YOU, I can’t even begin to guess at how you will react to being a nomad, but I can give you some thoughts.
My first suggestion is to ask yourself, “What is the worst that can happen?” If you try it and decide it isn’t for you, you don’t really have much to lose. You may lose some position in your job, but if you dislike that life, isn’t that a good thing? If you don’t like it, find something you can do and love! And if being a nomad isn’t it, that’s one thing you know doesn’t work. Try the next thing.
But, even if you don’t like it, I believe you will still come out far, far further ahead than if you just stay home enduring life. Don’t settle or endure your way through life. Be happy, whatever that means to you.
Being happy should not be optional!
Build up memories you will treasure the rest of your life! And that is the real reason we are here, to accumulate moments of joy and sorrow that change us and cause us to grow.
I will almost guarantee you that as you age, when you stop and think back on your life, the moments of hardship are often the memories you treasure most, especially if you can share those experiences with others.
“Remember the time we ….” The misadventures we recall are always your best memories that you say with the biggest smile! A good life has tons of those!! How many of those are you building now?
If you take up the nomadic life you will be forced to embrace minimalism and learn simple living. As you think about downsizing from your present life of luxury, you probably do not find living simply very appealing and want to create as much comfort for yourself as possible. But, maybe you should start out with less.
Most people find that embracing simple living and even minimalism changes them in ways they never thought possible. It’s like going from a life of constant sensory overload to sudden quiet and calm. It can be very disturbing at first! You’re right to be worried about being bored and feeling unproductive — those are very likely to happen. But if you can press through them, it allows you to slowly see and feel things that you never could before with a racing heart and mind. The reason we love, and even need, to be so busy is we can’t stand to be alone in our own thoughts, so we fill them with constant noise, distractions, and sensations.
It can be frightening to meet yourself and to finally truly interact with others and the world. But it is the only way to true joy in this life. By emptying your life of stuff and money, your will be truly free to be yourself for the first time.
Finding peace of mind and heart
The wonderful side-effect of being a nomad and being forced to live simply and with few distractions is that stress falls away and your mind stops racing. You can go and sit outside and watch the sunset or just stare at the Milky Way and be quiet and content with yourself and your life. Instead of having the constant conversations and fights in your mind, there can be quiet and calm contentedness with life. Your health will drastically improve because you can nearly eliminate stress.
Finding healing in nature
Humans evolved for millions of years in constant connection with nature, then 10,000 years ago we severed that connection and have lived without it ever since. In many big and small ways, we are all of us suffering tremendously suffering because of the loss of that connection. The proof of that is easily found in the many, many statistics proving how very emotionally disturbed most of us are. We need to be in nature and by being separated, we suffer. Reconnecting with nature will heal the broken parts of us that make us so unhappy.
So, the way I see it is you have almost nothing to lose and everything to gain. Give it a shot!
Warm thanks Bob, for another wonderfully written & thought provoking article! I am sharing this with my friends in hopes it will light a spark for them?
I think it’s REI that calls the bad experiences ‘second-hand fun’. Pretty rough while you’re dealing with it but, darn funny afterwards.
I found that I loved camping but I’m not liking the bit of nomad living I’ve tried. We’ll see what 2023 brings and decide from there.
Dear Bob, my fiance and I have embarked on the nomad life. It’s been 12 days and we are driving each other crazy. I know we will get past this but… We have to get away from here in Ohio and hopefully find a good and new life out west. We don’t know anyone and no set destination. New place, new people, new life.
I’m in the planning stages (financials holding me back) and can’t wait to hit the road. Love the articles, and learn something from every one of them I read. Keep them coming, look so forward to them.