Nomadtopia is your ideal lifestyle, your vision of how to combine your passion for travel (or simply a desire to be location independent) with whatever else is important to you.
Maybe you want to work seasonal jobs and travel in the off season. Maybe you don’t intend to go anywhere, but you want to have the flexibility to do so in case your spouse gets a job in a different city or a friend or relative gets sick and you want/need to go take care of them. Maybe you want to join the ranks of the “digital nomads” and work and travel wherever you like.
Once you figure out what your Nomadtopia looks like (click here to read more about my Nomadtopia), it’s just a matter of putting the pieces in place to help you get there. There are plenty of people and resources out there that can help you create the vision and make it happen (and I’ll be recommending some of them on this site over time). But now that I’m living the life (and constantly fine-tuning it), I’m more concerned about the everyday reality, the practical and emotional challenges of this lifestyle—and how to address them.
Let’s face it: although it can be absolutely thrilling, satisfying, and meaningful to live an unconventional life, not everything is smooth sailing. It’s not easy to find that you don’t fit into the neat little boxes that people—from your great aunt to your bank’s customer service rep—try to put you in. And it’s hard to balance all the things you may want out of life in addition to being a nomad. (How do you grow a vegetable garden when you don’t have a place to plant one? How can you create lasting relationships if you’re not sure how long you’re going to be staying somewhere?) But it’s worth the effort to find ways to manage all of these things, and do everything you can to make sure your Nomadtopia thrives.
My Nomadtopia initially began to take shape during the nine months I spent backpacking around the world in 2004 (and the two years I spent reading, saving, and planning before that!). Since then I have worked for myself both while traveling and while staying put (more or less) in locations as varied as Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Buenos Aires. From discovering that Citibank in South America can’t help sort out problems with a U.S. Citibank account to struggling to continue a regular yoga practice when I’m on the road to meeting client deadlines without a reliable Internet connection—I’ve been there. And I’m still figuring it out, as each new situation arises.
Whether you’re just starting out or already well on your way to Nomadtopia, this blog is about working to find solutions to the challenges that arise so we can create, and continue to live, our ideal lives.
