Are you dreaming of living a nomadic life and not being tied to one location? The idea of going from a traditional, location centric life with a home, to a life as a nomad can feel like a huge challenge. Here’s how you can take steps to help you plan to become a digital nomad.

When we made this jump, we found it really beneficial to use a 5 stepped approach to help us make the transition as smooth as possible.

How to become and digital nomad, visualise it

The first step is admitting what you want! If the dream is to have total location flexibility, then think about why you want it and what it looks like to you. Spend some time actively visualising what your new life would look like.

This exercise can help you to think about the implications and what your day-to-day life will look like, which may help to confirm that it’s definitely what you want.

Additionally, there’s definitely power in visualising your dreams. If you’ve got a really crystal-clear idea of how amazing your life could be, this can give you the power you need to overcome obstacles as they arise.

Finally, vocalise it! Tell people you trust, your nearest and dearest, what it is that you’re aiming for. Saying it out loud can help to reaffirm what you really want. But there are other benefits too. Perhaps your friends and family will ask you difficult questions. This challenge can be really helpful! Embrace it. Or perhaps they will support you in ways that you couldn’t imagine! You may face difficult conversations, but I think this is a great way for you to reaffirm what you want and reiterate that to those close to you.

Set your goals to help you plan to become a digital nomad

Once you’ve got a high-level idea of what you want from your future life as a digital nomad, now you can turn to the more specific goals. In order to identify your goals, asking yourself a series of questions can help. Try these:

• How often do I want to travel?
• Where do I want to go?
• What type of accommodation would make me happiest?
• Who do I want to meet?
• How much do I want to work? How many hours per day?
• What do I want to learn about myself?
• How important is it to be near countryside, the coast, or to be in a city?
• How much money would I need to live?
• What kind of lifestyle would I want?
• What would an ideal day look like for me?
• What are my top 3 reasons for becoming a nomad?
• What do I fear most about this life?

Answering these questions, or similar ones, can really help to focus into the next left of detail for you. For example, if your top three reasons for wanting to become a nomad are to travel as much as possible, meet lots of people and achieve a better work life balance then your goals should be tailored around that. So, you might decide to look for work that gives you maximum flexibility.

If you want to spend longer thinking about your goals, our article on goal setting may help.

Make a plan

Once you’ve considered what you want to achieve, now you can start to think about the more practical aspects.

You might like to consider when planning to become a digital nomad:

• When do you want to go?
• What will you do with your belongings?
• How often might you return to “home” to see friends and family?
• What your budget will be per month?
• If you’re leaving a job, when do you need to give notice?
• How much do you need to save before you go?

From here you can start to formulate a practical plan with timeframes and milestones built in.

Overcome the obstacles to become a digital nomad

As part of your planning, you might have identified barriers or challenges. We would recommend listing each barrier and obstacle and generating some options to conquer each. From there, choose the most viable option or options and start pursuing this.

If you find an obstacle that is too difficult to overcome, it can helpful to think about whether you absolutely need to overcome it or not. Think about whether you Must, Should or Could and how much it prevents you from achieving your goals.

Think about an exit plan to become a digital nomad

This might seem counterintuitive, but it can be really helpful to have an exit plan in mind. Or at least to have considered what you might do if Plan A doesn’t come to fruition. For example, if the job you have in mind doesn’t work out, what other options might you have? Or another example may be about rental options if you have to return home for an unexpected reason. Have you got enough savings to allow for an emergency?

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