As many of you know by now, we are a couple of nomads. And yes, I’m fully aware that this term sounds kinda funny and it makes you think of this. But sadly, we don’t have a camel 😉

Our nomadic lifestyle allows us to live & work around the world, moving from place to place. Living out of a suitcase, running our creative studio from our laptops, wherever we go. If you would have asked us to picture this 2 years ago, we would have probably thought this is nuts. But… we made it happen!

This unconventional lifestyle choice has been especially eye-opening for us as a creative business, because it brings a huge amount of inspiration and new ideas. And, to be honest, it’s quite a genius way to combine life and work with an appetite for travel. What happens when you leave your local bubble and have to find yourself in another place in the world is simply amazing. Since we transitioned into this way of living, we have expanded our minds, experienced so much personal growth and obviously collected an insane amount of inspiration for our creative endeavours!

We also noticed that many of our friends (and some of you lovely people who like to follow our adventures) have become quite curious about it. We understand, because we were so curious about it too, and we still are. I won’t lie, and pardon my language – it’s fucking amazing to be able to do this!! I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Let me tell you something: It’s not crazy and it’s not impossible. We live in an incredible time, and living the life of a nomad is getting easier and easier. Thanks to… the internet. In fact, if you look up “digital nomad“, I can guarantee that you will find thousands and thousands of articles, videos, books and all types of resources (even courses) that explain loads of things about it. It is legit and it’s absolutely possible to do this, whatever your life situation is.

With this in mind, I would not technically be filling a “void” by writing about it as well, but I thought it would be interesting to try to put it into our own words. To hopefully inspire some of you who are in the same wave length and who share this eagerness towards a life of travel & creativity! David and I would be more than honoured to guide you in any way we possibly can. So here we go: “Gone Nomadic” will be our little series of posts about this awesome topic. Bare in mind, they will not serve as a “one-fits-all” guide. There’s a reason why the name of these posts is a little bit more vague than “How To Be A Digital Nomad“. You know me, I would not want to take up this sort of responsibility: there are SO many ways to live this life and it’s very important to understand that each of us has to find their own.

Instead, I want to use this as an opportunity to share how WE did it. What we learned from it, what we struggled with, our life-hacks & tips, and what we love about this lifestyle. This will be our way to share our own journey with you.

To start this off, here are 5 reasons why we love the nomadic life

EXPERIENCING DIFFERENT CULTURES – CONSTANT INSPIRATION

This is the obvious benefit to living a life of frequent travel! You get to experience cultures that are different, taste food that has unusual flavours and see things that are intriguing. This constant flow of information can be exhausting at times, but oh so inspiring. We are flooded with ideas from the moment we head out on the street. Nothing is the same as back home, because everything is new and we take nothing for granted. And that is accentuated even further when you travel to a country that just “speaks” to you. It’s hard to explain, but this is how we feel now in Japan!

FINDING HOME IN A NEW ENVIRONMENT

Living like a nomad is not quite like being on an endless “vacation” mode. Long term travel is really about living like a local. Every time we move in a new place, we don’t rush to the tourist spots right away. Instead, we take a few days (perhaps even weeks) to get familiar with our environment. We wander around our neighbourhood, try to spot where we can buy our groceries, where we can have coffee, and some basic things like “where’s the pharmacy” just in case we need that. While we’re at it, we also like to observe the locals and notice where they like to go, what they like to do. Perhaps even engage in conversations with them as we would with new-found neighbours. Little by little, every new place starts feeling like home. This process in itself is something very special. Sometimes it hurts though, because we can fall in love with a place and never want to leave!

MEETING NEW PEOPLE

This can be a continuation to what I said earlier about finding home in a new environment. In a new environment, you can make new friends. And those new friends can inspire you and teach you things that you had no idea of. I am particularly fond of the fact that we’ve met so many kind locals & talented creative people along the way. We now have good friends spread all over the place and that feeling is priceless. FYI: I’ve also written more about “how” we meet people over here so check it out!

MINIMALISM & LIVING WITH LESS

Ever heard of the quote “the things you own end up owning you“? Well, that makes even more sense when you are moving around and have to fit your life in a suitcase. This lifestyle has radically changed our approach towards the stuff we accumulate. It’s been so liberating to get rid of the things that don’t serve us and be very purposeful about what we bring into our lives. By downsizing our stuff, we’ve also learned to downsize our expectations and needs in life. We’ve become very flexible and we’re so happy with simple, basic things, that the rest seems really superfluous. It turns out: we don’t need much to be happy & functional human beings. That essentialist mindset saves us money but also time & hassles. It also means that “if” life ever cuts our finances (& bites us in the ass), we would still know how to enjoy it. In one word this is spelled freedom!

MINDFULNESS & WORK LIFE BALANCE

The nomadic life leads to “living with less”. And living with less means that you have less pressure to make big money or pay expensive bills. For us, this is a igniter for our creativity & our happiness. That means that we can decide to work only on projects that genuinely inspire us, with and for people who we really connect with. It also means that we can make our own schedule according to our needs and how we feel. Even when we are busy, we can easily carve out some time to do something that we enjoy, like a creative session, a walk, a visit to a temple or trying out a coffeeshop. Another factor: living in a place that you don’t take for granted pushes you to seize the day. There’s isn’t one day where we don’t head outside for a little walk. It’s incredibly healthy & refreshing for the body and mind, but it also makes us more productive when it’s time to get stuff done. Win win!

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If this sounds pretty sweet to you, then I think you will enjoy “Gone Nomadic“. This series will allow me to cover a variety of topics, from our personal story, to the practicalities and the ins & outs of this adventure. Of course, if anything comes to your mind that you’re super curious about, please leave us a comment. Don’t be shy, just let us know what you would like us to cover!

We’re so grateful for each and every one of you who is reading our posts and interacting with us, it gives us a huge drive to share this content with you. Next week, I will be sharing our personal journey of how we transitioned into the nomadic life up until today. So stay in the loop 🙂