The 86 fears of (aspiring) location independent professionals and digital nomads
As promised yesterday I’m going to give you another great resource: a list of fears those aspiring to become location independent suffer from and a list of the fears the already independent suffer from.
There are a few recurring themes in these two lists that were composed using the recent Location Independent and Digital Nomad Survey.
Without to much beating around the bush I’m going to give you the results, broken down into a few categories. This post might be rather boring to the casual reader but I’m sure there are plenty of you who see this lost for what it is, a treasure, a wealth of information that you can use. So what exactly are the fears that live in our community?
Let’s look at the aspiring Location Independent first:
In the knowledge department:
- A lack of knowledge (how to’s)
- Failure (this one comes back dozens of times)
- That this doesn’t work out
- Worry that I will have given up everything for something that isn’t as great as I have built it up to be
- Being less well informed (currently working in a newsroom)
Travel:
- Encountering legal issues abroad
- Being so enamored with a foreign place that I won’t be disciplined enough to work
- What to do with all my stuff, I’m not a light packer
- Getting taken advantage of
- Loosing focus or loosing interest in my work in favor of travel
- I will have to reduce my wardrobe!
- Being stranded
- Safety in third world countries
- Political unrest
Regarding money and business:
- Not having/earning enough money (a common fear)
- Failing to maintain that income/long term income stability (another common fear)
- Not being able to handle state-side matters
- The business drying up
- Losing clients
- Having no nest-egg for retirement
- Procrastination
- Money management (don’t want to rely on relatives for that)
- Connections and communication
- Not being able to get on the Internet
Social and family issues:
- Not being home quick enough if a loved one is dying (This actually is my biggest fear)
- Being away from family
- Solitude/loneliness/home sick/being isolated and alone
- Never finding a partner/inability to form deep relationships
- No home base to come back to and relax
- Feelings of detachment
- Lack of face to face social interaction with colleagues
- Being away from my children
- That my wife will get tired of the travel
- That my spouse won’t be happy
- Leaving family behind
- Getting sick or getting into trouble and not having my family with me
- That my fiance will not truly believe we can achieve this life and that ultimately it will lead to the breakdown of our relationship
- Keeping in touch with friends and family
- Judgemental family
- People’s reactions
Other issues:
- Taking to long to get back to it (former LIP)
- Not getting to the point of LIP
- Health insurance
- Being your own safety net
- Work taking over
- Missing out on the fun things that I’m doing right now
- Being forced to return home against my will and search for depressing work in a depressed economy
So far the list of the aspiring location independent. There are a few recurring themes in this list don’t you think? A quick scan tells me it boils down to knowledge (and lack of), insecurity in travel and earnings, loneliness, being away from family and friends and the fear of being unplugged (no Internet).
Now let’s have a look at the fears the Location Independent suffer from. Yes, these people suffer from fear too, they live the life we dream of, is that life a nightmare? I think not, as we saw yesterday it’s hard work though but worth it. There are a few fears here as well that keep coming back. Here is the list, again in a few categories:
Money issues:
- The costs and not making enough income
- Not having the income anymore and having to stop traveling
- Making expensive mistakes
- The money tap will stop
- Not making enough money to fund our old age
The Business
- Being out of touch when a client needs me
- Lack of trust (and therefore business) from clients
- Others thinking I’m not working because I’m not “on site”
- Losing it
Technical dependency:
- Internet failures/hackers
- Forgetting a power cord – seriously
- The Internet dies
- Loss of equipment leading to loss of work information
- Laptop crashing
The downside of the location and travel:
- Large scale disasters and being stuck in a third world country
- Visas.
- Brisbane’s abysmal broadband service
- A plane crash
- Border control
- Health issues in developing countries
- The weather
- Visa issues: That I live abroad illegally and get deported
- That we’ll get bored with it, or that life will become nothing more than cheap thrills and excitements, but bring not lasting joy
- Getting comfortable and settling (yes it’s a fear)
- Finding myself unable to stop someday
Social and family issues:
- It’s extraordinarily difficult to feel as if you have established roots when you’re always uprooting yourself to seek new experience. Permanence is a foreign feeling. Maintaining personal relationships requires extra care and attention, particularly when it comes to love and romantic relationships. The lifestyle itself creates no fear – only anticipation of a fresh new day.
- Not being part of a community
- Stability of family life
- Losing friends who aren’t living the same way
- Losing contact with local community and friends
- Having to head home because of a family emergency
- My partner not being able to go somewhere with me
- Never stopping and being looked at like a weirdo by my peers back home
- Loosing the ability to maintain long-term relationships
- To estrange from family an friends
- Lack of community
- That we lose connection with any social network, and cause our son to be deprived of meaningful friendships with other kids (especially any who understand what we’re doing, and why)
Other issues
- A loss of motivation or burnout
- Losing important mail
Atually, if we look at this second list there are remarcabe similarities although I’ve used slightly different categories. Money problems, loosing the business or clients, computer/internet problems, the practical problems of travel and the lack of social interaction with the home front.
Compiling this list we end up with a shortlist of fears:
- A lack of knowledge
- Not making enough money/security of income
- Being stuck or getting into trouble abroad
- Not having an internet connection
- Social interaction/family ties
I actually believe these five fears sum up all the issues the entire community suffers from in one way or the other. There are however enough LIP’s who claim not to have any fears at all.
There you have it, the list of 86 fears of the Location Independant and Digital Nomad community.
Hey There,
Some more very interesting results from the survey there. I really am enjoying reading all of these post and like you say, it’s potentially a huge treasure trove when looked at in the right way!
Thanks Again Guys!
Thanks for the summary of these fears. A lot of people might turn away from their dream of a nomadic lifestyle due to their fears. However, I think it’s important to remember that any lifestyle change brings with it fears of some sort. If being a nomad is what you dream about – perhaps it is worth facing this set of fears instead of another set that may be associated with an outcome that is not at all as inspiring as following the dream!
I really enjoyed reading this list. It seems like many of these fears could be diminished by simply starting off slow. For example, we are looking to become LIP. But, not to become nomad travelers, but so we can visit our family in another country either for longer periods or more often than my husband’s current vacation allotment currently allows for. We would also like to be able to visit other places as well, since now all of our vacation is used to visit family in one place (Australia).
It would be the best of both worlds for us. We still keep our home, which is in a great community of friends, neighbors and family that we are not ready to give up, but would allow us to travel when we got the urge.
It just seems like so many feel it’s the nomad way or nothing. Can’t it be something in the middle? I mean, you can still be LIP without being a complete nomad.
By the way…for those who are worried about developing meaningful relationships while traveling…I met my husband in Scotland (I’m American/he’s Australian) in 1998. :)
Being location independant doesn’t mean you have to travel right? It’s just that you’re no longer bound to one place because of work (Or in a lot of cases, all your posessions.) so you have a choice. That’s what it’s all about for me, having the choice to go where I want to when I want to.
You’re a great example of what can happen while traveling. Actually meeting your husband, what are the odds of that one right? :) I bet you you didn’t think that would happen when you booked the trip.
Thanks for the comment Mama Bird
This was such an interesting list to read – great for us to share our fears are realise we’re all normal, we’re all scared of the same stuff at the end of the day. And what’s even better is to see how many people are setting out and doing their “thing” and creating a location independent lifestyle… in spite of their fears.
Cath
Good post, I think you’ve capture most of the concerns and fears that I’ve heard and have had myself as I consider what that would look like for me. Thanks for sharing
@bruceeric