Change is Coming: Why I Finally Decided to Become a Digital Nomad

After many years of dreaming and entertaining the notion of exploring the world while working from my laptop, I’ve finally taken the leap to be a digital nomad.

In December I moved out of my house of 8 years in LA, packed all my stuff into storage unit and packed the minimum viable versions of my tech, creative and life necessities into a few bags and jumped on a plane into a new era.

Since 2019, when I extended a two week vacation in Europe into another couple weeks of remote working in Stockholm, Sweden, I have been wanting to do it again, but for a longer stretch.

The same as anyone who would be drawn to the curiosity and adventure of a big life change, there were plenty of things that kept me from taking the plunge.

The demand of work, the effort of planning, the hesitation and fear of the unknown. Missing friends and the comfort of a routine…

But recently it has felt like there were extra forces amassing and aligning to finally push me towards action and a new era in life.

Energies Aligning for Action: A Rapidly Changing World

The cost of living in Los Angeles feels like it has gotten even tougher over the last few years. I know everyone is feeling it across the world, but the big cities have been biting down extra hard lately, and my gut tells me it’s not going to ease.

The sentiment and balance between the economic classes, the owners and the renters, the bosses and the workers, the legislators and the citizens, it feels like it has gotten even more predatory and adversarial.

I’ve worked harder and more often than I have my entire life for the last three years and I somehow still feel that I’m barely keeping up.

The real multiplier here has been the cost of the time and the energy lost to these endeavors of big city survival and how little has been left for the things that I want most: to create, to travel, to experience and to connect with like minded people.

I love LA, it made me who I am today and has taught me an immeasurable amount about creativity, culture and success. The friendships and connections that I’ve made there are are what I love most. But I wonder how long my artist friends will stay if it continues to decline…

I still hope to be able to return in some capacity, maybe to live there for part of the year to connect and experience and then somewhere else where I can better afford to focus on my personal work for the rest. Or maybe just accepting that the cost of experience and connection in the big city will only afford a studio apartment or several roommates on the outskirts of the city in order to afford to pursue the things that I want.

None of these challenges are anything new, and again, we’re all feeling the money pinch lately, but there are other factors making the energy shift feel more monumental and permanent.

We undeniably live in the most dynamic time in the history of humanity. The rate of change that is happening continues to grow at an incredible rate. With technology entering the AI and quantum computer era, that change will come faster and faster.

Coming from someone who works in and loves tech, this is both exciting and scary.

Not scary, like Skynet and Robocop scary (at least not yet), but maybe a little Elysium and 1984 scary. There is still a lot we can do to prevent that sort of sci-fi future, but more-so scary in the speed of transition and how society, economy and government react to such change.

I would venture to state that those institutions are not well positioned for it.

An Era of Opportunity

Scary part aside, I actually am way more excited about the future than worried.

Never before has there been such a breadth of opportunity to create life and make your own way as there is today. With the continuing proliferation of business and connection on the internet offering opportunities in every niche, anything is possible for those ambitious and brave enough to pursue it.

And even after being a remote working freelancer for coming up on a decade, I still stop occasionally to realize just what an amazing opportunity it is to be able to do good work and make money any where in the world (how could you not want to take advantage of that opportunity?).

With AI continually improving, new markets, businesses and capabilities are created every day. The possibility for working for yourself, creating a billion dollar business and connecting with collaborators and customers across the world is all available for us to pursue.

It’s exciting. But also scary.

The future is coming and coming fast. The transition is here, it is starting slowly, but it will move faster and faster until it is everywhere all at once. Jobs of today won’t look the same in 2 to 3 years, let alone 5, and as someone whose primary income is a programmer of code, I have to come to terms with the reality of that notion as much as anyone.

The way I see it, we are at a crossroads.

Either grasp the plentiful opportunity emerging around us by working hard, staying alert and adapting to create the future life of your dreams…

Or stay complacent and comfortable until someone else decides your fate for you.

I’ve decided to choose the former.

It’s exciting and scary.

But I feel exhilarated. I feel that my fate is in my own hands.

Intentions for My Travels

That gets me back to why I finally decided to become a nomad.

In starting on my path toward a new era, I immediately feel the relief of the cost burden of big city living. With the burden of high monthly rent lifted, I already feel like I have more choices and the ability to take more risks.

I’m a self professed workaholic and have no qualms about putting the effort and time in, but I would like more of that to go to myself.

I want the choice to give more energy to online businesses and apps, and to creativity and the social and spiritual currency that provides.

As I set out, I’m hoping I can transition into a more balanced distribution of energy and feel empowered by the freedom to do so without quickly seeing my monetary reserves depleted by high monthly costs.

My intention is to work more on Niche Creator, the app and business I’m building with Creative Hackers , capture creative ideas through content and music from the inspiration of my travels and keep up with client work all while seeing more of the world and enjoying life a bit along the way.

I know that’s alot, and I notoriously take on more than I can actually do, but I have passions for these pursuits, in fact I need them, and will adjust balance as needed to find a way to make it work.

Even with these ambitions keeping me busy, I’m excited that I will get to see more of the world and it’s cultures in daily life as I travel.

One thing I do know is that the pursuit and action will bring me knowledge and insight along the way, and I feel good about that.

And for maybe the first time in my life I don’t know what I’ll be doing in six months. I’m trusting that action and experience will show me the way, and that feels pretty exciting.

Travel Plans

I’m currently in Florida (near Fort Meyers) for the first stop of my journey visiting my parents.

Being here is proving to be a good transition into a more nomadic life.

It’s a familiar place, with familiar people (obviously), and the meals are great.

I’ve done plenty of short remote work trips of a week or so before, but this stop is helping me tune in my long term setup for tech and creative work with the things that I’ve brought with me for the longer haul.

Next week I’ll be setting out on the actual trip and arriving in Costa Rica where I’ll be meeting my friend for another month stay.

We are flying into Libera and then driving over to stay in Tamarindo for our time there.

It’s a nice little beach town that comes highly recommended and isn’t far from the nature and adventure that Costa Rica has to offer.

After a month there, I’m planning to head to Medellín Colombia for another month. Colombia has been high on my list of places to see because of the beautiful nature and weather. Medellín is known as the “City of Eternal Spring”, which sounds pretty nice to me.

Whereas Costa Rica seems to have quite a few expats and connection to Western culture, Colombia feels like it will be more of a foreign country to me, so hopefully I will be brushed up on my Spanish and travel skills by the time I get there.

From there it will be on to Buenos Aires and Patagonia. Those are the two destinations that have been calling me most, so I’m really looking forward to that stretch. I’m still deciding on which will come first, likely decided by weather in Patagonia, but I will be in full nomad form by then (hopefully) and able to take in all that they have to offer.

We’ll see how well I’m holding up on the road after that and where the winds take me next.

Goals for Sharing

As part of the trip and a greater rebalancing of my time and effort, I’m hoping to be able to start up this newsletter and other social media and share a bit more often.

The last 6 months have been extremely challenging with work and I fell out of balance and away from my expressive and creative efforts. Since this is such a unique and transformative journey, I’m going to make an effort to remedy that and get back on a more consistent schedule.

Along with this newsletter, I’m going to try and also post some vlogs on YouTube to accompany and share more of my thoughts along the way. I’ll either link videos in the email (as I did above), or send a separate email that are more video focused. We’ll see what kind of cadence I can keep up.

I’ve always struggled greatly with perfectionism, so I am going to try and prioritize posting and getting something out rather than form, structure and topic. I will mix in tech and creative thoughts, as always, but for the time being I’ll be focusing more on sharing thoughts of the time and my experiences.

Although this letter has already become a bit long, I imagine some of the others might be short. (And here I am over-explaining myself and soft apologizing before I even start. Just post, Michael 😆)

Setting Sail

My good friend Josh and I used to say that being on the road on tour with our bands was like setting out to sea and living the Pirate Life. New adventures and experiences, meeting new people and creating memories that will last a life time. The experiences I had then were some of the best in my life. So far…

So, here I stand, on the brink of some well needed adventure and new experience, ready to set sail and once again live the Pirate Life.

I took action, I made the decision.

I’m finally a digital nomad.

I’ll share more as I experience it.

Michael