I guess I’m a nomad now?

I guess I’m a nomad now?

December marks 6 months of being on the road full time, and what a journey it’s been.

After a year of setting up and settling into life as a business owner, I finally felt secure and steady enough to take the leap to my long term goal of travelling full-time alongside freelancing.

My partner had also recently had a role change to a fully remote position, so on 1st June we set off to the Lake District for a few weeks trialling our new setup. After a successful test run, we got on a ferry at the end of June and headed to Scandinavia. We spent the majority of the next couple of months exploring Norway but also visited Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg and France.

Highlights included climbing in the midnight sun, taking a road trip at 2am to spot moose and my first outdoor bouldering in Fontainebleau. The trip went incredibly well and I worked as usual the entire way. Balancing my regular clients, with some ad-hoc projects, and living the life of my dreams alongside it!

The lack of a set routine was a huge adjustment process at first. Having gone from working a set 9-5 for the past six or so years, at first I often felt guilty that I wasn’t always sat at a desk at random hours midweek. But after a few weeks I started to get used to the idea. I reminded myself that I was still working almost everyday, whether in the morning, afternoon or evening, in addition to some weekends. At which point I cut myself some slack and started to fully embrace and enjoy my new life!

In the autumn we returned home for a while to catch up with family and friends (and explore more of the UK). I even went to a few in-person meetings and client events whilst I was back! Then, encouraged by the success of our first trip, in mid October we hopped on another ferry to continue our journey and escape British winter! Arriving in Bilbao, we spent 3 weeks in Northern Spain and travelled down through Portugal eating our body weight in Pastel de Natas, before crossing the border into Morocco. We’ve been travelling in Morocco for around a month now and plan to stay for another month or two before continuing back into Europe.

I’ve been completely open about my lifestyle with everyone I work with and I’m pleased to say they’ve been nothing but supportive throughout! The key is always being as responsive as possible and making sure clients are never left in the dark. Whether it’s midday on a Wednesday and I’m hundreds of metres up a climbing wall, or a Friday evening and I’m cooking dinner, if my phone is on me, I respond to emails. I never agree to a project if I’m not 100% sure I can get it done and I happily work evenings and weekends doing whatever it takes if a client has a tight deadline. I’ve spent years on the other side of the fence in agencies and understand how stressful last minute client deadlines can be, so I always aspire to be the freelancer I wanted on those occasions – Responsive and timely but with a huge importance on attention to detail.

I’m now 6 months in to full time travel, have taken 3 days “annual leave” and otherwise have worked to some extent pretty much every day. Weekends aren’t really a thing anymore, yet I feel the least ‘burnt out’ I ever have. I can climb when it’s sunny and work when it rains and I truly feel like I’m making the most of my days.

In the last week alone, three people have used the word ‘nomad’ when talking about me… a term I’ve never used to describe myself. At first that felt weird. But with no set end date to my plans, and no set base beyond the home in Suffolk (that I lasted visited in October!) I suppose that’s what I am now. So here’s to six months of nomad life and the healthiest work/life balance I’ve ever had… long may it continue!