Just three things

Intermittent nomadism

It’s a term I hadn’t really heard before, but I’ve certainly come across it more recently. But I’ve come to realise that this is what I have done for years, without calling it by that name.

Let me explain

This is the idea that full-time digital nomadism isn’t a sustainable or fulfilling lifestyle.

This maybe for lots of reasons - contracts drying up, or become tired of the itinerant lifestyle as other life events crop up. Or maybe you start to feel off-time with your peers and feel a calling to engage in a different life.

Maybe you come to the realisation that the digital nomad life has its perks, but it really isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Maybe in an earlier part of my life, I could have had a crack at the digital nomad thing. But that’s not going to happen any time soon.

But what I have done for parts of my life, is intermittent nomadism. I’m betting this might be familiar to you too.

• Ever got to the end of a work contract, and left a little room for you to go on an adventure before your next gig?
• Maybe a month or three?
• And maybe you didn’t just go for that adventure. Maybe you got some work to keep paying the bills, or at least filling the coffers a little?
• Or maybe you had a side hustle blog that stepped up front and centre and because a focus on your adventure.
• And maybe you thought about, or actually executed making some kind of money off that?

If that sounds familiar, you can now add ‘Intermittent Nomad’ to your LinkedIn profile.

Now that I’ve quit the psychology life (3 decades after dropping out of University wasn’t a bad run), I’ve been busy trying to stitch together something completely different.

Before I fully quit, I was dabbling on YouTube, and then I got into some more serious writing too. And now I’m trying to weave these side hustles together a little tighter, a little bigger, in order to build myself an ecosystem that can serve me and my family now, and into the future.

And that includes this Substack - so thanks for being here.

The Trap: Trying to cram it all in

When you’ve invested in a trip, and cash is tight, the urge to cram it all in is overpowering.

You feel the need to eke out value of every minute you have invested in being wherever you are. Whatever experiences you immerse yourself in.

That’s true for when you’re just travelling, but I find it especially so when I am trying to balance work as a creator when I am in another location.

Because actually, it’s just a hyper-version of what life as a ‘content creator’ is like. By the way, I hate that term, but I can’t come up with anything better,

I’m all 1980s ‘hustle’ vibe - every minute has to count, and down time is wasted time.

I have to actively resist this, and my greatest teacher has been my recent trips to Japan.

Because Japan offers so much, it’s totally overwhelming.

You have to slow down to make sense of it all

I’ve seen so many posts from people wondering what to do next in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka.

And they all have a similar theme.

They are bored. Or they are tired.

Because they are doing nothing. Or they are trying to do everything.

Because they can’t pick what to do. Or they are cramming in too much.

Because when you have too much choice, you get paralysed. Or you take it as a challenge to try to do all the things.

It’s hard to steer a middle ‘Goldilocks’ itinerary: Just enough to keep you stimulated for the day, and just enough so you can sustain it for two weeks (or however long you’re intermittently nomading for).

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3 is the magic number

I arrived at three as my magic guide for the number of activities I should attempt in a day.

And three was the maximum number.

And I built in rest days, where I would have less than three. For some days, it would be just one - like the day I spent on the Nakasendo Trail.

But the larger point here is to pace yourself.

Not only can intermittent nomadism be an interesting and enriching part of your life, it can become a drain too if you don’t manage your energy and ambitions effectively.

Try to steer a middle course between trying to do too much, and becoming paralysed by possibilities.

Because even within your intermittent nomading, there’s room for even finer levels of intermittenting.

And I know that intermittenting is not even a word. Doesn’t stop it from being true for me though.

And maybe you too.

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