Digital Nomads: It’s Not Out of Luck
For several times, I would hear remarks from people saying things like,
“You’re so lucky to have that kind of work”,
“Oh Jezze I envy you”,
“Hope I am also as blessed as you to have a work like that.”
Though I might be posing and sending you smiles on the other side of your screen, being a digital nomad, I could say is not born out of luck.
I believe not everyone can be like this, too. I think we have certain roles we play in this world. I would appreciate those comments from people knowing that I am in a stage of my career where I’m enjoying work but I also want to clarify certain things that before you say someone is lucky, think again.
Most people see the tip of the iceberg, if you get what I mean.
Photo from my Instagram account @justjezze_
I shared this iceberg before on Instagram because people think having this kind of life is easy peasy. Mind you, it’s not. (Apparently this is called the Iceberg Illusion) Like other professions, when people see that you’re enjoying, they’re quick to conclude that things are easy for you. Of course, certain factor highlights those especially things you see on social media.
It’s actually a trial and error process.
One reason why I share how I love my work is that after numerous trial and error processes, I finally get to experience being aligned with my career and I’m just proud of myself to go through all those. I remembered before, there was an HR generalist who interviewed me for a position, and my resume was extremely long (I didn’t know how to make a proper resume back then). He asked me how I was able to do these things all my life, knowing that they are from different industries. I just thought, it was a process of exploration, and I think each experience is relevant because even though I didn’t end up there, I was able to get bits of learning that are helping me for the things I’m doing today.
I might be eating ice cream on a sunny morning at a white beach, but before getting there, there are numerous processes I had to take.
Similar with other people’s journey.
It’s not even comfortable, you need skills.
Whenever you see me relaxing on the beach or on the mountains and think, “I also wanna be like Jezze”, here are some skills that you need acquire to build your career (and even yourself):
Social Skills. I posted an article about being a people person even I’m not one and it took a long time for me to develop this. For those of you who feel anxiety before talking to someone, I realized that it’s something that you can unlearn. From someone who just speaks when required, I learned later on that knowing how to socialize properly can help you build genuine connections that could propel you to your career growth.
Resourcefulness. As a digital nomad and a freelancer, I don’t have that kind of stability as what most employees have. But having experienced up and downs in my finances, I realized that I should find a way to get resources even not in the form of money. Say you wanna travel? Look for work exchanges, exchange your skills for free accommodation and food. You want to have clients? Join Facebook groups in your industry and pitch yourself (requires skills). You want to have a gadget that you can use for work but you don’t have the money but you have the talent? Negotiate with your employer/client for you to have something you can work on and save up for that later on. I believe if you badly want something, you’ll look for ways to acquire it.
Balancing your comfort zone and stability. I learned in one of my psych classes about the Zone of Proximal Development and this is how kids learn with and without guidance. I want to compare it on how we grow as individuals. I think we have a certain comfort zone in our career wherein we feel comfortable but at the same time stagnant, and that could hinder us to grow. Though I do not suggest to always step out of your comfort zone, I believe we should maintain a certain balance of feeling uncomfortable and being stable. As someone who used to risk lots of things and don’t really mind about what’s going to happen next, I’m telling you it’s really scary and fun at the same time to face your fears. You need to be responsible for the consequences too. However, if we could be able to eliminate certain unnecessary mistakes, why not go for it? Plan your course of action when making a big leap to your life and do your best. Now, to set up yourself to potential disappointments from failure, surrender the outcome. You have a goal, but you’re not too fixated with it, but instead, enjoying the process.
Image from Healthline
There are even more skills to be specific, technical skills like using the Adobe Suite, knowledge of social media platforms, website design (well, if you wanna do exactly what I do) and the like but I do not want to highlight them because these are things you can learn later on. Anyway, not all digital nomads are social media managers/graphic designers like me. You know I can even do this at home. But if you can find a way to incorporate some of the things that you love that could align well with your career, might as well give it a try.
So do I consider myself lucky?
My dear readers, everything is a fruit of hard and smart work I truly enjoy.
