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04 | Michael Constable | The Pros and Cons of Various Lifestyles, Full Circle from Settled Lifestyle to Digital Nomad & Back | The Nomad on FIRE Podcast Show Notes
#04 Every lifestyle has its pros and cons, Michael Constable of Michael Wings It walks us through them in this action-packed episode! He takes us through his journey from a corporate job to becoming a digital nomad and then back to a slightly more settled lifestyle.
Guest Bio:
Michael Constable of Michael Wings It is one of my good friends from college and was a huge inspiration for me to begin living the Digital Nomad Lifestyle. I think you’ll really enjoy this episode. We discuss Michael being unhappy with his life situation in Austin, TX, joining a year-long Remote Year Program and then continuing to travel on his own for an additional year until finally coming full circle into currently living a more settled life in San Fransisco, California. We discuss the Pros and Cons of each lifestyle and Michael’s recommendations for beginning the digital nomad lifestyle!
Links Mentioned:
- Michael Wings It, Michael’s blog and travel stories
- Remote Year, a work and travel program for digital nomads! Michael was one of the big inspirations for me starting to live the digital nomad lifestyle and begin my journey through traveling with Remote Year. If you want more information on Remote Year, I wrote a Remote Year Review where I share my experience and showcase what they provide for digital nomads
- Michael traveled through Thailand with Drew Binksy. Check out his articles here and here on the trip! Also, check out Drew’s video about the trip.
Show Notes:
- Michael Constable, Welcome to the Nomad on FIRE Podcast! 00:30
- Michael was the inspiration for me joining Remote Year and beginning to live the digital nomad lifestyle 00:45
- Michael’s Background, travel history and how he first joined Remote Year 01:05
- Michaels travel blog and experience traveling with Remote Year at Michael Wings It 05:15
- How Michael inspired me to join Remote Year especially juxtaposed against my work situation at the current time 08:30
- How to find a good work-life balance and not get too emotionally invested in office drama or politics 09:00
- The benefits to blogging and putting yourself out there 12:00
- Michael’s opportunity to do a tour around Thailand with Drew Binsky 13:30
- We dive into Michael’s journey where he goes full circle from settled lifestyle corporate job to traveling in a group with Remote Year to solo travel and then back into a more settled lifestyle. We discuss the pros and cons of each lifestyle 14:30
- Remote Year Pros
- Autonomy and flexibility over your schedule
- Fewer office distractions
- Biggest pro- opened my mind up to what was possible for me
- The people you meet and the community of digital nomads all traveling, living and working together for a year with the same group of people!
- Network of people
- Perception of time while traveling
- Cons
- Finding a consistently healthy and productive routine
- Removed from friends and family back home
- Feeling tired from trying to do too many things and see to many places at once
- Remote Year Pros
- Traveling on your own 28:30
- Pros- freedom to go wherever you want
- Chance to meet many new people and locals in the places you’re visiting
- Transitioning back into a more stationary lifestyle 36:20
- How the novelty of moving to a new city feels like traveling or being on Remote Year 46:30
- Michael’s new positive habit he’s implemented in the last few months- meditation 50:45
- #1 Takeaway from today’s episode- “Nothing has to be permanent” 51:30
- And much more…
Significant quotes:
- “I think both the nomad life and the stationary life both have their pros” 04:40
- “I started writing on Medium because I was WordPress illiterate at the time, it was much easier and cleaner to publish on Medium and its great for photos” 06:00
- “Blogging opened up a lot of doors for me” 07:10
- “Its a lot of the product of your environment when everyone else is talking about and freaking out about work stuff you kind of jump on the train too” 11:00
- “You’re so much more productive when you’re not getting pinged by people on Slack” 15:45
- “After Remote year my mind of different paths for my life to take was so much grander and wider” 16:45
- “Travel was the catalyst but it opened my mind up to a lot of other things too” 17:45
- “There’s just some sort of reliableness to them, that even if you don’t have much in common with them you have this one thing in common with them. And at a core level you just kinda get each other a little bit” 18:00
- On the Remote Year Network “You can go literally anywhere in the world and there’s going to be someone there” 19:00
- “I tried to do solo travel and I couldn’t because there were so many people everywhere!” 19:20
- “Its a big part of the reason I decided to slow down and move to San Fransisco” 21:40
- “When you’re traveling it doesn’t matter because Monday is as fun as a Friday” 26:40
- “It was so much nicer working remotely for a fully remote company than for a non-fully remote company” 34:30
- “For some reason, stopping traveling feels like quitting” 43:00
- “I’m choosing to work here and live here” 44:30
- “ I definitely have felt myself going back into some pre-travel habits and routines” 46:05
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