Do you know what all digital nomads have in common?
That first decision to do life a little differently.
Just that first choice led to a decision making process that would eventually lead to a life nobody even believed was possible. Here’s an illustration of how that process breaks down into individual parts, just in case you were wondering…
The decision to research. After that maybe a change in job, or a well timed request to go remote. The decision to look at how cheaply you can get a flight somewhere…else. After that a decision to book said cheap flight.
Oops.
A decision to go job hunting after the request you put in to work remotely gets declined by a manager who’s nice, but simply doesn’t understand. The decision to apply for job after job. The decision to move past the doubt that you’ll never catch a break. Deciding whether a pay cut to achieve the aim is worth it.
With a pay cut maybe on the cards, perhaps there’s a business you can start. You decide to look – are all these ecommerce nags true? Could there maybe be a space for you? (Writing this is so sublime, it’s even making me spit some rhymes!)
Okay enough joking around. The remote job you wanted has now been found. You make up your mind to sublet your house, you put your things in storage and move yourself out. You look at your suitcase, why is it so big?
Too late now. The time has come to see the world, and make yourself proud.
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That my friends, is the power of one decision.
What you’ve just read, is one of many roads that could lead you to live as the nomads do. Now, you may have seen our article on Mental Models. You’ll see a little of the inner workings of the minds of digital nomads. In it we talked a bit about the ‘snowball effect’. Another way of looking at that is via a good metaphor…
The Greatest Rivers begin as a Stream…
The Principle of a Chain Reaction
Let’s look at the examples nature sets for us. A river begins as a small, bubbling freshwater stream. As it travels down it picks up rainwater, melted snow and joins with other small streams. It gets bigger and bigger until all of a sudden, it’s not a stream anymore. It’s a roaring river. Powerful. Focused.
The journey to changing the course of your life and your business is not so far away from that. The reason why decisions are so powerful is because they are often prone to the ‘Snowball Effect. The ‘Snowball Effect’ is the term used to describe a process that starts off as seemingly insignificant. But as the process continues, it builds upon itself in intensity and size until it becomes well…super important.
Crossing over into becoming your own boss is like that. Crossing over into becoming a digital nomad is like that as well; you make a decision to try and then all the decisions you make from that point become about removing obstacles out of the way. That’s exactly the way a ‘chain reaction’ works. Each time you solve a problem, you move one step closer to the goal and it builds on what goes before, until finally…you’re walking around a brand new place, doing shopping in a market, and having business meetings in a coworking space that’s thousands of miles away from where you started.
Pretty darn cool.
So how do we jump into making the decision to at least give something totally new a go?
Revisit your life goals…
You know what will make you feel fulfilled, you’ve hopefully spent the time figuring that stuff out. So keep it visible, and use it as a constant reminder of why you need to take that first step.
Pick a goal, any goal.
Choose a goal that jumps out at you. Break down the steps needed to achieve that one goal you’ve picked.
If fear is holding you back, then according to Lisa Nichols, you probably haven’t got enough answers. Watch the first 12 minutes of this video – if there’s fear, answer that fear with as much strategy as possible. Strategy is the term used to describe the steps you’re going to take to achieve your aims, and it alleviates a lot of the ‘chatter’ that might stop you from taking action. So make sure everything is in manageable chunks – you’ll see very quickly that change is completely within your grasp.
Once you commit, vow to not turn back
“A double minded man, is unstable in all his ways….” James 1:8
Unless it becomes detrimental to you or those you love, and I mean detrimental, not uncomfortable, stay the course. You may have heard that women are the only people who can multitask. It’s wrong. Nobody can multitask. Your brain is such a sophisticated piece of tech, it moves a lot faster than we realise, giving rise to the belief that you can do several different things at once. Actually, your brain is just exceptionally good at shifting gear and loading up different settings.
Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash
If you want to see a marked change, you have to commit to one path at a time. If you want to build a side business, you may have several ideas. Choose one. Start building. When that idea has been nurtured into fruition, think about what comes next. You could add another dimension to the existing idea. Or take the blueprint you’ve built and apply it to a new idea. Whatever you do, do one thing at a time.
People who have multiple projects, and multiple businesses have more than likely built a portfolio over time and not started 5 different things at once. Take Virgin for example. Richard Branson started with selling music records. Then Virgin moved into film distribution. Then he added holidays and then things just became ridiculous. Air Travel. Trains. Gyms. Cosmetics. Healthcare. Bloody space travel and the list goes on… But Richard Branson’s MO seemed to be that he mastered one project at a time. The guy has been in business for over SIX decades. DECADES.
There’s time. Do one thing and do it well. Rinse and repeat.
Keep taking those steps, and make yourself proud.
Lastly…keep building that personal credibility by checking off that list slowly but surely. One thing I really want to work on, is keeping promises to myself. “I’m gonna do this,” I’ll say and then when I don’t do it I feel awful. Why is that? Well it’s because I want to be a person of integrity. Where my word counts for something. So the easier the steps are to complete, the more likely I am to get them done. The more I get things done, the more disciplined I become. The more disciplined I become, the more respect I have for myself. So let’s keep putting one foot in front of the other; you’ll be living a whole new life before you know it!
A brief note about the illusion of control…
At WiFi Tribe, we all believe in a concept known as ‘Lifestyle Design’ and our ability to shape the outcomes of our lives. I will continue to believe it. But, sometimes we can get carried away. As a human being, there must always be a level of balance – we have the power to shape many things, but within that shaping spectrum is the truth that we cannot control EVERYTHING that happens to us.
Situations arise daily that show us how little control we have sometimes. Maybe the bottom fell out of the market you were in and you lost everything. Maybe that person you thought was gonna be your forever person, picked up and left without so much as a word. Perhaps a loved one passed away suddenly with no warning. But they’re gone.
Picture by Simon Sun
Seeking control over absolutely everything will not bring happiness. But seeking to control and manage the things you are responsible for, things like your perspectives on life, your motivation for doing things and your health, will enable you to release so much of the potential within you. It will also give you the physical and mental fortitude to weather the struggles of life that you won’t get to choose. So…
It’s time to get on with it.
I implore you to make that decision you’ve been putting off about your job, your business…your life. You may not have the external resources right now, and that’s okay. It’s okay because every internal resource you need to shape your current situation, is already present in the brilliant person you are. I’m actually convinced that external resources appear exactly when you need them. They’re like Gandalf, what you need will never be late, and will arrive precisely when it needs to.
If fear is what holds you back, raise the courage to meet it. If too many options is causing paralysis in your decision making, simplify the options – if you knew you were going to die in a year what would you want to leave behind?
Put your blinkers on, and go for gold.
