Why I STOPPED Traveling – Quitting My Digital Nomad Life (For Now)

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This is the digital nomad quest podcast with Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design the best lives.0:15
Hey guys, it’s Sharon from digital nomad quest and today I want to tell you guys about why I came back after two years of travel as a digital nomad, so don’t get me wrong. I loved my time as a digital nomad. As you can tell, I’ve been talking about my travels and digital nomad life. Why I actually pursued it in in previous videos, right? So it’s kind of interesting to create this video about why I came back but essentially I came back to the Bay Area. After traveling for so long I ended up taking a full time job afterwards and I want to explain why I decided to come back you know, some digital nomads decide to do it forever, but I decided that wasn’t for me. And who knows, maybe in the future, I’ll go back out but right now this is the best move for me in my journey. So a lot of digital1:00
nomads call this phase digital nomad 2.0. I heard this in Chris the freelancers video about why he came back. And I made my own blog post about it when I actually initially came back. So basically, it’s sort of this idea after you’ve done it for a while you start to get used to digital nomad life. You know, in the beginning, it’s very exciting. And you’re, you’re like, why didn’t I do this before, right, but afterwards, you get accustomed to traveling a month at each place. It’s a weird feeling. But it’s basically like living in a new place each time and you just get accustomed to it. It’s kind of a weird feeling. But afterwards, you realize that freedom isn’t the goal. Freedom is just a means of doing what you love. And then the next stage is really figuring out your passions and what really makes you fulfilled and at one point, I was kind of at like a low where I felt kind of lost, like, what’s my purpose? You know, when you’re a digital nomad, you have a lot of time to think you’re by yourself a lot.2:00
You’re at least for me, I was solo traveling while I was a digital nomad at a lot of time to think. And a lot of it was trying to figure out my purpose. Even though I was building these passive income streams, I didn’t feel fulfilled by them. That was a big reason why I decided to come back I realized that these passive income streams are supposed to enable me to figure out my passions and then sort of pursue those passions, but I didn’t have that next move. So in between time I was I was still figuring that out right? So as I was doing these passive income streams, I was so focused on the numeric goals, I would hit that I started feeling unfulfilled. Like I realized that working just for increasing those income levels didn’t fulfill me at all. Don’t get me wrong, I freakin love passive income. And I still am talking about it, of course on this channel, because I think it enables you to be able to pursue these passions and feel more like opportunities are endless. So I really think passive income is a great means to an end. It’s not the goal. It’s the tool to let you3:00
pursue the life of your dreams. So when I started feeling that way, I started feeling unfulfilled, right, I decided that I wanted to come back to the Bay Area because a lot of the energy in the Bay Area was what I needed at the time. So before I left, I was still in Chiang Mai for a few months. And while I was in Chiang Mai, what I noticed was a lot of expats, who went there wanted to relax there, they wanted to chill. They weren’t trying to build something impactful. A lot of them were trying to just cover their expenses and stay there forever. And I’m just generalizing. But as something I noticed, that made my energy kind of lower. It made me very, I was very relaxed in Chiang Mai, and I friggin loved it. But at a point you kind of, at least for me, I felt like I was too young to decide that this was this was it for me, right, I decided that I still had a lot of life left that I wanted to still build something impactful. I wanted to live life to my full potential, which meant creating4:00
Things that could help people in the future. And there’s just a lot of things I wanted to pursue, and I was not ready to just chill the rest of my life. So that’s why I came back. So I feel like there are two components to it. One was kind of not being fulfilled by the passive income streams I was pursuing. And then number two, wanting to create something bigger create a bigger impact. And what I needed to do to get there was really to learn a lot, put my head down, hustle, you know, so I decided it was the right move to come back to the Bay Area, taking jobs, I can learn even more skills while building my side hustle. So right now I’m in this learning stage and building a brand stage where I think this is the best way where I can help people inspire people to pursue a life of their dreams, but also inspire them to find meaning in their lives and figure out what their purpose is because I think everyone has their own journeys, their own purpose, and it’s kind of like we have to figure out what it is for5:00
ourselves, right? So I hope that makes sense in this video. What I’m trying to say is that, yes, financial freedom, location independence is amazing, but it’s not going to make you happy. There’s also the component of figuring out what fulfills you what ignites your passion, because past the freedom, it’s just kind of human nature to want to figure out our callings, our purpose, what makes us fulfilled and if we don’t have that, I think we end up feeling kind of lost. So hope that makes sense. Right now this is currently a good place in my life. And maybe in the future, I will go out and be a digital nomad again, but I don’t want to be restricted to that lifestyle. I think it’s a matter of working towards what makes you fulfilled. So thanks again and make sure to rate review and subscribe to help this podcast grow.Transcribed by https://otter.ai