You’ve dreamed for this moment your whole life.  Years of staying inside an office from 9-5 and looking outside the window, dreaming of a life without a fixed schedule and not tied to an office building. Being able to work from anywhere you wish, maybe from a café in the city centre today and a sunny beach tomorrow.

Wherever you’re now – quitting your job to become an entrepreneur or officially asking your employer to work remote – you’re so enthusiast that your days will not be the same again and routine’s gone! Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to travel while working if you want! What a life!

Yes, the advantages of working from home or being location independent are so enchanting! But, before starting on this path, you might also consider the downsides of it. Let’s see what those are and how you can overcome them.

 

It’s not for everybody

Some people like working in an office, wear business clothes and high heels, holding tight to a fancy corporate title, while others prefer to have a flexible schedule, work in their pyjamas or swimsuit, being on the road and travel while working online. You need to weight in which lifestyle is suitable for you. You decide your own meaning of remote or location independent. Maybe you like working from your home city in a café or while travelling the world. Maybe you prefer to spend half a year travelling and the other half at home. Even working from home and visiting the office once in a while is an option. It’s really important that you know exactly what motivates you and what fits you better before taking the decision of going remote or location independent.

 

Productivity issues

Years of going to an office from 9-5 have made you develop a routine and a similar daily plan for each work day. Most of the days seem to follow the same pattern as the days before – e.g. wake up at 7, get dressed up, drive to the office, have lunch around the same hour each day, leave the office at 5, drive home etc. So, your days are following a well-established plan.

Well, when working for yourself or remote, on your own time and planning, you need to possess or quickly develop very good organizing skills in order to stay productive. Especially in the beginning of your remote working life, it can be a huge challenge to deal with that amount of “free time”, stay focused and not be side-tracked with activities like housework, discussions over the phone or other disturbing factors – you name it. This is the moment when you remind yourself why you’ve first chosen this way of life and work (remember that motivation we talked about earlier? Yes, that one!)

In order to stay productive, you can use a calendar or a planning app to organize your next day(s) activities and tasks. Also, deciding what’s urgent and what’s important (google Eisenhower’s matrix) can be of great help.

 

Loneliness

Working remote or from different places in the world could mean spending a lot of time with yourself.  All the socializing and coffee breaks with work colleagues are long gone. So are the noisy days in the office. Yes, you’ll still have options to socialize if you want – you can use a co-working space, start a conversation with a barman, get together with friends with the same lifestyle and work together over a talk and a cup of coffee. There are plenty of options to choose from. But be aware that the only “work colleague” that’s going everywhere with you – is YOU. So make best friends with him/her! J

Ok, earning money from blogging/vlogging while travelling the world together with your beloved one is a different situation. You can then consider yourself really lucky! 🙂

 

High expectations

Oh, God! All those Instagram pictures of people working from exotic islands with the laptop in one hand and a coconut cocktail in the other hand… yes, you want that luxury life too. Actually, “what you see is what you get” doesn’t apply here. On social media, people share only the good stuff, the happy moments, the laughter, a little piece of heaven and breath-taking sunsets. All is shinny and happy joy-joy! But real life means ups and downs, all kind of situations – sometimes awkward, funny, sad – that you’re not seeing on social media. I know successful people that make a living while being on the most beautiful and exotic island in the world, but they’re spending their time crying, in despair, paralyzed by fear and doubts. And yet, on social media it’s all palm trees and happy life. So be ready for real life experiences and don’t create yourself an image from what you’ve seen on social media. Yes, you can have the dream life you imagine – if you work on it. If you build it day by day, brick by brick. So go work on that dream! And work on yourself!

 

The myth of working from anywhere in the world

There are a lot of options for you while working location independent. You could work from your sofa, your favourite café, a co-working space or from a different country. Everything is possible. But you and only you can decide what are your wishes and your needs. First you need to make sure you have a good internet connection, you can align your time zone with the one of your clients (e.g. if you offer support of coaching calls) and so on. Then you have to meet your own comfort criteria – the dream beach might look good in pictures but if the surroundings are really poor and dirty or you would have to sleep in a tent – would you do it? For the sake of the social media image? Not to mention all the sand that might find its way right into your laptop 🙂

Yes, you can live and work from any place in the world as long as it meets your lifestyle standard. And that is a personal choice.

 

Are you ready to go location independent? Let me know your thoughts by dropping a comment below.

 

Nina is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, happiness coach, traveller and writer at heart. She has built her Happy Place – as a state of mind – over the years, through reading, travelling, yoga, mindfulness, continuously learning and expanding her knowledge and self-consciousness. She passionately writes on her website www.ninabalerina.com and motivates women to pursue their dreams and have the boldness to live the life they are entitled to, with love and compassion.

Follow Nina on Instagram: @nina.happyplace and Facebook: @nina.happyplace.