Defining “Home”

Defining “Home”

“Birds need a nest, and yet they still fly.” ~ Gloria Steinem

In our digital age, more and more people work from home.  A few commonplace examples of this 21st century lifestyle are: corporate employees who log in remotely, digital nomads and entrepreneurs with location independent businesses, freelancers who work virtually, and the growing number of students and teachers of online learning.

My partner, Carl, is an example of a remote working corporate employee. And I am a digital nomad, an entrepreneur with a location independent business devoted to helping others create a life they don’t need a vacation from.

This rapidly changing virtual landscape is creating changes in not only how we think about and do our work, but also how we think about and identify ‘home’.  How one defines home is, of course, very personal – and it’s also fluid – often changing along with changes in circumstances, relationships, and stages of life.

For me personally, home has been many things: It’s been a place I can’t wait to return to, and it’s been a place I’ve been eager to leave. It’s been a place I’ve identified by an address; other times by a town, a city, a state, a country, a continent, or hemisphere.

For reasons I don’t fully understand, the most sincere definition of home I’ve ever held, has been to identify home as Planet Earth.  And even that at times feels like it only tells part of the story. 😉

I am a digital nomad and citizen of the world. ‘Home’ is not just defined by location, but by the people in my life. In other words, if my heart’s not there, my home is certainly not there.  I have friends and family who live not only across the country, but around the globe.

Despite having such an expansive definition of home, I also really like my bed and having a home to come home to.

For many years, this dichotomy made for quite the dilemma.

Do you relate?

If home is where the heart is, and your heart spans across continents, how do YOU define home?

I’ve come to embrace that, for me, home is untethered and too complex and big to be defined by one place.

In other words, I’ve stopped trying to answer that question.

And with this release, came a new question:

>> Where is my home-base? <<

Home-base doesn’t get me confused, and it doesn’t cause me to feel flustered or confined by its definition.

Home-base is where my bed is. It’s where my clothes and toothbrush are. It’s where I return, after wandering and journeying based on my unapologetically expansive definition of ‘home’.

This works for me.  To know where my nest is, and I still fly.

How about YOU?  Ready to expand YOUR definition of home?

Want to live and work from anywhere? If you haven’t already, click here to grab the FREE Video Training: 3 Simple Strategies to Get Started with Nomadic Living and get you ready for the journey of a lifetime! 

If you’re ready to make this lifestyle your own, join us for Nomadic Living 101

I want to hear from you. Please share your thoughts on these questions:

==> Where’s ‘home’ for you?

==> What does ‘home’ mean to YOU?

==> How do YOU define it?

“Where do you live?”: RV Living & the Changing Definition of Home

“Where do you live?”

It seems like a simple enough question.

But as someone who lives nomadically, it trips me up, every time.

Here’s what goes through my mind:

Do I share the state I grew up in as a point of reference?

Do I tell them that Rhode Island, a place I lived for more than 20 years, is – if I had to pick one – the place that I most associate with the word “home”?

Do I simply answer, “the DC area” since that’s where my latest residence was for 2 1/2 years?

Or do I say “Florida”, since it’s my legal address … the place where my mail gets sent, where I pay taxes, vote, and have my corporation registered?

Instead of these, I typically respond with the simple truth that I’m a nomad:

“I live full-time in an RV traveling and working from the road, along with my partner and my dog.”

I’ve found this answer to be quite the conversation starter!

I would estimate that a whopping 70-80% of the time, people respond with:

“OMG that’s awesome. I wish I could do that!”  >>> Answer: You can! (We teach you how here.)

About 15% or so ask: “Do you blog about it?”  🙂

And then there’s a special few who seem utterly confused and/or suddenly eager to carry on with their day.  (lol.)

Our world is changing, and with it, the definition of home is changing too.

If you’re curious to learn more and fulfill your own dreams of travel and nomadic freedom, click HERE!  

* We tell all and share everything you need in our Nomadic Living 101 program. 

I had the pleasure of interviewing a couple who defines home in a way that is truly unique. Their version of nomadic living is in a converted ambulance! (They call it The Adventurelance.) I did a livestream Facebook interview with them and within 24 hours it got over 8K views. It’s a fascinating interview. Watch it here:

How do YOU define home? Is home defined by the address where you currently live? Or does it feel more complex than that? Are you a nomad in your own right? What’s your answer to the question: Where do YOU live? 

Please share in the comments below.