Want to travel the world full time like I do? Prepare to be uncomfortable.

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Nearly nine years ago, I made the most drastic decision of my life. I walked away from 36 years of corporate life to pursue a career as a travel writer and photographer. I remember very clearly the day I left the U.S. I was exhausted from years of working 70 hour weeks and excited to start a new phase in my life, but most of all I was terrified. Although I’d traveled all my life, like most Americans, the majority of my international travel had been to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean; I’d only truly been “overseas” once in my life. For the next six months, I would travel alone through 16 different countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Terrible photo of me, taken with my laptop camera at Los Angeles International Airport in 2007, as I was waiting to take off on my six-month round-the-world trip. I was exhausted and scared of what lay ahead.

Things went wrong on my very first night. After checking into my budget hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, I asked the desk clerk where I could find a wifi connection. He pointed me to an Internet cafe down the street, where I happily plinked away on my laptop for a few hours. Shortly after midnight, I headed back to my hotel. The street I stepped out onto bore no resemblance to the one I had walked just a few hours earlier. Metal doors had been rolled down over the fronts of all the businesses, including my hotel. After a few moments of panic, survival mode kicked in. At worst, I would need to spend the night in another hotel and return the next morning to retrieve my luggage. Fortunately, the owner of one of the few shops that was still open came to my rescue. He pounded on the door until a bleary-eyed night watchman rolled up the door to admit me. At that moment, I knew that everything was going to be fine. I realized there was nothing to fear, that I would always be able to work my way through any challenge that presented itself.

Vietnam was unlike anything I had ever experienced,, but I adapted quickly and embraced the experience

More concerning was the financial aspect of what I was attempting. With limited savings at my disposal I chose the cheapest possible accommodations, staying in $5-10 per night hostel dorms where cockroaches were more common than bunkmates. I chose places that included a free breakfast, ate as much as I could, and sneaked rolls and cheese into my pockets for lunch. For dinners I hit the local bakeries, existing on slices of quiche or pizza. Unable to sustain a mortgage payment, I sold my house and moved into a small apartment, but soon I was traveling more than I was home, so three years into my journey I gave up my apartment as well. My fallback was family and friends with whom I could stay if necessary.

I had no home base, no furniture, and few possessions, but I still couldn’t let go of my car. For eleven months each year, it sat on the street in front of my friend’s house in Atlanta, waiting for my annual holiday visit. Two years ago, I arrived back in the States to find that the tires had rotted away from sitting in the sun. Six-hundred dollars and a set of new tires later I decided to sell the car as well. Finally, I was a complete and true digital nomad who would travel the world full time with no home base.

“Humans are remarkably versatile creatures. We can get used to almost anything. After nearly nine years of traveling, what once seemed daunting and scary has simply become my norm.”

Getting to this point was a process. With each step, I became more willing to let go of material possessions and what others would call security. Prior to my initial six-month trip, I purchased an around-the-world flight, booked every hotel in advance, and prepared a multi-page document with lists of what to see and do. Nowadays, I do no research. I book a one-way ticket to whatever continent I want to explore and book one or two nights in my arrival city, then spend months traveling around by bus, train, ferry, or shared rides with no pre-planned itinerary. I stay in one place until I’ve seen everything of interest, then decide where to go next. My accommodations are generally booked the day before I arrive in a new destination.

Want to travel the world full time like I do? Prepare to be uncomfortable.