How do you deal with a direct assault on your lifestyle? That question holds true for pretty much everyone in these days of the coronavirus pandemic, but especially for us digital nomads.

After all, the “nomadic” element of our identities is indefinitely suspended worldwide.

It’s a very weird time. But it’s a time that can teach us some valuable lessons and leave us with some nice silver linings… Even if they may be difficult to swallow right now.

So – let’s deal with the microscopic elephant in the room: Covid-19

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Lesson #1: We might have had it a little too easy for a little too long

One way or another, maybe this had to happen for our own sake.

The idea here is that back in 2010, the digital nomad lifestyle and long-term traveling was close to unthinkable – both conceptually and logistically. Over the years, trends have evolved to make this pursuit so much easier; booking sites, cheap flights, google maps, and airbnb have basically opened up the entire world to us. It almost got too easy.

This pandemic, then, is sort of a… Reset button. To knock us down a peg and remove our mindsets of entitlement. But also to remind us of the magic of travel – to never take it for granted.

Quick Eli story: Back in 2011, every time I crossed a border, I honestly couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe they let my journey continue on. At the border of Bulgaria going into Greece, an officer actually stopped me what in the world I thought I was doing moving around for years on end. “This cannot be done!” he insisted, reluctantly letting me in. That magic of doing something almost forbidden… Yeah it got lost a bit.

But this pandemic – it’s the classic “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” reminder.

This kinda takes us back to our discussion of The Prophet, who had to wait 12 years for his ship to take him to the next destination. We tried to sympathize with that patience, but only now are we truly confronted with it.

Lesson #2: Postponing until tomorrow only works if you actually have tomorrow

A lot of people say like to say that they’re finally going to do IT… They just need to wait a year or two until after they accomplish X or tie the knot with Y.

But if this pandemic can bring any reality to light, its that the freedom of tomorrow isn’t only dependent on you. We don’t have total control over what is happening or how life will look years down the road. And, to be honest, that holds true with or without a global pandemic.

Lesson #3: Coronavirus for digital nomads is a chance to conquer demons

We nomads are now faced with something we resent – for many, it’s our greatest fear: Going back to non-nomadism.

This brings us back to our discussion of escapes. If you escaped to this traveling lifestyle, life has now brought you back to confront your non-traveling past.

In some capacity, this lockdown presents a challenge to everyone – even those of us with a “normal” lifestyle. All of us in one way or another, are getting hit with a unique opportunity to make peace with our individual demons. And if staying put in one location is your demon, this is your chance to conquer it.

So there’s a huge silver lining: You can use this time to grow and return to the nomadic lifestyle from a much stronger position. After all, you don’t want to be escaping into it, you want to pursue travel from a position of strength.

And on the topic of our inner demons – if you stand tall and fight them, the prospect of facing them again in the future becomes much less ominous. The looming threat of being forced to return to a life you dread slowly diminishes.

If you can pass this period in a peaceful, stable, productive way, you’ll come out the other end that much more resilient.

Lesson #4: The sober truth is that we are not actually citizens of the world

We’ve previously talked much about the importance of having a strong passport and not disconnecting yourself from your home country. Because when things go out of control (it’s rare, but obviously it happens), you want to go on the defensive. It’s not the best time to be an exotic tourist in a strange land.

As global as we may feel, nation-states are still a fundamental rock of the human story. And when times get so abnormal, you want to be as normal of a person as possible. You want to fall back on that safety net – on the benefits of belonging to your country.

At the end of the day, it comes down to playing the statistics. As digital nomads, we’re constantly putting ourselves in risky scenarios by definition… There’s no need to add more layers of uncertainty. We at BecomeNomad prefer operating with some certainty at the base of our lives and then controlling all the chaos that emerges on top of it.

Lesson #5: It’s a good time to consider other responsibilities and values

For instance, one value we hold is not stressing out our families back home. Being out and about in the world – particularly now – would be a huge point of anxiety for the people we care about.

Also – pandemic or no pandemic, we always care about being responsible tourists. Shrugging off this crisis and moving around freely would blatantly violate the containment measures countries everywhere are putting in place.

The point here being that this desired lifestyle of ours cannot always come first; sometimes, it has to take a backseat to other priorities. The coronavirus for digital nomads requires analyzing the situation at hand and aligning actions based on value systems.

Lesson #6: It’s also a good time to reevaluate your digital nomad freedoms

It’s easy to feel free when the world is operating as we expect. But now with those daily expectations temporarily thrown out the window, we can actually get a better sense of how flexible our freedoms are. Namely, in regards to finances and skills.

Financial – If you’re stuck living in a location because of money, you likely don’t have this freedom just yet. But the pandemic brings up a similar consideration: How easy is it for you to adjust right now? The idea here is that you want to be prepared if things go wrong. You want a certain financial short-term flexibility.

Skills – Similarly, if you’re saying something like “My career totally relies on the existence of one industry,” normally it’s a good thing. Niche skills are more lucrative. But if your entire livelihood is based on this niche and you don’t have the capacity to quickly pivot, you may now be struggling.

This brings us back to the value of safety nets. Our ambition is to avoid such issues entirely. And now is the perfect time to work on them and build up the finances and skills to give our future traveling selves that sense of security.

A quick example: At Startupblink, we pivoted to a global map of innovations that have to do with Covid-19. We had the capability to jump industries on a dime because the skills and assets were in place already. Check it out! It’s a pretty cool resource.

Lesson #7: The bad news is that travel is about to be a lot more difficult for a while. Maybe years.

As long as this pandemic has roots anywhere, countries will have fears of receiving it again after solving it.

But the good news is that remote work is on the rise! Many companies and people are currently witnessing the value of remote jobs, meaning such jobs will likely be more readily available for aspiring nomads once this is all said and done.

Even conventional companies may start considering it more seriously now that they see how much money the can save on physical locations. It’s not much, but it’s a small silver lining from this coronavirus for digital nomads.

Final lesson: Treat this unique crisis as a personal challenge

For starters, it’s probably helpful not to think too much about the future. Don’t ignore it, of course, but try to focus more on the present like our ancestors did. There might be some value in their day-by-day survivalist mentality.

It’s exactly what we don’t recommend in normal times, but it might be a good agreement to have with yourself right now. Push away negative thoughts about the future and do the best you can for the next few months, gaining skills however you can.

You can also look at this period as a part of your nomadic journey. After all, the game of nomadism isn’t actually as much about changing locations as it is about change itself. So now that we have this crazy lockdown reality, the question is: Can you win this game?

If you can “win” under these circumstances, you really have nothing to fear once things return to stability. If you look at this as a unique challenge you would never normally experience, you’ll have a much more constructive perspective on it. If you can maintain a relatively stable emotional system during this and embrace the change to become a better version of yourself, it will (a) pass faster and (b) actually be worth it.

Basically: Make it a part of your nomadic story, not a divergence.

What are your thoughts on conquering the obstacles of the coronavirus for digital nomads? We’d love to hear them – share below!