How To Create Meaningful Connections While Working Remotely and Travelling
Remote work is amazing, and we wouldn’t change it for anything. The flexibility and freedom it provides are hardly replaceable.
In addition to all the other perks, remote work enables us to travel while working and to explore new ways of life. Traveling, moving around, and living a nomadic life are incredible advantages of remote work, but they also come with some challenges.
Often, this kind of lifestyle is considered carefree and easy to maintain. However, anyone on this journey knows that it can be as challenging as any other lifestyle we choose, for various reasons.
One of those challenges might be creating, keeping, and maintaining meaningful connections with others. Moving places rapidly leaves us with memories full of unforgettable and life-changing experiences, through meeting new people and cultures. However, crossing paths with some amazing people might not be sufficient to satisfy our human need to get to know someone on a deeper level and develop a deeper sense of friendships and relationships.
The absence of meaningful connections with others can trigger feelings of loneliness and not belonging, which happens to be the number one challenge for digital nomads all around the world.
Fortunately, there are ways to work through it and satisfy our basic human needs to become fully thriving creatures while still enjoying life to the fullest and making the best out of it.
If you look outside the box, there are many ways to create and maintain deeper and more meaningful connections with others while working remotely and traveling.
Travel more slowly - take it all in
The concept of slow travel is becoming more and more popular. Long-term travel can become exhausting at times, so traveling slowly allows us to settle in one place for a while, take time to explore the surroundings, culture, and people, and soak it all in.
Slow travel usually requires staying in one location for a few weeks or months. During that time, there is a higher chance to meet new people and develop deeper connections. Through slow travel, we can invest our time in building intentional relationships and creating new habits while feeling safer and more stable. At the end of the day, people are creatures of habit who seek a safe place, and sometimes safety can come in the form of a stable location and people around us.
Stay at coliving spaces - find your tribe
Community-focused coliving and coworking spaces are places where you can meet like-minded individuals and share beautiful moments. These hubs for remote workers and travelers are great places to connect with others since they usually offer a great setup of a small to medium-sized group, which is optimal for creating connections. Some coliving spaces are intentionally focused on building quality relationships within the group and even have a community manager who helps facilitate activities for easier interaction.
These are the places where you can meet people with similar ways of thinking, sets of values, and interests, which can make the process much easier and quicker. The community is already set up, and most people come there with the same intentions - to meet new friends and make connections.
Colivings are great for meeting like-minded people
Be proactive in building relationships
Traveling and meeting new people can be very exciting. That’s why we do it in the first place. But, keeping continuous communication with those you’ve met on the way will most likely lead to more fulfilling relationships.
However, living a life full of excitement and adventures can sometimes distract us from the importance of investing our time and energy in developing deeper and more meaningful connections with people we already know.
Connections are built by being present in other people’s lives, checking in, showing interest, and trying to make it work. This is the case for all types of relationships - romantic, friendships, family, and beyond. By keeping that in mind and wanting to build a trustworthy, sustainable relationship, we must prioritize proactivity and showing up for others, as well as asking for help and support when needed.
Take the initiative to reach out to those you'd like to connect with on a deeper level. Schedule virtual coffee chats to catch up with them and explore ways to stay connected.
Great connections can develop into more meaningful friendships only by being there and showing up. Building trust takes time, so be patient and consistent in your interactions.
Plan intentional meet-ups in person
The online world is great, convenient, and offers many possibilities. But, as humans, we still seek physical meet-ups and connections, especially when it comes to building relationships.
If you’ve met some people while traveling, and travel is your common interest, arrange a meet up somewhere new, in a country you both have been wanting to visit, head to a fun retreat you’d both enjoy, or book a coliving space together. This way, you will be able to spend some quality time with that person, while still meeting new people and going somewhere exciting. You will share many great moments and create new memories with your friends, and they will appreciate the gesture and your invitation, proactivity, and effort to spend more time together.
Take time to get to know yourself
Spending some time in solitude and building a meaningful connection with yourself first is a crucial step in living a more fulfilled life. It helps us get to know ourselves better, discover our values, and what kind of relationships we want to build with others. Also, spending some time alone is necessary to understand the difference between loneliness and solitude, and how is our relationship with ourselves.
To this day, many digital nomads around the world face feelings of loneliness and lack of belonging. These challenges can only be overcome by diving deep inside. Inner work is important to get to know ourselves and to know where we stand. Once we are authentic and genuine, it is much easier to build deeper, true, and meaningful connections.
