There’s a common misconception floating around and one that I feel is important to clear up.  Location independence is NOT about travel!  It gives you the option of travel…however, many location independent professionals do not travel any more than those who are chained to a cubicle.

It is understandable that people believe location independence goes hand-in-hand with travelling the world.  The ever-increasing flow of images in our social media feeds, and media attention, and of people working from exotic locations, gives off the impression that it is all about travel.  However, it is not.  These shots are generally of digital nomads not of location independent professionals (or LIP’s as we call them).

Digital nomad is the blanket term that has been bandied around up until now and one that is becoming more and more widespread in the lexicon of today. Yet, there is a distinction to be made between location independence and digital nomadism…and one that many people are not aware of.

A digital nomad is, by literal definition, nomadic in nature.  They are travelling around the world, from place to place, with their backpack and laptop.  Their base motivation for living the DN lifestyle is to travel…and satiate their curiosity to see the world.  A LIP, on the other hand, generally tends to be more focused on their career or business.  Although they may travel from time-to-time they are usually to be found in coworking spaces in the city of which they live.

Although I have fused work with travel a lot over the past fifteen years I never identified myself as a digital nomad.  Having spoken with many people over the past months on this topic I realised that many others were also uncomfortable calling themselves as such.  When I suggest that maybe they should consider themselves as location independent professionals they regularly react positively…”that sounds more like who I am”, they say.

So what is location independence all about then?  It is about a lot of things and we cover it in our post “What is location independence?”  However, primarily it is about FREEDOM.  Location independent professionals should be the umbrella term with a digital nomad being only one avatar within the broader LI scene.