Juggling Work & Fun as a Nomad
Nomad Profile
I met Bailey in the beautiful island of Koh Phangan, Thailand, where we were hanging out with other nomad women. We met up for dinner, spent time at the beach sipping coconuts, and danced at sunset parties. She is bright and energetic, an all-around breath of fresh air. Be sure and give her Instagram a follow: b_adventuras.
9 Fun Facts
First Name: Bailey
Age Range: 30s
Nationality: USA
Nomadic Stance: Full-time
Last Corporate Job: corporate-ish -- Starbucks HQ Reserve Store opening team
Current Job: travel logistics coordinator / travel coach / travel agent (a travel trifecta) See: @adventuras_sabbaticals
Favorite Country: The Republic of Georgia
Next Stop: Malaysia
What do you like best about the nomadic life? organized-chaos
2 Questions
1) How do you juggle remote work, writing, traveling, and training?
The word “juggle” is fitting, because that’s exactly what it looks like. My life isn’t a balanced stack of plates. It’s more messy as I toss random objects in the air: a ball, a bowling pin, a shoe.
One or two things get the bulk of my time and attention, then I throw them up and catch something else for a while. It shifts day to day, though I try my best to stick to a weekly schedule. A week is the longest commitment I can wrangle myself into, so I take it one at a time. Some weeks are great. Some aren’t.
I give myself a lot of freedom to have fun rather than stressing over getting “ahead” or meeting external expectations about where I should be in my career or life. But when I catch myself slacking (you do need money to have fun), I remind myself why I chose this work, and I get back to juggling as best I can.
The biggest mindset shift I’ve found: swap “I have to” for “I get to.” It completely changes how you relate to work and responsibility. There’s no rule that says you can’t enjoy what you do — and honestly, it goes a lot better when you do. You have the freedom to build whatever life you want. If you’re enjoying it, you’ll get it done.
And if your nervous system starts pushing back because it feels like your autonomy is under threat, remind it: this life is a privilege. That tends to do the trick.
2) After only 3 months of training, you recently entered the ring as a Muay Thai fighter. What led you to this decision?
So much of why I travel comes down to an obsession with humanity. I want to experience as much of it as I possibly can. That mindset has been pushing me out of my comfort zone in extreme ways for over six years.
In that sense, fighting was “just another” experiment to teach me more about being human. But before I got there, I was just a traveler who had been invited into a world I’d previously written off and unexpectedly fell in love with it.
Muay Thai people have a lot of fun, but they don’t mess around. They came to train, and it showed. That dedication was magnetic. The humility of it all seeped out of every corner of the gym. I felt like I belonged.
After three months, I was still showing up to train two to three hours a day, most days of the week just because I loved it. I began to push off future travel plans to stay put and keep going. When the fighters at the gym started teasing me about when I was going to fight, it got in my head.
One day I asked my trainer to find me an opponent. He did. I used the whole experience to get in shape and, frankly, to prove something to myself about dedication and discipline.
I showed up fit, mentally prepared, and at peace. And I won.
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Christened “Wander Woman” by National Geographic, Erin Michelson has traveled to 135 countries & all 7 continents. She is a professional speaker and author of the Nomad Life™ series of curated trips and travel guides, including the #1-ranked Explore the World with Nomads.
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