“Know thyself” is an Ancient Greek aphorism.
When you know yourself, you also increase your confidence, accept your weaknesses, and generally strive to be a better human being.
It’s a wonderful goal for sure. And as luck would have it, one way to achieve this goal is to be a digital nomad.
At first glance, you may ask yourself what does one have to do with the other. However, according the Harvard Business Review article How Living Abroad Helps You Develop a Clearer Sense of Self, “we found that people who had lived abroad reported a clearer sense of self than people who had not.”
This was after they compensated for other factors such as demographic and psychological measures, such as age, gender, marital status, socioeconomic status, and personality traits. So why is this?
Well, when confronted with people from different cultures and world views, you are forced to challenge your own preconceived notions and basic perceptions of yourself. You engage in dialogue to explain your views, thereby opening your mind to other ways of thinking and strengthening your connection with yourself.
You also gain a higher perception of your place in the world.
The takeaway
There are numerous benefits to being a digital nomad. Some are more obvious than others, but they are all pointing the same direction —-> Somewhere else 🙂