“Why are you able to travel so comfortably? I also really want to explore tourist destinations, but the work keeps piling up 24/7, I can’t find free time, and I don’t feel secure when I quit my job.” Many of my friends confided like this when they saw the plane tickets regularly appearing on my story, the check-in pictures at many famous places in the world that I took and posted on social media.
Looking back on the past journey, I feel delighted because I have tried and made a lot of efforts to both meet the quality, schedule and time of work (I am the type of person who always gives my best in work and extremely important in terms of product quality), also enough time to “enjoy” the beautiful scenery and the thrill of traveling on trips to interesting places that I am always excited to explore.
Balancing both factors at the same time is not easy, but not impossible. I have been the prime example over the past 10 years. At present, I’m going to share with you the “keys” – the secret and the reasons why I can have such a “dream” like that.
Find a job that fits my needs
First of all, I have to confirm that I am not the type of person who is working, suddenly gets bored and then wants to go on a trip just to relieve stress. Experiencing the world and places to visit is my long-distance plan. Not only at present, my previous jobs have also combined working and traveling in a harmonious and rhythmic manner. In any field, I always have a deal with my boss about 70% remote working, and I can completely control the 3 factors of How, When, Where during my working process. Even with my current position, I still maintain this requirement because I always understand the characteristics of each of my tasks, and make sure to complete all of the deadlines with 100% of possibilities even if I am not available 24/24 in the office.
It can be said that I am quite fortunate to find jobs and negotiate with such bosses. Each mission that I was assigned to cover many areas, internationalized and not just around a locality or a country. Working a lot with foreign customers, I also “must” travel a lot to combine sightseeing, discovery, and work support (of course, I still enjoy the time of exploring, not only work hard).
Later, every time I change jobs and tasks to a new unit, I once again expand my travel opportunities. This is also the ambition, aspiration and destination that I aim for, not wanting to narrow myself. For example, having traveled a lot in the South-East Asia region before, I will have the ambition that my next destination will be a place that allows me to travel to places farther, wider and having more things to explore.
Answer 3 important words by myself: How, When, Where
Once I have found a job allowing remote working, my task is to ensure that the efficiency and quality of work meet the expectations and targets of the company, even exceeding expectations to confirm that my initial negotiation with my boss is completely correct. To do this, I had to pass three “levels” of questions: How, When and Where. How means “How can I work, how do I balance tasks during travel?”, When – When to work and Where – Where to do jobs. When you are responsible for all three of these factors by yourself, you have “won” on your own journey.
From the first remote jobs, I was able to completely solve the How and When factors. In particular, I am a person who is always professional about the time element. At first, it was a bit “frustrating”, because the distance between regions and countries took a long time, plus the jetlag and sometimes I’ve lost the motivation. You know, the combination of travel and work is not just holding a laptop sitting in a fresh cafe in Greece or typing while watching the Venice River in Italy. I also had to get used to meeting deadlines in a noisy, crowded airport, or work with 100% focus on being on the plane with the people across the screen. Timezone is different, and I have to accept that.
Currently, there are days when I only work for just 3 hours. The stressful work forces me to focus on maximum strength, sitting in the “productive zone” for a few hours a day. The rest of the time I will prioritize other jobs that give me more motivation, of course travel is a part of that. Once I got used to it, I felt completely “enjoyed” with this kind of life, and from this level on, I don’t think I’d be ready if I had to go back to an 8-hour/day office routine.
“The more I travel, the more I make money”
When negotiating with the boss, many people will probably wonder: “Not every boss, every environment allows me to sit down and discuss working issues that I rarely come to the company?‘. However, whenever my boss will sit down with me to give me the right direction at work, I always affirm: “The more I travel, the more I make money“.
I used to try with daily timekeeping tasks, going to the company for 8 hours a day, “burying my feet” in the ferry’s air-conditioned office, but my mind just wanted to “fly and jump” to a highland full of water, sun and wind outside. I also used to be “shy” to try remote jobs for the first time, when I was able to decide for myself to create my desired value and self-direct the tasks of the day, also my working locations. At that time, everything is good, the work also becomes much better and more efficient. Sometimes, the amount of work that I can handle is more than that in the days when I glued to the computer screen for ⅓ of the day.
This is also an important message I want to send to those who want to build a life that combines traveling and working: Be aware of your own value, future direction, career path and the characteristics of the work that you are doing. Only then will you have a basis to ask your boss to sit down and voice your demand.
“Elevate” myself with opportunity at Italian Atelier
After a lot of work with increasing positions, I am currently officially working at Italian Atelier – the exclusive representatives of 39 exclusive interior design brands (Armani/Casa, Paola Lenti, Missoni Home, Poltronova, …) in the Asia-Pacific market. The company was founded by my life partner, and he always respects the value of each individual to make the most appropriate working decisions. This is a huge opportunity in my life, helping me to work in the field I love, to travel around Europe, Asia as a habit after deciding to combine travel for my personal life and business purposes.
At Italian Atelier, besides controlling How I work, When I complete tasks and Where I can do jobs, I can also decide for myself: Who I want to work with?. I get to choose a partner to accompany, the brand I want to work with, suitable and “connoisseur” designers, as well as build a small team that is always by my side, from anywhere in the world. My values have also been raised to a new level, and life has become much better.
The end
Traveling and also working at the same time, to me, is not the final destination. This is actually a long journey, and it takes courage, enthusiasm, and enough faith in myself to be able to pursue. I’m not sure in the future, I am still able to extend my adventures and valuable experiences in many new lands, and also complete all the same goals at work. But ‘till now, I’ve tried my best to live life to the fullest with youthful passions. Like a dream, but I believe that dream can be turned into reality by anyone, like me, like you, to be proud to live the most worth living life as we desire.
