Planning For Crises: What To Do When Your Dream Lifestyle Becomes A Nightmare, Part 3

Photo by _Massimo_

In the first part of this post, I covered what to do when you realise that you’re not enjoying the experience of your location independent lifestyle; we then looked at what to do when a lack of funds threatens to end your dream lifestyle and finally in this part, we’re going to take a look at what to do if something awful happens.

This is a tactic your friends and family might throw at you when you’re in the exploration and planning mode of lifestyle design - particularly something as unconventional as a nomadic, location independent lifestyle.

They’ll invent all sorts of weird and wonderful scenarios to put you off taking the plunge…

• But what if there’s an earthquake/tsunami/other natural disaster when you’re there?
• But what if something happens back home that we need you for?
• But what if you get ill or have an awful accident?

So let’s take look at each of these in a bit more detail…

Scenario 1

Whilst in Costa Rica, you’re put on hurricane alert as a category 5 hurricane threatens to destroy the coastal towns. What do you do?

There’s not an awful lot you can do, unless you can get yourself on a flight out of there pronto. Otherwise, in any natural disaster the best thing you can do is prepare yourself for the aftermath; stock up on essentials, follow the local advice (always turn on local TV or radio to keep up to date with the latest advisory) and make sure you’ve contacted your local embassy/consulate to inform them of your whereabouts.

We were in Grenada during hurricane season and had a few minor warnings of impending storms: we stocked up on water, food and got our medical supplies/torches etc. ready just in case - nothing ever happened.

The thing is this: how many people regularly go to the Caribbean in hurricane season because they can’t afford peak season and their holidays won’t let them? (Some of my family have just been). How many people go to South East Asia during monsoon & typhoon season for the same reason? Or because they’re looking for a bargain?

If you avoided going to places just because of the possibility of a natural disaster, then you may as well build yourself a nuclear bunker and go and live there now!

Natural disasters can occur everywhere and if you happen to get caught up in one, the best thing you can do is be prepared. It’s certainly not a reason to avoid pursuing your dream lifestyle because of the irrational fears of loved ones.

How to be prepared in advance:

Always carry a small medical and emergency kit with you - whether you’re travelling to ‘risky’ places or not; the last thing you want to do when you feel ill or have an accident is be looking for a drugstore/medical support at midnight in a strange place (Jonathan had to do this when I caught a 24 hour flu in Toronto and felt like I was dying with no drugs to help).

You should always inform the local embassy of your presence in a country when you arrive - especially if you’ll be there for a prolonged period of time. British citizens should register their travel plans on the new online Locate service for overseas assistance and support if needed.

Equally, when you’re on location, be sure to store the local numbers for emergency response, medical assistance and the embassy on your mobile phone - you never know when you’ll need it and it pays to be prepared.

In reality, you can never be fully prepared for a natural disaster but you can help make life simpler with some basic preparations. And if you’re friends and family are still scaremongering, just remind them of a recent natural disaster in your own country and ask if they carry emergency supplies to work with them ‘just in case’.

Scenario 2

Something awful happens to you whilst your overseas or a loved one back home. What do you do?

The simple answer to this is: Do whatever you need to do. Only you will know what the ‘right’ thing to do is when it happens - just trust your instincts and follow them.

How to be prepared in advance:

The important thing in this instance is that you have your emergency pot of money available and that you have good travel insurance (never scrimp on this). Use this to buy tickets home, get any treatment you need and make yourself or your loved one the priority.

Always have an ICE (In Case of Emergency) contact plugged into your phone, your diary or somewhere it can be found easily and no matter how excited you are to be living the good life, free from the constraints of a conventional life…don’t take silly risks when it comes to your health or your safety.

In Conclusion

I hope this 3 part post has been useful whether you’re still in lifestyle design or location independent planning mode or you’ve already taken the plunge.

If the location independent lifestyle you’re designing for yourself is met with negativity and constant “what ifs” from friends and family, take a step back and instead surround yourself with people who’ve done what you want to do and gather evidence that it can be done (there’s plenty here!!).

The key thing to remember is this: location independent living is meant to be fun, inspiring (to you and others), abundant and positive. If at any point the lifestyle you’ve designed for yourself stops being any of these things, then maybe it’s time to go back to the drawing board and do a re-design. You’ve done it once, you can do it again.

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Related posts:

1. Planning For Crises: What To Do When Your Dream Lifestyle Becomes A Nightmare, Part 1
2. Planning For Crises: What To Do When Your Dream Lifestyle Becomes A Nightmare, Part 2
3. 5 Things That Will Help You Settle In Quickly When You Lead A Nomadic Lifestyle As A Web Worker
4. This Is How I’d Design My Ideal Lifestyle; Now How About Yours?
5. Lifestyle Design - A Framework And Guide To The Blogosphere That Will Help You Do It

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