If You Could Live Anywhere

Where would you live if you could live and do work you love literally anywhere in the world?

Would you. . .

Start a sheep farm in New Zealand?

Open a café on a busy street in Paris?

Sell books at an outdoor bookshop in Bali?

Raise bees in a flower garden in southern Italy?

Run your consulting business from a van on the beach?

Or buy a house on a hill with a dock on a lake and hide away?

(that last one came from a country song)

Those of us with long-term wanderlust know this question well.

We’ve heard its whisper over a quiet solo Saturday morning cup of coffee. We’ve journaled, written it on our 10-year goal list, invested hours in thought, and felt this question’s tug during every episode of House Hunters International. We’ve even asked our partners, friends, family members, and kids this question from time to time just to see what they’d say.

Which is why I’m so excited today to share Melody Warnick’s juggernaut of a book If You Could Live Anywhere: The Surprising Importance of Place in a Work-From-Anywhere World ⤵

Melody Warnick is a writer and author whose prolific and beautiful work has appeared in articles in all sorts of publications. Her books are known for both promoting a love of place and acknowledging that living in the right place can make all the difference in the world for one’s happiness.

I first learned about Melody Warnick a few weeks ago when a friend wrote to me that she was currently reading If You Could Live Anywhere. I wrote back immediately and told her that based on the title alone I’d be joining her in reading it. I had the book in my earbuds within minutes.

I finished it quickly. I loved it. Really loved it. Here’s why — I’m no stranger to big dreams, big travels, and big life changes, but when it comes to making decisions about those things, I tend to go into full-blown free spirit mode. Sometimes to an unfortunate fault. All critical thinking, serious planning, and analysis goes out the door, and I start saying things like . . .

I’ll wing it.

I’ll just know.

It’ll come to me.

I’m following my gut.

And I do. And it does.

But when it comes to big life decisions that will impact both your own happiness and the happiness of the people you love the most, there’s something to be said about the value of research, solution-focused questions, and cold hard facts.

This book gives all of the above. There are lists, resource links, questions, and discussion scripts. And real-life stories, too! The stories of people who have made big moves to follow their hearts, get out of their ruts, and chase their dreams are the very best part to me.

💛

Location independence has admittedly become a fad since 2020 when the world learned that so many of us can work from anywhere when we need to (& sometimes really should because we’re way more productive).

It’s not a fad to some of us.

I’ve known I wanted heaps of travel in my life since I took my first trip out of the country as a teenager. I don’t remember everything about that 1998 trip to Jamaica, but I distinctly remember this — sitting on a mountainside with a friend, tears streaming down my face, hearing myself say, “This. I want to do this for the rest of my life.” I’ve also known I wanted to work in an unconventional way since the moment I stepped into my government-issued office in March 2004 on the first day of my first “real” job after graduating from college.

I quit that first job after just four months. I didn’t know what I was going to do for money, but I knew I couldn’t work that way. I felt like something was wrong with me. I didn’t know it was just wanderlust. But I followed my heart anyway, and I’ve never regretted it, even when I was broke for months and months at a time because of it. Choosing travel and unconventional work has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

It’s not for everyone though.

Sometimes I still feel like a weirdo when I tell people I lived in an Airstream for seven years traveling around the US or when I hear my teenagers answering the Where are you from? question with “It’s complicated.“ But I have to admit, I’m still a wanderlust kid at heart. I’ve raised kids who are now young adults and teenagers who want to travel and experience new cultures and work in unconventional ways themselves. And I still have a HUGE travel bug and big dreams of spending time in far-flung places.

Even though travel funds are limited. Even though I wasn’t raised to travel far and wide. Even though loads of people are counting on me to do real-life stuff every single day at home and in my work life. I still have a travel bug. I probably always will, which is why I adore and highly recommend If You Could Live Anywhere.

💛

If you’ve got a travel bug too, make sure you don’t miss the next couple of weeks in the email group.

I won’t spoil the surprise for you, but if all goes according to plan, I’ll be sharing heaps of photos of tulips, baguettes, and bicycle rides with you! In the meantime, here are a few travel reads from the archives ⤵

➳ ➳ Digital Nomad Details: My Full-time Travel Story ➳ ➳

➳ ➳ 10 Years of My Best Travel Advice: A Link List ➳ ➳

And a fitting excerpt from the brand-new summer issue of Oh Reader ⤵

“Both reading and travel are often seen as forms of escapism, allowing us to immerse ourselves in experiences that feel impossible in our daily lives. I prefer, however, to think of them as complementary forms of exploration.

The world is full of wonders that both reading and travel encourage us to discover by venturing outside the confines of our daily routines. . .

By embracing the diverse stories and voices of different cultures, we learn so much about ourselves and the world around us.”

~Nicole Blansett Denson, Oh Reader Issue 016

So my friend, if your wanderlust needs a little encouragement or direction, or perhaps a bit of both, I hope you’ll check out Melody Warnick’s If You Could Live Anywhere—and I hope you’ll hop into the email group to hit Reply so we can chat about it.