Breaking Free: How to Combat Self-Doubt While Building Your Digital Nomad Business

You’re staring at your laptop screen in a café somewhere between your old life and your new one. Maybe you’re in Bali, or Lisbon, or still sitting in your apartment, one browser tab open to flight deals and another to your business plan. The dream of freedom calls to you—working from anywhere, building something of your own, living minimally and traveling the world. But there’s a voice, isn’t there? That persistent whisper that asks: What if I’m not capable? What if I fail? Who am I to think I can actually do this?

Welcome to the battleground every entrepreneur and aspiring digital nomad knows intimately: self-doubt.

After years of building my adventure lifestyle business while traveling the world, I’ve learned that self-doubt isn’t something that disappears when you book that one-way ticket or launch your website. That doubt is a traveling companion that shows up uninvited, especially during the biggest, most audacious moves of your life. But here’s what I know for sure—it doesn’t get to navigate or captain my ship, however in saying that it does try to take the helm and that’s why I am sharing this with you honestly. After all my studies on self help, NLP Master practitionership training, years of study in Diplomas or eastern philosophy, Master training is hypnosis, yoga teacher training, and other natural therapies let me tell you it is always a constant conscious effort to keep that inner voice in check. And I figar I am not the only one that is battles with it.

Pic: by Unsplash

The Science Behind the Stories We Tell Ourselves

One morning habit besides meditation I have is, each morning is listen to a podcast that I can learn something new, before diving into my day as a founder and I am passionate about quantum physics, AI and all sciences around health and business and one guy I really love listening to is Thomas campbell ( I really recommend listening to his work or reading the book). According to physicist and consciousness researcher Thomas Campbell, author of “My Big TOE” (Theory of Everything), beliefs are generated by ignorance—when you truly know something, belief becomes unnecessary. Think about that for a moment. Your self-doubt is built on beliefs, not knowledge. It’s constructed from stories you’ve absorbed about what’s possible, what’s safe, and who you’re supposed to be.

recently I was listening to Peter Crone, known as “The Mind Architect,” puts it this way: without addressing what’s happening in your subconscious mind, you’ll become the greatest version of your limited self. You’ll work incredibly hard, optimize every system, and still find yourself hitting an invisible ceiling created by beliefs you didn’t even know you had.

Those beliefs about inadequacy, scarcity, and insecurity? They’re operating in the background, running your life like outdated software. The question isn’t whether you’re capable of building this business or living this lifestyle. The question is: are you willing to examine the programming that says you can’t? And to take it one step further, take the time to observe and acknowledge the program and go a step future to update the program to a more positive and reframed version aligned with the truth.

Fear Is Just Data, Not Destiny

To bang on a little further into Tom Campbells explanations, he describes fear as mind-cancer, a disease of consciousness trapped within too small a picture. Weather you’re contemplating the leap to digital nomadism, becoming a full-time traveler or starting your own business, fear shows up wearing a thousand different masks. Fear that you’ll run out of money. Fear that you’re too old, too inexperienced, too late. Fear that you’ll fail spectacularly and prove everyone’s doubts (including your own) correct.

But here’s the radical truth: fear is simply a thought that you created and possibly amplified, and thoughts create your reality. When you change your thoughts, you change your life.

I’ve sat in airport and bus terminals at 3 AM wondering if I’d made a terrible mistake. I’ve had launches that flopped and months where the income didn’t match the expenses. And every single time, the fear tried to convince me that these moments meant something permanent about my worth and my future. They didn’t. They were just moments, just data points, just part of the journey.

As Peter Crone reminds us, you are not your thoughts—you are the awareness behind them. When self-doubt screams in your ear, you can observe it without becoming it. You can say, “There’s that fear story again,” without letting it dictate your next decision.

Give Yourself Permission to Change

You might be sitting there scratching your head about giving yourself permission but trust me sometimes it is really that simple. I remember thinking about wanting to learn to fly, and I was 43 years old at the time and I realised that I have always wanted to be a pilot but I had the belief system that only smart people can be pilots. It took me that long to change that belief system and give myself permission to try, give it a go and if I fail that is OK at least I will have learnt something new. Not only did I have to give myself permission to learn to fly, I also had to give myself permission to spend the money knowing I was not going to make it a career it was just for fun. For me it was a proof point, “if I could do this than I could do anything”. And here’s something nobody tells you: one of the biggest obstacles to building your dream lifestyle isn’t the logistics, the money, or the skills. It’s the belief that you need permission to want something different than what you’ve always had.

One of my other favourite scientists I love to listen to is Deepak Chopra. He teaches that when you’re tempted to react in the same old way, you must ask yourself: do you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future?

You don’t need your family’s approval to simplify your life and travel. You don’t need your former colleagues to understand why corporate life no longer fits. You don’t need society’s blessing to define success differently. You need your own permission. That’s it. And here is the other thing that is a human trait; when your family and friends a fearful about your journey as an entrepreneur or traveling the world and living your life differently, the fears they project are just then projecting their own fears on you (well meaning of course, they are often not aware of it). So be mindful of fears of others being projected onto you because they could never do it. And hey! that’s OK everyone is only doing the best they can with the information they have at the time.

I had to give myself permission to leave a stable career, to move to countries where I didn’t speak the language, to build a business that looked nothing like what I was “supposed” to do. And let me tell you—that permission slip signed by yourself is the most powerful document you’ll ever hold. It’s highly risky and you are adventuring into the unknown. But when you say “yes” to the adventure and face the scary things the failure and wins are so worth the effort.

Belief in Self: The Foundation of Everything

You’re not a problem to be solved, but a miracle waiting to unfold.– Peter Crone

Read that again. You’re not broken. You’re not inadequate. You’re not behind. You’re exactly where you need to be, learning exactly what you need to learn.

Building a business while traveling isn’t about having it all figured out before you start. It’s about believing in yourself enough to figure it out as you go. It’s about trusting that the person who wants this life is the same person who’s capable of creating it.

Often, as you would have experienced yourself I am sure, is that the most painful experiences in our lives are usually self-created on some level, conscious or unconscious, though we prefer to believe they come from external sources. We’re also generating our own suffering through the stories we tell ourselves. I have caught myself recently not wanting to drive in a foreign country because I told myself it was too dangerous, so I had to coach myself out of that belief by just doing it. When you catch yourself thinking “I can’t…” or I’m not good enough to make this work,” recognise that thought for what it is—not truth, but habit. Then step into the fear and do it anyway, to prove that you can. If you fail that is OK, keep doing it till you succeed.

The Practice of Becoming

Life presents you with people and circumstances to reveal where you’re not free.- Peter Crone

Every moment of self-doubt is actually an invitation. It’s showing you exactly where your beliefs are limiting you, where you’re still operating from fear instead of freedom.

So when the doubt comes (and it will come), try this:

Notice it. Don’t push it away or pretend it’s not there. Just observe: “There’s self-doubt showing up.”

Question it. What specific belief is underneath this feeling? Where did that belief come from? Is it actually true, or is it just familiar?

Choose differently. As Deepak Chopra says, for everyone, well-being is a journey—and the secret is committing to that journey and taking those first steps with hope and belief in yourself.

You don’t have to have total certainty. You just need enough belief to take the next step. Book the ticket. Register the domain. Post the content. Apply for the visa. Have the conversation. The path reveals itself as you walk it.

True Freedom Starts Within

I know, it sounds a little cliche but stick with me. Let me ask you this: “what does true freedom look like for you?”

This is for you and only you to answer but most people don’t go deep enough with this. Here is what might help you go a bit deeper. Go back to a time in your life when you felt no worries and free to just be with yourself. It might be jumping on a plane to another country solo or riding your motorbike across a continent (that’s my freedom space) or being with someone you love. Go back to that feeling and write down all the things that make up that freedom.

The digital nomad lifestyle, the business you’re building, the minimalist life in another country—these are all beautiful expressions of freedom. But they’re not the source of it. Freedom starts in your mind, in your willingness to release the old stories and beliefs that keep you small.

Happiness is at the cross roads of what’s important to you now, your imagination, your curiosity and your willingness to take action and walk towards it. Instead of constantly chasing the future version of your life where you’ll finally feel successful enough, worthy enough, free enough—what if you chose to be at peace right now, in the mess of building, in the uncertainty of transition, and let the adventure unravel?

The Courage to Become Yourself

“The most creative act we will ever undertake is the act of creating ourselves.” – Deepak Chopra

This journey you’re on—to build a business, to travel the world, to live differently—isn’t frivolous or selfish. It’s sacred. You’re choosing to create yourself rather than accept the default settings handed to you by conditioning, culture, and fear.

Your limitations are make up of your beliefs or that limitation. The borders of what you believe is possible are drawn by your own hand. And what you’ve drawn, you can redraw.

Finding a reference point is always good, something you can relate to like “if I can do this….then I can totally do that!”. Remember times in your life where you were courageous and you did something and though it was nothing much and other people were amazed or you shocked yourself.

A Final Truth for Your Journey

As you sit with your dreams of freedom, travel, and entrepreneurship, remember this: the universe has much bigger plans for you than you ever dreamed of for yourself.

If someone told me I would be living in France building out a startup ten years ago I would have thought they were crazy and said “yeh right, I wish”! But that is what I am doing now I think saying yes to the adventure and not worrying how it will happen just allowing helps. Be open to opportunities. I knew however, that moving to France and not being able to speak French would be hard but I thought, great it’s and opportunity to learn French.

Your self-doubt is the voice of the old you, trying to keep you safe by keeping you small. But you weren’t built for small. You were built for the vast adventure of discovering who you really are when you give yourself permission to try.

So combat the self-doubt not by fighting it, but by seeing through it. Recognise it as outdated programming. Question the beliefs underneath it. Choose to take action even while the fear whispers. And most importantly, give yourself permission to change, to grow, to become the version of yourself that lives the life you dream about.

The world is waiting. Your business is waiting. Your freedom is waiting. And it all starts with the belief that you—exactly as you are right now—are enough to begin.

Now close the laptop, take a breath, and take that next brave step. The adventure of a lifetime is calling, and you’re absolutely ready for it.

Lovingly written by Linda with the help of Claude AI and Perplexity