Travelling can and will teach you more about life and everything in between than any college or university degree. You often hear successful people say “go travel and learn”. And correct they are!
You see travelling is not a two week vacation in a fancy hotel resort on some tropical island. Hell no. It’s something way more deeper, more real and at times, tough as shit.
The hardest part is actually making the decision and following through. Once that’s done, your real adventure begins.
I travelled and worked along the way full time for just under three years, and during this time I came across so many different situations and issues which I somehow got through. The end result? I became a better version of myself and started seeing the world in a totally different manner.
So Why Should I Travel?
Below are my top ten reasons as to why everyone should stop making excuses and start travelling ASAP!
1. Learn To Deal With Stressful Situations
When you travel for an extended period of time you will eventually get yourself into a stressful situation or two. This can be arriving at the wrong place where you feel unsafe or unwanted or having a delayed or cancelled flight or train trip.
You quickly learn how to get through these things, and the next time things go wrong at an airport or train station you will react in a more calm way.
2. It’s Fun As Hell!
Obviously! Yes travel is not all sunshine and rainbows 24/7, but it really is fun the majority of the time.
The places you see, the people you meet and the cultures you experience all add to this. It’s something every person has the ability to enjoy, no matter the type of personality you are.
3. You Get To Learn & Experience New Cultures
It’s easy to be caught up in your own life and society to which you have become accustomed to. Travel forces you to get out of your own way and experience what others actually do and see.
You will quickly realise that there is a whole different world out there with people of all beliefs and values. It really does open up and broaden your views about a lot of things in life in such a positive way.
So easily we tend to believe that our small society where we have grown up is doing things the right way and everything different to that is wrong. False. Get out there and see for yourself how other cultures and beliefs can be just as good, if not better.
4. Get To Know Yourself
Being alone and spending time with yourself seems like a strange thing to do, right? The fact of the matter is, we all need to do this more often.
The thing about travel is that you will have a lot of downtime too. Time for you to be with you, and no one else! You get to know yourself a bit better, and more often than not you are surprised with just what you are actually capable of.
5. Learn How To Stretch A Budget
This is so true! Travel helps you be smart with cash, and you learn how to stretch a budget a mile. I can remember so many times where I just skipped meals as I needed some extra cash for an activity coming up etc.
The beauty about travel is, you usually have no time budget. So instead of always taking the fastest, most expensive form of transport, you can often opt for the cheap, slow bus which usually takes far longer. These end up being way more fun and chances are you end up meeting some awesome people!
6. Builds Massive Self-Confidence
Whether you are a shy, confidence-lacking human being or not, you will definitely come out of extensive travel experiences with a massive amount of self-confidence.
I think this just comes down to constantly being in new, foreign situations whilst having to meet and interact with a lot of people unknown to you. It does not happen overnight, but after a few months you will just start to feel more at easy around strangers and not even think twice about stopping someone in public to ask a question or for a direction.
7. Get To Know A Few Phrases In A Variety Of Languages
I know this is not life changing at all, but it is definitely fun! After spending a few months in any country, you will surely have made a few local friends.
Through them one can easily learn a few helpful phrases and terms to use whilst in their country. After a year of travel you will easily have racked up half a dozen basic languages. It’s fun to know and just adds a little bit more to the mental win of travel. Plus if you ever meet someone from a country you have been to, you can try impress them with your few words of their language!
8. Making Awesome & Weird Friends
The friends I have made on my travels are relationships which most definitely will last a lifetime. Yet these guys and girls are so different and weird compared to the people I grew up with.
Had I never decided to hit the road, I would never even had known that such characters exist. It’s funny, though, how you immediately gravitate towards these so called “weird” humans. Two weeks with someone you met whilst travelling can equate to over a decade of your friendships made during your normal life back home. And trust me, you always miss these mates more. Sad but true!
9. Escaping
Escaping doesn’t need to mean you are living some shitty life or something. It just means escaping your routine.
Everyone gets in a routine. Especially when you begin to work. Routine is the enemy of time. Combine this with what is known as being “stuck” in your daily routine life, and that is what we all sometimes need to escape from. And free you will feel, trust me.
Not to say you never have to return to this old life, but escaping on your travels will give you some much needed perspective. Thereafter it is your decision as to whether to go back or not.
10. Changes Your Thoughts On Life
It’s so easy to complain about so much bullshit in our lives on a daily basis.
If, like myself, you come from the western parts of society then you will be around a lot of greed. We get sucked into this belief that money and things are most important, when in actual fact they really aren’t always.
When you come across people who have “nothing” according to our standards but seem utterly happy, you start to question your own definition of happiness. You soon realise that more is not always best.
Listen, travel affects everyone differently. You may come home after a six month trip and be like “thank god that’s done”, and go back to your normal life. But for those of you whom it deeply affects, enjoy it and embrace it!
Cheers,
Richard-T
