Travel – especially of the international variety – is very important to me and I’m concerned because I don’t think people travel outside of their home countries enough. Often times the common excuses for not doing so are very frail. Sure traveling across the ocean is not cheap and generally can’t be done in a weekend or even a week, but like anything else in life, with some careful planning it can be achieved. There is no reason you should not be setting off on globe trotting adventures more often (if you even do it at all currently).
I challenge you today. Pick a crazy trip that you have always dreamed of doing but you have never done because it is too expensive, requires too much time off of work, or that you can’t take for whatever other reason you have convinced yourself of. I always hear people describe their dreams of “living in Australia”, “traveling around Europe”, “opening a bar in the Caribbean“, “going on an African Safari” and many others. What is yours?
Next I want you to list out all of the obstacles that stand between you and your dream. Do you need to take a leave from work? Are you going to need to make financial sacrifices? Are you worried about losing friends and relationships while you’re away? Possibly you will miss out on a promotion or disrupt your career? You’re scared of traveling to foreign places? You probably will have more to list out and every person has obstacles that are specific to their situation, but the point is to list out absolutely everything that is keeping you from realizing your dream.
Looking at your list, what is really stopping you. In the big picture, what would happen if you missed a promotion, didn’t spend a couple holidays with your family, spent some of your savings, etc? Are any of these obstacles truly prohibitive to travel or are they just challenges that you must plan for and work hard to overcome? Put some thought into it and I guarantee items will begin to fall off of your list and you will start to see a clear path towards your dream.
In just a few short days, I’ll begin traveling around the world for the second time in the last five years. It’s taken an incredible amount of prioritization and focus to transform my corporate collar into a comfortable travel t-shirt, but what was once a crazy dream is now very real.
I challenge you to find one person anywhere who regrets any amount of time, expense or other resource that was dedicated to helping them travel more. If you make just one single change in 2013, let it be this – Stop Dreaming and Start Traveling.
Happy New Year!
