Twenty Something Sense

I’m hardly the most seasoned traveler, but I’ve been fortunate to have visited nineteen countries on five continents across the world. I’ve taken trips that lasted just days to spending over a year abroad at a time and I’ve discovered that each time I leave my native soil and explore new land my understanding and appreciation of the world around me expands to an entirely new level. Travel is very important to me and I’m concerned because I don’t think people travel outside of their home countries often enough and I think 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 and there is no reason you should not be doing it 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, or 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“, “exploring Africa” 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 everyone 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, are their any obstacles that are really that hard to overcome. 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 you will quickly get over all of your fears.

I could write forever about this, but the point I am trying to make is to stop dreaming and start doing. Have no regrets and live life to its fullest.