Traveling is one of the most transformative experiences you can have in life. I believe it’s also one of the greatest forces for positive change in the world.
I travel a lot but I can’t remember the last time I went on “vacation.” Travel is not an escape. It’s not a retreat into umbrella cocktails and Swedish massages. Travel is an embrace of the moment, an adventure into the world beyond your comfort zones, and an exercise in mind expansion.
I’m not talking about visiting museums or monuments either. I mean how getting lost, and being uncomfortable, not being able to speak the language, or shitting your pants on a third world bus teaches you really important things about life. When traveling, you don’t have any of the things that make you “you,” which makes you question who the fuck you are in the first place. You’re forced to do things another way, outside of your comfort zone. These experiences change you, irreversibly, and that’s a good thing.
“Safety and comfort are mortal dangers to the soul.”
– Sam Sheridan, A Fighter’s Heart
Be Open – Embrace Change
There is no greater path to personal growth than traveling. Nothing else will prove to you more that you’re not defined by the circumstances in your life. When you leave behind everything that makes up your daily life, you see that you’re free to be anyone, anywhere.
“You’re not your fucking khakis”
– Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
By stepping outside of your everyday life and seeing it from a new perspective, traveling ultimately teaches you more about yourself and where you come from than staying at home and being “yourself” ever could.
Traveling brings you face to face with a whole spectrum of different ways of doing things. This direct experience of the world begins to cast your home country in a new light. It starts to become clear that all the little things you took for granted in life are arbitrary conventions of the place you were born. Like what side of the road you drive on, what food you eat for breakfast…or even what makes you a man (Hint: it’s not watching football and fetishizing over meat).
You realize too that you weren’t born perfect, and that the norms and conventions you grew up with are not the only ways to live. It is only by embracing change that you can hope to be better.
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
– Winston Churchill
The only way to change and grow is to be open. Nothing tears your mind open faster than traveling the world.
Finding Out What you Don’t Know
“The farther you go, the less you know.”
– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Although you learn lots of new things while traveling, you also start to discover just how vast the world really is; by encountering regions, sub-regions, languages and entire histories you never knew existed. You’re forced to do things you’re not good at and have never done before; like trying to speak a new language, or comprehend the process of a Turkish bath. With the vocabulary of a five year old and no idea about local customs you are reduced to a kind of functional-infancy. The whole affair is an exercise in your own ignorance – which can be really eye-opening and rewarding with the right attitude. These experiences develop a deeper appreciation for what you don’t know about the world – which will always out number what you do know.
There are more amazing places in the world than any of us know. But beyond amazing places there are different places; and experiencing different is what keeps you growing. Different makes you realize what you don’t know, what you didn’t know you could know, and what you hadn’t even considered. This is what matters.
“The best journeys in life are those that answer questions you never thought to ask.”
– Rick Ridgeway
By diving head first into that unknown you will rediscover the present moment, learn patience through pain, and foster the genuine wisdom of open-mindedness.
Every trip, no matter how short, is an opportunity to try something new and expand your horizons. Every trip is an investment in your mind, in your memories, in the stories you will tell and the person you will become.
If you’re excited to travel now check out my Top 3 Travel Tips.