What does “travel” mean to you? We all have beliefs about travel… some great, some good, and some bad… vacation, relax, fun, expensive, out of reach, new, uncomfortable, far… I could go on and on! There are all kinds of life experiences that built and validate these beliefs. However, these beliefs, even the good ones, can limit us… in some cases they make us feel that we can’t travel at all!
Over the years what “travel” means to us has evolved significantly. We’ve always enjoyed “adventures” and used to consider travel experiences far away, expensive, and vacation and relaxation time. Today we prefer to think about new experiences and travel interchangeably. This allows us to see that amazing possibilities in experiences an hour away from my home and 8,000 miles away.
How did we get from having beliefs about travel that limited us to excitedly opening ourselves to all kinds of new experiences? We found our beliefs. Once we found our beliefs they were easy to overcome… sometimes finding what’s limiting us is the biggest challenge!
Drawing from our experience and what we hear from others, there are 5 common beliefs about travel that stick with us and prevent us from seeing amazing possibilities for personal growth.
Travel is vacation and relaxation
Many times when we think about travel we equate it with vacation and relaxation time. This is for good reason… many of us only travel on weekends and “vacation” time from our work. However, equating travel to vacation and relaxation time is a big limitation! When we think about travel more broadly we can start a whole new world of possibilities…
Travel can be an awesome way to overcome a personal challenge, focus on a hobby, or stimulate personal growth. If we think travel is just for vacation and relaxation, we may overlook amazing opportunities accelerate our journeys to achieve personal goals.
Travel is fun
Believing travel has to be something we consider “fun” is similar to equating travel to vacation and relaxation time. There are all kinds of awesome experiences we can have when traveling, but they may not all be fun. For example, a person may feel a pull to get out of the noise of life and gain mental clarity. Since this doesn’t sound “fun”, it might not occur to the person to travel somewhere new for a retreat.
Travel is expensive
This is a big one… travel can be very expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. There are all kinds of ways to cut travel costs… below are some of our top cost-cutting strategies.
· When driving, bring a cooler of food so we don’t have to eat out as much
· Camp
· Drive instead of fly
· Only book what we’ll use… some packages sound good but offer more than we’ll use
· Book far in advance and ask for a discount with a deposit
· Find the local grocery and stock up on necessities
· Buy beer, wine, and liquor at the store and make our own drinks
· Maximize airline and hotel points
· Stay flexible with travel dates when booking airfare and book far in advance
· Prioritize spending on new experiences over other entertainment spending
Think about how much money you spend on a weekend for entertainment… if done right I bet you could get away for the weekend for the same or not much more.
Travel is far away
We fell into this trap for years and didn’t experience much of the area close to our home. We felt that we needed to go somewhere far away and exotic to “travel”. When we started to explore close to home we were amazed by the number of new experiences available! Now we get just as excited about traveling an hour away as we do about traveling thousands of miles.
When we focus on having new experiences rather than counting miles a whole new world is open. Think about places within two hours from your home that you haven’t been to in the last 5 years… you’ll come up with enough ideas to keep you busy for a while!
Travel is uncomfortable
This one is tough… travel can be uncomfortable in many ways… the plane seat, finding food we like, a different bed, other languages, not knowing the customs… we can all fill in our own blanks. The question is: Is avoiding the discomfort worth not having an experience?.
We all have our own answers to this question and boundaries that we aren’t willing to go past. However, without weighing the amazing benefits of having the experience against a little discomfort we prevent ourselves from some of the most amazing experiences in life! Plus, getting out of our comfort zones often help us see life differently and learn, grow, and evolve.
Go back to the question in the first paragraph… What does “travel” mean to you? When you think about your beliefs about travel do they limit you? Do they prevent you from seeing benefits from travel, different ways to travel, and new reasons to travel? Now that you’ve identified them, do they still sound valid? Shatter them and open yourself to a whole new world of travel and new experiences!
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