Having spent over a year travelling, I thought I would share a post on how travelling  transforms you as a person. Hopefully, this serves as an inspiration to get you travelling more  and it needn’t be to far away countries. Beauty is on our doorstep.

Travelling Teaches You That It’s Okay Not To Have a Plan

Its always more fun when things are unplanned. Planning too much and having an itinerary that is set, means you have no flexibility and you might begin to feel stressed if things do not go according to plan.

You Experience New Things

The idea of buying new experiences and not things is what we are striving for here. The beauty of travelling is the sense of adventure and exploration where you are building experiences and not your wardrobe. There really is something beautiful about new experiences.

Connecting With People

If you are like me and love people, this is one of the sole reasons why I travel. Meeting new people from different cultures and different walks of life is exciting.

You may learn a bit of their language, the food they  like or just get a totally different perspective on how they see life. This, in turn, broadens your horizons and removes many stereotypes.

Removing Stereotypes

Often we might have a specific stereotype about someone from a specific country. Take for instance Germany, one of the many stereotypes I have encountered is that Germans are serious. Through travelling, I did indeed meet serious Germans, but I also met more relaxed Germans who would not fit this stereotype. Is it weird that I’m half German?

You See New Places

Why do we travel, if not to see new beautiful places? It makes you realise how beautiful the world is that we live on and how short a time we have to experience it all.

Improves Confidence

For me, the idea of exploring is essential to growing as a person.You learn a lot about yourself and improve in previously weak areas. One of those areas is confidence. When you are in a hostel environment for instance, especially if you are traveling alone, often you are forced to initiate conversation and talk to people – this builds confidence.

Even if you are not the first to initiate  conversation, you can be sure someone else will. And either way, you will be interacting with someone you would not be interacting with at home. That in itself should give you confidence. You are already doing a lot more than other people would be.

Travelling Opens Your Mind

You become more receptive to other ideas and arguments, solely because you are experienced to so many people from different cultures who will have different opinions and cultural norms, that you may or may not agree with.

You Become Better at Following Your Heart

For me, this is one of the most important things. It is only through following your heart that you truly discover what matters to you and what you want to do in this world. Decisions of the heart are often instinctive decisions that you make purely based on gut. They just feel right.

When you start travelling, this develops even further (particularly if you don’t have a strict plan)  because you move around and go to places based on what you feel is right. If you don’t like it, you move on. Nothing lost, but more gained in knowing what you don’t like.

You Become Better at Dealing With Uncertainty

Deciding to pack your bags and travel can be daunting, particularly if you are doing it alone. However don’t let the fear and uncertainty stop you from doing what you want to do. Keep remembering why you wanted to do it in the first place.

Once you are on that ride you are constantly faced with uncertainty. Not knowing where you are going to stay for the night perhaps, maybe you are low on cash and unsure about the future because you don’t have a job. You will learn to deal with all these things. Trust me. You are more powerful and capable than you think.

Forces You to Get Out of Your Comfort Zone

For me, this was one of the driving reasons why I personally decided to travel. Getting out of your comfort zone, simply put, is good for your soul. This is where the magic happens. More importantly, it makes you realise how independent you are and that you are able to cope with any situation that is thrown at you.

YOUR THOUGHTS?

Have you traveled? How has travel transformed you?