It’s a big claim, that travelling can change your life and make you a better person. But think about it and you’ll realise that it isn’t so crazy. A lot of it does depend on how you approach your travels and what you do to get the best out of your trip.
As with most of our lives, getting the most out of travelling starts in our own minds and is backed up by our actions.
So lets delve into how we can make the most out of our travel experiences to make sure that we can transform our lives.
Realising how lucky we are
Being from a western country it’s often very easy to take what we have for granted. Most of us have everything we need to survive. We have enough food, water and money to generally get by every day. On top of that we find ourselves in the situation where we can travel and see other countries and cultures.
When you travel, depending on where you go you often get to see how poor some people really are and how they struggle to get by every day. What will often amaze you is how happy some of these people can be.
Use this experience to firstly realise how lucky you are in your own life, but also try to learn from the people you meet. When you go back to your every day life remember to be grateful for what you have, rather than constantly thinking about what you don’t have. Some of the poorest people are some of the happiest people, you don’t need material possessions to make you happy.
Studies show that the more grateful we are for our lives, the happier we are. Use your travel experiences to make you more grateful, it can change your life.
Use travelling to find your purpose in life
When we don’t travel its easy to become stuck in a very one dimensional pattern of thinking. Our every day lives become monotonous because we don’t realise the possibilities that are open to us.
When you travel you learn about other cultures, you see what other people do and how they live. Learn from what you see and use these experiences to find what you want to do in your life. There are endless possibilities out there.
What excites you about what you’ve seen? Could you do something similar? Look for things that have inspired you and when you arrive back home if they still inspire you, set about finding out how you can integrate that into your life.
Become interested in the local people wherever you go
Its often easy to travel somewhere and not even mix with the local people. If you’re staying in a western hotel with all the amenities lets be honest it isn’t much different to staying in a nice hotel back home.
Of course its fine to stay in a nice hotel but try to meet local people, go to local shops, eat in local restaurants and do what the locals do. Its a bit of a cliché but it really will broaden your horizons.
Sometimes you can get lucky, you could meet someone and become friends with them, they might bring you home to have dinner with their family and meet their friends. There really isn’t a better way to learn about a country than having this experience.
So go out of your way to meet local people, it could change the way you think about other people, cultures and even your own life.
You’re stronger than you think
When you’re travelling you’ll find yourself doing things that you wouldn’t normally do at home. This is especially true when you’re travelling on your own. You have to get out of your comfort zone.
When you’re travelling solo its actually quite easy to go for days at a time without speaking to anyone. If you make an effort to get out of your comfort zone and speak to people you don’t know it could open up new possibilities for you.
If you’re a naturally shy person it might make you realise that it isn’t hard to strike up conversation with people and get along with people you don’t know. When you get back home you might be a completely different person, more comfortable with other people, which could change your life.
Travelling can really help you believe in yourself and make you realise that there are so many things you can do. No longer are there things that other people do and you’re not the sort of person who does that. Now you know you can do them to.
When you get home don’t forget
This is a big challenge. When you first get home you feel different, everything you’ve experienced and learned is fresh in your mind. But then you start to get back into everyday life and its all too easy to forget your experiences. It doesn’t matter if you’re on a really long trip, the kind where you need international health insurance, memories do fade.
So how do you keep those experiences fresh in your mind? It will take effort but if you travelled with a partner or friends make sure that you keep talking about your experiences. Keep looking at photos and videos, keep a diary of the progress you are making with the things you want to change in your life. Try to keep in contact with people you met on your travels too.
All this will help to keep your experiences fresh in your mind and your experiences can push you forward to becoming a better person with a different perspective on life from when you left.