Image credit: me!
If you’ve travelled for any decent length of time, you’ve most likely had it suggested that you’re ‘running away from reality’.
And it’s true, you are.
The implication is that you’re a naughty child having too much fun, when you should be working away in a serious life like everyone else.
But you know what?
Running away from reality is damn important for living a bloody good life.
It allows you the space and perspective to decide – is my reality what I really want? Or am I living my life this way because everyone else in my reality is too?
Travel helps to solidify who you are and what you want, away from the biases of your home environment and upbringing. It gives you back your own opinion.
You then have the chance come back and CREATE the reality you actually want.
It doesn’t necessitate a radical life change (though it did for me), it might just make you appreciate how much you love the life you’ve got. Or it might inspire you to make a few tweaks to your everyday life.
Without travel, I would not have had the perspective nor the courage to step out of a life I didn’t love, and into one that I really bloody do!
Travel started me on my ‘Project Self’ journey.
Image credit: me!
Wherever and however you grew up, you’ll inevitably have been around a whole lot of biases. Everyone has an idea of what everyone else should do with their life, based on all sorts of culturally defined ideas and ingrained traditions. It’s really hard to see it clearly until you step right away for a decent length of time.
If you don’t give yourself that space, you risk ending up at 50 looking back and thinking –
how the hell did I just spend 30 years doing something I never really wanted to?
So if you haven’t travelled yet – do whatever it takes – and if you have – remind yourself of the lessons you learnt, and don’t hesitate to travel again when you can. It’s easy to slip back into old habits when you’ve been living in ‘real’ life for some time. Sometimes you just need to shake things up to remind yourself what’s important.
You needn’t travel the world to gain perspective. Even just living in another city could be enough to open your mind to different possibilities for your bloody good life. Even weekends away in a hostel a few hours from your home could do the trick if grand travel plans are not realistic for you.
What it comes down to is change of scenery, environment, and people.
There are many ways you can bring changes into your every day life too, but more on that another day.