All of us are guilty of it. We talk about that one place we would like to visit one day. We daydream with our friends about our list of travel destinations. Maybe you’re guilty of asking the question “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?” Well, I am about to blow your mind with a little secret.
You can go anywhere in the world
Maybe you have a day job that gives you crappy hours
Maybe you don’t have enough money
Maybe you can’t find a travel partner
Maybe your parents don’t want you to go because it’s “dangerous”
There are an infinite amount of reasons that someone could produce for why they can’t travel. All of them boil down to one simple thing.
You aren’t making travel a priority
Travel as a priority isn’t something materialized in one decision to “make it a priority” like some lame New Years resolution. This is a decision that has to be made every day. That’s why it can be hard.
This priority shows up when you decide between the nicer apartment or the slightly worse apartment. It motivates whether you are furniture shopping at Scandinavian Designs or Ikea. It rears its ugly head when you want to take the day off to go snowboarding with friends. It may even be pivotal when evaluating the job you have, what job you should quit, and what job you should take. Not simple, but I promise it’s worth it.
Anything worth doing isn’t going to be easy
I am going to do a slight topic shift and talk a bit about why people don’t think travel is a possibility to them.
Western culture is so focused on working hard and materialism that we often forget that there is more to life than work. We feel we deserve a new 60″ TV for all the work we put in, or think we need to work that 80-hour week to reach our goals. Whether you are making $35k or $100k, our focus is always on working harder and getting “more”. By always wanting more, we believe we don’t have enough and it creates an artificial sense of scarcity. Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough skill. It is all just not enough yet. Thus, it creates too much scarcity for things like travel.
Here is the thing though: No matter how hard you work, there is always going to be the next milestone to hit. You get the Manager job, and now you are gunning for the Regional Manager. You save $2k, but you want to stay in a nicer place, so you need $4k. It is a never-ending process with no finish line. Which means, following the logical conclusion, you will never have enough time. You will never have enough money. You will never have enough skill.
Pretty depressing, huh?
Don’t worry, there is an alternative: Opt out of that mindset.
Don’t always prioritize the milestones. Prioritize the travel too.
Let’s be real, no one is going to care about your stupid stories of that time James spilled coffee on your boss or when Jill got too drunk at the holiday party. They aren’t going to talk about how awesome your pivot tables were at your funeral. None of that crap matters. Start focusing on what does, because life is too short to put up with the bullshit.
What Now?
As they say, the first part of fixing a problem is realizing that it is, in fact, a problem. This is going to take some self-reflection and sometimes may even crush your identity if you’ve tied it to your work too heavily. No matter how difficult, this is an essential step if you want to reach that higher level of clarity. When you really internalize this idea of conscious prioritization, you will be able to make difficult decisions much more easily and reap rewards that some only dream of.
So I gotta ask, what is your priority?
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