We all know that there are some pretty obvious perks of traveling the world. Who doesn’t love an extended vacation, right? Travel, to most people, means time off work, adventure, fun, relaxation, amd the ability to try new things and see the places you’ve only ever seen in photos or heard about from other people’s stories. It’s a chance to experience true freedom, for a few weeks, a few months… or however long you choose to country-hop and live out of your suitcase for.
But traveling the world goes so much further beyond the obvious. It’s only once your travels have come to an end that you can truly appreciate the full benefits that you were exposed to during your time abroad. There’s no denying that world traveling can completely change you as a person – for the better.
Here are 5 major benefits you’ll only be able to experience from traveling the world:
You’ll learn independence
When you’re at home, there are certain things in life that are handed to you on a plate. Need to go shopping? You can just use your card at the local corner shop. Sick? Book at appointment at your doctor’s. Stranded far from home? Call a taxi. You know exactly how to do them, and they don’t seem like a big deal to you at all.
Compare this to when you’re abroad and in an unfamiliar environment, and everything you’re used to having isn’t there anymore. You have to learn to handle a new currency, navigate around unknown locations, purchase a sim card and figure out how to use it to make calls, learn about the local services and facilities, and so on. This encourages independence in even the most reluctant of travellers.
Your confidence will skyrocket
Everyone has their own personal comfort zone, a place in which they feel calm, and overstepping this comfort zone is definitely not an appealing thought for most people. The problem with staying within your comfort zone, though, is that it can narrow down your umbrella of opportunities – and actually, the more you turn things down because you just don’t feel “capable” of the challenge, the smaller your comfort zone will become. If we stick within them too much, our comfort zones can become very limiting.
Fortunately, traveling aboard guarantees that at some point, you’ll have to leave your comfort zone well behind you and just go with the flow. Meeting new people and adjusting to new cultures can both be testing to your self-certainty. And you can guarantee that there’ll come several occasions on your trip around the world where it’ll be entirely your responsibility to get yourself out of a difficult situation, and while it might be stressful at the time, it’ll help you to grow in confidence enormously.
You’ll strengthen your relationships
Before you set off on your travels around the world, there’s a good chance that you haven’t previously spent excessive amounts of time with your travel buddies. Even if you’re traveling with a sibling or partner, and you’ve lived together for some time, nothing quite compares to spending day after day on end in their company.
You might be the best of friends with your travel buddies, but the reality is, we’re all human, and we all experience day-to-day ups and downs. Even if you have seven fully good days in a row, chances are, on that eighth day, you’re going to snap for one millisecond, and an argument will spark. Don’t let this put you off – traveling will teach you how to better-control your temper around those closest to you, and most importantly, learn to compromise. There’s always something to learn from spending so much time with another person, and you’ll likely strengthen your relationships by the end of your trip as a result.
You’ll learn a lot about yourself
Think about when you go away for a week-long vacation. Like it or not, your week of intended thoughtlessness turns into an extended reflection of your life; what’s going well, what you want to improve, your goals for the future. And actually, this period of self-reflection is really important for helping you to reinforce your planned direction in life.
Now imagine what effect several weeks or months traveling might have on your self-reflection abilities. Some people say that they experience an “awakening” of sorts while they’re on their travels, and this is nowhere near as spiritual or impossible as it sounds. Most likely, your time spent traveling the world will help you to put a few things into perspective, which might mean you end up having a wakeup call or two that will help you understand exactly what you want to get out of your life.
You’ll realise the possibility in everything
As humans, we’re conditioned into believing that we must lead our lives exactly as society dictates. We believe we should wake up at a certain time every morning, eat the breakfast foods we’re told to eat, work a mundane job that pays us the money we need to survive, living in a city that’s far from perfect, but “does the job”. We don’t realise how much more is out there waiting for us – and that no matter what, happiness is the ultimate goal.
When you travel around the world, you’re opening yourself up to so many different experiences and lifestyles. You’ll get to see how thousands of different individuals are choosing to live their lives all across the globe, and it’ll make you realise that nothing has to be set in stone. In fact, nearly everything is possible.
We all have the freedom to decide exactly what we want to do with our lives, where we want to live, and how we want to spend our days on earth. Traveling opens up your eyes to the possibilities presented to you, and encourages you to act on them face. Life is short, after all, and if we only live once, it’s worth doing properly!