Do you know how traveling teaches us life’s valuable lessons?
Majority travel occasionally to relax and have fun with the family. But traveling plays a way more important role in a person’s life. In various ways, it makes you a better person and leaves a significant impact.
We all want to become the better version of ourselves; travel is one thing that helps us achieve that goal.
Now, how?
I have been traveling for 5 years (before the pandemic started), which has helped me tremendously. It has transformed me in several ways and improved my life ever since I started traveling.
In this blog post, I will explain why you should travel more and explore the infinite world.
Ways Travel Makes You a Better Person
Travel Widens Your Thinking
Our elders have always encouraged us to read books because it gives us unlimited knowledge and widens our thinking, our perspective towards life.
Likewise, travel shapes our minds and thinking process.
The more you travel, the better you will understand the world, its neighborhood, and people.
Whatever you will experience will help you reshape and widen your thoughts towards the way you see around you. Through your experience, you will try to think more reasonably. You will question things before bluntly believing; you will think in a wider and positive perspective.
All these will add value to your life. Hence, if you travel for a purpose and not just for a vacation, it will help you become a better version of yourself.
Makes You Flexible
Traveling makes you flexible and improves your adaptability. It lets you handle situations bravely.
There are times when you have unplanned and sudden scenarios where you don’t know what to do, but you plan and take decisions accordingly.
You become more flexible to adjustment. You learn to think and plan during an unexpected moment while traveling.
The same quality that you get from traveling can help you in your life.
Boost Your Self-Confidence
I could very much relate to this point.
I was always a very introvert kid who has low self-confidence. Even after 25 years of my life, I never gained self-confidence.
My husband is an avid traveler, he encouraged me to plan for travels after I got married.
After several travels plans to several destinations and facing several travel difficulties and challenges, I slowly saw a massive change in myself.
The self-confidence I have now makes me a more determined, smart, and optimistic person, and I love this version of myself.
This is one of the best things travel can give you and can transform your life for the better.
With greater self-confidence, you will become a better person indeed.
Learn to Embrace Life
When you travel to places, you experience so much. You learn things that you could never learn by staying at home or spending your weekends at the malls or watching cinemas.
After a while, you start embracing life; you start finding happiness in small things. You start imagining your life with a different mindset and a whole new positive perspective.
Traveling is like an addiction. The more you travel, the more you would want to explore the outer world.
You will start embracing the life that surrounds you. You will start embracing trees, greenery, open fields, animals, etc.
This is very important, as, in the modern world, people have forgotten to embrace life. Life has become a machine; it runs endlessly and tirelessly.
Time Management
This is yet another point where I want to emphasize and how it makes your life better.
In today’s world, life gets super busy, and we are engaged in so many activities. Time management plays a crucial role here in managing everything sustainably.
Like me, I am sure you also have to manage your personal and professional life in a balanced way to make your life happy and hectic-free.
Travel helps you achieving time management skills.
How?
For example, You have planned to visit Paris for a week, aiming to cover the most. How will you do it?
You will plan and divide your time to each place to cover everything.
Those who are flexible and have time management skills, traveling is always fun as they can cover the most than the regular vacation-goers.
A Better Decision Maker
Traveling is not always fun; sometimes, you have to face tough situations on the way where you have to make certain decisions.
For example, in one of my travel diaries, my husband and I were badly stuck in the traffic to the airport, and we feared of missing our flight.
We were confused about what to do as it was not in our control. Immediately, we figured out another longer route to the airport from the Google map, and it showed no traffic.
But by taking that route, there were chances we miss the flight as well. This was a tough call for us.
We were certain that if we continue the shorter route, we will reach the airport almost an hour later.
And if we take the longer route, we may reach the airport on time if we don’t get any traffic as shown in the Google map.
The decision was ours to make, and we put our faith in an app.
This is one of the instances; likewise, you might also have taken decisions while on the road.
A good decision-maker stands out in their life at the right time, leaving others behind.
Life is full of uncertainties, and one always has to face situations when he/she has to make a call, be it in the career or personal life.
Rediscover yourself
Travel allows you to rediscover yourself by experiencing different places. It is a medium that helps you to find yourself in desperate times.
When you feel lost, traveling helps you rekindle yourself. It gives you hope to find out answers and find inner peace.
Develop Organizing Skill
Those who have good organizing skills can make their life easier. Organizing skills can be useful in personal as well as professional life.
Now, travel requires a lot of planning and organizing. When you are planning a road trip, you would be required to pack all the necessary items and neatly organize them.
The one who knows how to organize saves a whole lot of time.
Organizing is a part of time management.
Making Friends with Strangers
Even if you are an introvert like me, travel lets you make friends with strangers.
While traveling, you will meet people with different interests, and you never know with some you end up being best friends or travel partners.
It lets you open up to people by sharing a similar interest – travel. You talk about your travel experiences, places, new places, food, culture, and tradition.
Gives a New Perspective About Life
Travel opens numerous windows of wonders that amaze us. When you pack your bag and leave all the worries behind, you enter into a different world of exploration.
It gives you a chance to look at life from a different perspective. Travel has brought several changes in my mindset and the way I look at my life today.
After living a continuous mundane life, we often forget what and how our life should be.
If you take frequent travel breaks and continue with your exploration, you will start embracing the life that God has given to you.
The valuable lessons you get from traveling make you more sensitive towards life are not just the wonders of travel.
Learn About New Languages & Culture
English is the dominant language throughout the world. But you would be surprised to know the total number of languages people speak around the world.
According to Ethnologue, there are roughly around 7,139 languages are spoken today. You certainly can’t learn them all, but you will encounter people who speak different languages while traveling.
Like, if you travel to France, you will meet people who speak French. If you travel to India, you will see people speak different languages in a different states.
Our last trip was to Kerala, where the dominant language is ‘Malayalam,’ at my hometown, people speak ‘Bengali,’ and currently, where I am residing here, people speak ‘Marathi.’
Every state and nation you visit exhibits a different culture.
Traveling is always a learning experience. That’s an amazing way it makes you a better person as you travel more you learn more.
It makes you Go Out of Your Comfort Zone
Usually, we love to stay in our comfort zone as it gives us a sense of security. The moment you set your foot out of the house for traveling, you are out of your comfort zone.
When you travel, you have to eat outside food, sometimes have to adjust with your comfort, may face unwanted situations that push you to go beyond your comfort zone.
This helps you in the long run; you can’t always stay in your comfort zone in life.
After a certain time, you have to break through your comfort zone and explore other things where you aren’t comfortable.
You Start Appreciating Small Things of Life
We are so busy in our daily lives that we forget to enjoy and appreciate the little things around us. We are constantly racing towards fulfilling our dreams and other expectations.
Travel slows you down and lets you look around your surroundings.
You start embracing and appreciating things that we often miss, like looking at the flowers, enjoying the snowfall, watching the sunrise/sunset, enjoying a meal with your partner, or just a walk on the beach.
It’s very important that we take time for ourselves and travel makes us do that.
You Become a Better Storyteller
Travel can transform you into a better storyteller.
You can share all your travel experiences with your friend or anyone, tell them all the details of how you feel, what left you amaze, the experience of trying something new, the food you had that you had never tried before and many more.
I love telling my travel stories to my niece and nephews. Whenever I meet them, they want me to tell them what new places I have visited and tell them all the new experiences.
It interests and inspires them to know and read more about the world.
You Become a Minimalist
If you are passionate about traveling, you will care less about your belongings. You will only carry and pack the necessary travel items into your backpack. Eventually, you become a minimalist.
Earlier I couldn’t think of traveling with only one carry bag or small suitcase. I used to pack unnecessarily heavy, and it did restrict me from traveling comfortably.
After 5 years l have learned how to travel by carrying less and it makes traveling interesting as I can move freely.
Teaches You to be Patient & Humble
When you travel and want to touch more places, you are exposed to the outer world. You meet people of different religion, caste, speaks different languages, you show them kindness and humility.
When anger and frustration don’t work, just a gentle smile and humble behavior can tame a vulnerable situation.
Likewise, even in life, with patience, humble behavior, and kindness, you can grow much stronger and better as an individual.
Teaches you to Respect
Travel also teaches you to respect all classes of people. When you travel you meet different classes and colors of people, you talk to them, eat with them, sit with them.
You never judge them by their profession or belief; all you do is respect.
You respect them; they will also respect you.
Teaches You to Enjoy the Moments Over Materialistic Greed
You travel to experience, explore and enjoy overall everything. You take a temporary escape from your hustle-bustle of everyday life.
Travel makes you forget what materialistic or luxury things you own or what status of life you are living.
As you start exploring new places and learn new things, the objective of your travel should be to enjoy the fullest.
Travel Helps You Create Meaningful Relationship
Travel helps to build a meaningful relationship. It paves the path for couples to build a strong connection with their partner through traveling.
Travel enables a couple to spend quality time, develop mutual understanding, intimacy and bond. It gives an ample opportunity and time where a relationship can grow and gets better.
Conclusion:
With all the above points together, travel makes you a better person for life. Hence, you should travel more often.