Travel with purpose

Something I have always loved is traveling. That has been one of my biggest passions for many years and why is that? I have always loved exploring new places since I often got bored of being on the same spot for too long. I often wanted to travel as far away from home as I could. If this was some kind of escape from my reality, is a good question. In one way, I think it was, but at the same time I felt very inspired, refresh and alive when I did it. With new energy into my everyday life. Then I had the same restless feeling again after a while and I think the biggest reason for that was my job and life situation. I wasn’t satisfied with how I was living at that moment, a lot of pressure and norms from society and overworked and stressed from my job. I wanted to escape.

My decisions of both going away to New Zealand, which where my first longer visit in another country by myself and Australia, where I ended up for 3 years, was some kind of escape. Some family and friends asked me what I was running away from, that I needed to be happy with what I already had. I understand how they where thinking and there where some truth in that but at the same time, I knew I needed it. It’s hard to change and go a different way in life if you stay in the same environment as you have always been in. No mather how much you love the people around you, sometimes you need a big change even if that means moving to the other side of the world, like I did.

With saying that, I don’t mean everyone has to do a big life decision like that but if you are going in the same thoughts, I definitely encourage you to try something different. You don’t have to move that far, or even move at all. You can go on a longer holiday somewhere or only a short one. Take things as they come or book an all inclusive with everything all prepared for you. It’s totally up to you what you prefer. The thing here is that I think it’s important to have a purpose with your traveling, like with everything else in life. Asking yourself why you are doing what you are doing, take some time to reflect.

Why do you want to go to a specific destination? What do you want out of your travel? So you don’t go, come back home and you wonder where the time went and what you actually did. Be present and really value that time.

Even if I have always loved to travel, it shouldn’t be because there is something you wan’t to run away from. I don’t regret any of my traveling adventures, of course. They have totally changed me as a person and I have had the most amazing times of my life. But I definitely travel a bit different nowadays then I did before. Before, it was mostly a weekend or a week somewhere sunny or to a shopping city, laying in the sun to get a nice tan (since Sweden is one of the countries with least sun during the year 😉), eating a lot of food and snacks that the hotell offered or lots of shopping so the bag weighted more then double on the way home. It was great at the time, relaxing and spending time with friends and family and having a lot of new stuff with me home but today I want more out of my travels and my values have changed.

I want to explore the culture of the country, discover new places, meet new people, challenge myself, grow and learn. I want to travel to change me, to the better, and I know it does.

How traveling has changed me as a person:

- Be more brave

- Challenged me

- Meeting lots of new friends all over the world

- Getting a new perspective on things in life

- Learned to listen to myself, reflect

- Be understanding of myself and others

- Learned about other countries

- Learned from other peoples life stories and experiences

- Being so much more confident in myself

- Not worrying as much as I used to, things will be ok.

If you want a little challenge for yourself or just make your traveling a bit more fun, make a list of things you want to see, explore, try etc. It can be either big or small things, or both like hiking in a special area, eat on a specific restaurant or just take a silly picture somewhere. Make a list of it, decorate it, tick those things of and save it for later to look at as a fun memory. 😊 Thats a great thing to do to if you want a little extra and feel present during your traveling and of course you should include the people you are traveling with into this and if you are traveling by yourself, like I have done a lot of, just do it for yourself or maybe you have found some new friends you can share that experience with.

So the question I want you to ask yourself is ”why?”. Why you do what you do and why you are making the decisions that you make. The most important is that you are satisfied with your decisions, no mather what they are and feel like you are getting the most out of your travel and life to feel happy, energised and on top. 😊