Skydiving over Taupo New Zealand
People often ask me, “How can I travel more?” They say they’d really love to but it seems like “life’s” little details just get in the way.
The lesson I learned from my very first trip to Europe, is that travel will never happen if you wait for everything in your world to be perfect first. While a few in the world have a nearly infinite amount of resources and may be able to have all contingencies planned for, most of us have to rely a little more on providence. If travel and adventure are some things that are truly burning in your heart, you must have the courage and the faith to act upon them.
For me, it looked like this:
It was the shoulder season and the tickets were cheap. I vacillated for about a month as the clock was ticking. The window for getting tickets I could afford was running out and I had to make a decision. The problem was, I had only the money to get the tickets, and would, at that point, have no spending money left afterwards. Given the intermittent nature of my work, I didn’t know when or if when I would get my next chunk of change to pay for everything once I arrived in London, my starting point. As it turned out, I booked a departure date that gave me a few months gap.
It was the booking of the ticket; the committing to a date of departure that gave me the fire to get it sorted out, and sort it out I did. I took a road trip to Montana to see my family and stay for a month so I would not have to spend on rent. In the process, I ended up getting hired by a friend of the family who needed a bunch of yard work done on his acreage in the beautiful mountains of northwestern Montana. The weather was perfect during that month of work. I saw a wild Moose sauntering through the yard, had interesting conversations with my employer (who happened to be a scientologist), and most importantly, I made the money I would need to pay may way through England, France, Switzerland, and Italy.
Book your ticket!
Now, the trip itself was an entirely different lesson, but that I’ll save for another article. Let’s just say that the most important take await here is to be bold! Take heed of the call of that still small voice within you and go for it! Things always have a way of working themselves out when you’re living in alignment with what you’re most passionate about. It may not look like it from the outside, but that is yet another lesson. Get over what everyone else thinks about how you live your life and what you do with it.
On a practical level, it shows clear intention when you commit–to anything. Once you have done so, the deepest recesses of you mind begin to think,” Ok, how am I going to sort this thing out?” The brain is a problem solving machine. Here’s the catch though. You first have to be clear as to what the actual problem is. This is why there are so many quaint little saying about “idle hands” and such. If you don’t consciously give your brain a problem to solve or otherwise occupy it through mediation and some intensely focused activity such as rock climbing, painting, or programming, it will just go ahead and make shit up. That’s just what it does. Just like one of your liver’s jobs is to help filter your blood, so problem solving is with you brain. It does what it has evolved to do: solve challenges to your existence.
So, set your intention with a firm commitment to just buy the damn ticket. Your problem solving machine will kick in and that ever-mysterious thing we call “flow” will begin to pave the way for your fantasy adventure to become reality!
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To your next adventure!
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