Money isn’t the be all and end all when it comes happiness and spending some of it to travel certainly can be a good investment. Here’s 5 ways spending money on travel makes you richer.
- Allows you to discover more about yourself
It sounds like a cliché, and to be honest it is, but there’s more than a kernel of truth in this well-used adage. Being away from all familiar surroundings and people, makes it easier to drop patterns of behaviour or ways of thinking that are tied to familiarity rather than who we are. Having fewer social expectations from people who know you and being out of your usual routine, can really allow you to try new things with a greater degree of courage and to learn more about what you do and don’t enjoy.
- Helps you become less afraid of the unknown
Striking out, possibly alone, into the big wide world cannot fail to increase your wealth of personal tenacity. Traveling forces you to enter the realm of the unknown, be it a language, a location, a currency or a culture. Everyday it requires you to navigate the unusual and unfamiliar, which can then give you the bravery to push beyond the boundaries of what is comfortable and conventional. Facing the unknown can make you feel more alive, make you world more colourful and make your life richer.
- Gives you perspective on how others live
Realising how much fear and risk many of us are immune from in our western privileged lives, is just one way in which traveling demonstrates to us how lucky we are. It’s a message drummed into us from school, but experiencing it and realising it first hand, can bring a whole new perspective and level of gratitude. Seeing how other cultures operate also breeds greater tolerance and understanding, helping to contextualise our own existence and see beyond the horizons of what we consider to be “normal” to a world where this simply isn’t the case.
- Gives you a global friend network
Traveling not only allows you to meet people who live in the country you are visiting, but more often than not, will also throw you into situations, if not dorm rooms, with lots of people from other countries who are also nomading about the place. Take the opportunity to engage with a spectrum of people from all manner of different countries and you’ll be amazed how quickly you make some really close friendships, that will last way beyond your trip.
- Builds you backlog of stories
Who doesn’t want to grow old and recount stories of the fantastic life they’ve had? And who doesn’t want these stories to be the sort that might humour people, amaze people, intrigue people, inspire people? Hell, who doesn’t want stories that make their friends jealous and their family think they’ve had awesome adventure-filled life? Traveling gives us all these opportunities and can help to make us more interesting exciting people to listen to!
So those are the 5 ways I think spending money on travel makes you richer …. definitely a good investment in my books!
