How a Simple Mindset Shift Can Help You Achieve Your Travel Dreams

Tons of people dream of going traveling at least somewhere else in the world. I know so many people who talk about their travel dreams all the time and know that they have the goal of traveling, but have done basically nothing towards making it happen. It’s like they can’t figure out how to travel.

They know what they want, but have not taken the first step… maybe because they don’t know how to go about it. They see traveling as something they will do ‘someday,’ when they are ready, have enough money, don’t have a pet, don’t have a partner, when the time is right, etc…

I have met so many people who tell me, ‘Wow, I would LOVE to do what you are doing!’

So… why don’t you do it? Or at least try to achieve some scale of what you do dream of doing?

The hardest part about understanding how to travel the world isn’t money, work, or time. It’s a simple decision you have to make, and a switch of the mindset.

The absolute hardest thing about deciding to travel or move abroad is just that – MAKING THE DECISION TO DO IT – in a sure fire, definite way.

The first leap is by far the hardest leap. Let me explain.

@kimmconn

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How To Travel: Just Make the Decision

A few months before my trip to Southeast Asia, I had been telling people about my upcoming plans to travel there. These statements were met with a lot of excitement, disbelief, and many were impressed and wondered how I was doing all this, wondered just how to travel.

The truth is, I did not have any flights or accommodation booked until about a week before. So many people would ask, ‘How am I going to Asia?’

I just… am. I have made the decision to commit to this trip, and therefore it is now a reality. That is literally it. Once you make the decision to travel, everything else falls into place around that decision.

I decided months ago that in October, I was going to travel to Southeast Asia with one of my best friends. After that was decided, that was it, nothing more. No debating, no nothing. When the decision to travel is made and the time is set aside, you find a way to make everything else work around it.

We started researching places to go, transportation, flights, and accommodation. We started planning around the time we knew we were going to be in Asia because we had made the first, biggest leap – which was committing to go for sure. One you know you are going, you better start booking… right?

I had not even planned a single hostel or flight and was telling people all about my upcoming trip, because I knew that I was going to go… because the most difficult thing is making that choice to do it. After you do that… the rest is just planning.

Earlier that year when I moved abroad, the first step I took was deciding to do it. I didn’t wait for a job to fall into place, or a flat, or a friend to go with. I first decided I was going to move to London, and then I started to seek out jobs, flatmates, places to live, maybe a friend or two, and to save up more money.

People go back and forth and back and forth in their heads for days, months, even years debating if they can take a vacation, when they can travel, if they can make it happen…

When you just wake up and decide that you are going to take a trip, you will find a way to make everything else fall into place.

Related Read: 8 Ways to Cure Your Wanderlust Without Leaving Your Hometown

How to Travel: Proper Planning & Decisions in Advance

Now a lot of you may be thinking, “Yeah, I wish I could just wake up and decide to take a trip…” which, of course, may be more difficult for some than others. I am not saying you can wake up tomorrow and decide to get up and leave. You can decide to take a trip that works and is realistic for you.

For the dedicated workers: use those vacation days you have left, take a weekend staycation getaway, or request some time off. For those with more time or more ambitious travel dreams, think about where it is you want to go, and start planning. Pick a tentative date and destinations. Because if you keep saying ‘someday…’ that day may never come. If you say ‘this June,’ ‘in two weeks,’ or ‘a year from now,’ then we are getting somewhere.

One you make that choice, you can start balancing the rest of your life around this trip you have tentatively-but-seriously scheduled. When it becomes a reality, you can start saving, planning, and moving other obligations around like it is an actual reality. Because it is. You have made the decision to travel, and you are going to do it.

I can’t stress this enough!! People who want to travel always think there are so many barriers between themselves and actually traveling, when it is almost entirely mental (and monetary… but we can get to that.) Once you realize that it is not as hard as it seems, many more doors will open up for you. If you keep putting things between yourself and your destination dreams – a dog, a partner, a job, a feeling – then you will never reach them.

You. Can. Make. It. Work.

If it makes you feel better, save up for a certain plane ticket. If you are saving for something tangible, it will be a lot easier for you to forego those shopping trips or nice lunches and build up that savings account.

Related Reading: 12 Reasons Moving Abroad Alone is the Most Enriching Experience

Then, BUY the ticket.

Now it is really happening. Now it will be even easier for you to budget on a shoestring and save up for your trip. Because the next step after deciding to go is buying your ticket. No turning back now! Now the dates are set, your trip is happening, and you can no longer put other things in the way. THAT is the key to understanding how to travel the world.

Anyway, I hope this has motivated some of you to take that trip to surf in Indonesia, see the Eiffel Tower, hike to Machu Picchu, or even go up to your local mountains this weekend. Seriously, make that choice and the world can be yours.