Travelling has never been important to me. I’m a homebody and I was always tremendously homesick as a kid, so being away from home and the animals was not fun for me.
The horse shows I attended were days long at a time and we would stay wherever it was, but otherwise I was always happiest in my own bed and under my own roof.
You hear people say they need a break, they need to relax, and they need to get away. Most of this never made sense to this homebody, and being a stay at home mom for many years I usually took my work with me, so that wasn’t applicable either.
On the trips I did take I considered myself a bad traveller. I was permanently exhausted, and didn’t feel well most of the time. I assumed it was flying or the change in altitude that beat me up.
I still carried lots of anxiety about leaving home and being away from home.
In the last 7 years I have travelled more than ever. Sometimes all alone (which used to terrify me) and some times with amazing people.
Work has me jet setting a couple of times per year, and I have also taken the odd holiday. The more I travel the better I learn how to manage my energy and the more I see the benefit.
I heard on a podcast with Brian Chesky, founder of Airbnb, that when you leave your comfort zone in the first 48 hours of going somewhere, it creates the most memorable trips. The kind where a small part of you dies and is reborn into a newer version.
Experience is what changes us.
If you need to recreate yourself, the more experiences you have, the more recreating you get to do.
We don’t pay much attention to our everyday reactions in our usual routines. But when you are in a new place, with new stimulus, and new choices forcing new decisions, you start to get some insight into what makes you tick, what scares you, where you feel vulnerable and where you are really secure.
Since learning that I have tried to do ALL of the things when I go somewhere.
See what I want to see. Do everything I can think of doing. And really be present.
I turns out I am having the best trips, even to some of the places I’ve been several times before.
As you go about your holidays this year, try new things.
Pay attention to what excites you, and what drains you.
Get out of your comfort zone.
And see who you are beyond the everyday hum drum of life.
You don’t have to go far, you just have to go beyond where you’re comfortable.
It will be worth it, I promise.