Travel as a personal growth tool is a cheap ticket to discovering just how brave you are or care to be. No matter your age or occupation, the sharing economy has expanded the ability to physically travel. Yet, the real journey of travel is how you apply what you have experienced to your personal growth and your life success.
Life as a journey is a metaphor. Rushing from trip to trip, which happens many times with business travel, is not the travel I am writing about. Sure, you can learn from every travel experience. But the journey into yourself requires conscious pausing, reflection and integration of your travel experiences to inform your life journey.
Author and clinical psychologist, Dr. Alice Boyes, outlined some of the benefits of travel from a positive psychology standpoint:
- Travel improves problem solving ability.
- Travel improves openness to experiences.
- Travel expands your awareness of self-care.
Before listening in on the conversation I had with Kait Kellogg about her travel experiences, pause and recall the last travel experience you had. Then answer these questions:
- Was there a time in your trip that you felt uncomfortable and out of your element?
- Was there a time during your trip you surprised yourself on how brave you were?
- Did you meet someone that impacted your experience positively or negatively?
- Did you connect with, or experience any part of, your family heritage?
- Did your travel expand your thinking in any way?
- Did your travel clarify any current goals or inspire you to a new life goal?
Now, sit back and enjoy the multi-generational perspective of travel. Just for fun as you listen, be thinking of your livelihood right now. Is there an opportunity to expand your business to meet the growing needs of the traveling generation? Is there a way to expand your ability to travel while you engage in your current livelihood. Just play with those thoughts. See how you feel just considering the possibility.
Enjoy the journey.
