I have always believed that travel teaches you without a scorecard. It enriches you gently. When you step out to see the world – meet people, get acquainted with different cultures, taste new cuisines or simply breathe in an unfamiliar city – you learn a lot!
Learning through travel happens naturally – you don’t have to try too hard. It’s all about losing yourself into the arms of a new environment.
You have to first shrug off the ‘safe’ and ‘tried and tested’ syndrome and delve into the unexplored with a free spirit.
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Lessons Travel Taught Me
Travel has taught me a lot.
It has taught me so much that I am even keener to learn more through it. Let me share 10 things that I have learned from my travels so far.
Value little things
Travel has opened my eyes to small, ordinary things of life- things that are undervalued, but have great significance.
Now I am more conscious towards waiters, chauffeurs, florists, vendors and any random person whom I come across on my vacations.
I have a deeper sense of respect for them, because they are the ones who make our travels smooth for us.
I often make it a point to interact with people, and that makes my travel experience even more rewarding.
Travel Broadened my perspective
Now I have a much better perspective of life. I have come out of my shell where all I knew was my family, my relationships, my job, my struggles and my life.
Travel has opened new doors for me – I can see different aspects of life.
I can understand what is important and what can be sidelined. It has helped me think beyond the traditional mindset that there is more to life than the usual.
Travel helped me open up
I have learned to interact with people.
I am an introvert – I don’t speak much when I am around people I don’t know. But now because of travel I have started interacting with people on my travels.
I am not saying that I instantly become friends anybody and everybody, but I do initiate conversations with random fellow travelers.
I believe if you don’t interact with your fellow travelers and the locals of your destination, you barely experience a place.
Travel Boosted my confidence
I have always been as confident or as nervous as any other person, but travelling has instilled a new level of confidence in me.
I am certainly more confident of myself as a person today than I ever was.
When you travel, you have to manage so many things on your own – from booking accommodation to deciding where to eat and lots of other things that you do independently.
At the end of the day, there is a sense of achievement that you have explored a destination on your own and that’s a big deal!
I know my priorities in life – I’m more confident of myself now.
Travel Gave Me Purpose
Ever since I have started travelling, I know my priorities very well. I
know that I want to travel as much as possible. I know what I have to save for, what makes me happy and what I have to seek in life.
When I was not travelling, life was a usual rat-race and my priorities were work and money.
I didn’t know where I was going. I was clueless about my own ambition in life.
Travel has given me a clear direction and purpose.
Travel Made Me Less-Selfish
It may sound funny, but travel has helped me shed my selfish side.
I have always considered myself a sel- centered person. But travel has nudged me to look around and see life.
Now I am able to view life in all its hues.
I am able to relate to all kinds of people. I can think beyond my own challenges and realize the adversities faced by others. I’m able to look at others with compassion – everybody has challenges to deal with.
Travel Has Given me variety
Travel has introduced me to try new things and to be open to new cultures, people, food, architecture, landscape and so much more.
I have learned to appreciate the variety that life offers.
We don’t understand it till the time we begin to travel.
Now I wonder how some people get bored in their lives, when life has such wonderful things to enjoy. We just need to step out of our homes and discover the immense beauty out there.
Travel Sparked my Creativity
Through travel I am a more creative as a person.
By creativity, I don’t mean that I have learned a new skill. I simply mean that I have become more creative in my day-to-day living.
Travel opens our minds so much that we begin to see something interesting in everything – it could be something as simple as preparing a meal or arranging books on the shelf.
Travel Made Me More Grateful
It’s human nature to grumble about things.
But when we travel, we are able to negate such things with ease. I have realized that I have developed an attitude of gratitude.
I am more excited and thankful about life than I ever was because of my travels.
Made me more knowledgeable
Ever since I have started travelling and mainly started writing about my experiences, I have also been able to improve my world-wide knowledge.
As they say, travel is the best education.
Now I read a lot about destinations, different cultures, traditions, cuisines and other things. I look forward to learning about new things.
Now I find myself more equipped with knowledge, which has eventually made me a wiser person.
So that was my ode to travel. But that’s not all – I am sure there is much more that I must have learnt! And I will continue to learn throughout my life.
How has travel changed you?
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Nice travel blog..
What a brilliant read. Thanks for sharing this. I loved when you said complain less and be thankful. A lot of people just forget to be thankful 🙂
I also wrote about what travel has taught me and how it is taking my life story ahead. Do read my article and let me know if you like it 🙂
Great post – travelling teach us so many things. Confidence, open-mindedness, knowledge and much much more. I think you nailed it 🙂
We also wrote about our experiences from 2016 on our blog – a kind of status on the year.
http://freerangetravellers.com/the-9-most-important-realisation-from-my-travels-in-2016/
That’s very well put, Jaryd! Travel actually reveals the beauty of life, which we fail to discover in our safe and routine lives.
I find the greatest thing I have learnt from travelling is wisdom and comprehension of cultures around the globe . What I mean by this is that travel teaches you unique things you can’t learn unless you travel from everything you see, smell, feel and comprehend. You learn more than you honestly imagine and it definitely makes you a lot wiser than what you would be if you were to stay at home stuck in a 9-5 bubble that doesn’t allow you to explore and gallivant.
Great post. Travel has helped me with all of these lessons as well. The big one for me is overcoming my introversion – still working on learning how to talk to strangers. I sure have grown over the past year of traveling.
Good for your Laura, you are right, travel definitely pushes you to be an extrovert. It can be difficult to talk to people, especially when you are an introvert, but it you have a lot more fun and experience more when you are open to talking to people. Congratulations!
That’s wonderful to know, Laura! Travel really helps us to rediscover ourselves.
Glad travel has brought so much growth in your life, rock on!
Thanks Steven 🙂 The journey of growth has just begun… the learning is everlasting!
Love it! Rock on is such a positive saying. It put a smile on my face. Thanks!
Great post! For me, the most important thing I have learned from traveling was “coming out of my shell”, stop being shy and start getting “more social”.
That’s so true, Natalia! Travel helps you rediscover yourself – even I was shy and reserved, but travel has made me a lot friendlier.
Wonderful Natalia! It sounds like travel has done amazing things for you too!
I think they should do away with self help books and people should simply travel. It always seems like this is the best way to grow and mature as a person. I think staying in the same place allows people to get bogged down with unnecessary worries. Seeking some sort of drama and excitement where otherwise life would be too static or dull.
I’m starting my travels in September and they couldn’t come soon enough. I look forward to writing a post like this myself. You are an inspiration.
Thanks! That’s nice to know, Kate! Travel helps us find the true meaning of life. It makes our life more worthwhile! People who don’t travel keep themselves from experiencing, learning and growing.
We agree, travel certainly helps people learn and grow. It’s one of the best ways to educate yourself while having fun!
Well said. Before we travelled, we read a lot of self help books. It wasn’t until we purged our lives from all the unnecessary expenses like two cars, big house, lots of bills and finally pursuing our dreams that we felt fulfilled. I spent years reading about how to improve my life, but travel is what finally helped me live a happier more fulfilling life.
Totally agree, Dave and Deb! Travel is one thing that squeezes out all the pain out of your life – the unnecessary desires, greed, anxiety, competition – everything fades away when travel is your priority.
Travel has taught me I’m a much more flexible person than I thought I was. Also someone recently described me as “adventurous” and I’d never thought of myself that way at all. However, I guess to people who don’t travel I am adventurous.
That’s so nice, Lisa 🙂 True, travel helps you rediscover yourself. Now you know that you are adventurous – because you enjoy stepping out of your comfort zone.
You are so right. People who travel and try new things don’t necessarily feel adventurous, but to others we are. It takes a lot of courage to try something new and to travel on your own. We feel that travel makes everyone more adventurous. It’s wonderful
You said “I often make it a point to interact with such small people” , why they are small ? Because of the job they are doing for living ? Or they are not tall enough ?
Maybe should be re-worded a bit, people can understood it differently (like I did)
I didn’t catch that word in my editing Anja. Thanks for pointing that out. I believe that it may be a language barrier on Renuka’s part. After re-reading it I don’t think that she meant to offend, but instead didn’t use the right wording. Hopefully Renuka will reply with what she meant. I took out the word ‘small’ as I would never describe an occupation that way. Dave and I are former waiters, and I chauffeured many a person around when I was a production assistant in the film industry. All people in life are important, never small. Thanks again for your comment.
Thanks Anja for your comment. 🙂 Yes, I totally agree that no occupation is small. However, things in India are a little different. Here people are considered small. My intention for writing ‘small’ was not small, but to highlight the importance of such people who help us during our travels – waiters, drivers and the like. I’m sorry if it didn’t sound good. I have deep respect for everybody.
Well said Renuka. We did notice quite a difference in culture while visiting India and it is wonderful that travel has helped you see the importance in everyone. We think travel breaks down boundaries in all aspects of life.
I agree with all of it! I certainly think that mingling is key to getting the most from travel – and that you should try harder to mingle with locals than with fellow travellers, although you will learn so much from both.
That’s true Arianwen. 🙂 Mingling with locals is certainly more rewarding. It gives you an interesting perspective about the place.
Well said Arianwen, mingling with everyone is a good thing. We’ve got some of our best tips and made some of our greatest friends from meeting fellow travelers as well as the locals.