The 3 unexpected benefits of travel
Enough and more has been written about travel and the intrinsic and extrinsic joys that people derive from it. There could be many dimensions to travel- from professional travelers, to people who travel when opportunity presents and then who do it on a need basis. There’s probably more dimensions to it but this post is less about that and more about why travel is an important aspect of personal growth- just about for everyone!
I can call myself privileged in that I was exposed to travels from a very early age. My father traveled every couple years for his job and that meant changing cities, homes and schools ever so often. As an introvert, I used to dread these moves. The starting all over again was the hardest thing and I resented my dad’s sense of adventure and my mom’s wholehearted participation into it. My resentment didn’t do much as it turns out I attended 8 schools in a span of 12 years of my school life. My (very extroverted) mom tells me now that she secretly hoped that all these moves would probably help my introversion. While my introversion stayed put, what got built in me was a level of extraordinary resilience and sense of calm. I fit in pretty much everywhere I went. It still took me really long to make friends and speak up, but I managed to fit in and make the most of the time I had in a place. It also made me a lot more accommodating when I went on to live a life in a student hostel and started a career in consulting and then tech. The resilience came in very handy when I became a parent under extraordinary circumstances.
All in all, I benefited from travels in ways I didn’t expect to and recently as I was reflecting on it for a talk with a set of college students, it occurred to me that my travels have played an important role in shaping my career.
Gaining Perspectives
There are more than 7 billion people in this world- leading really different lives and under varying circumstances. Learning about others’ perspective, and how they prioritize their lives, make decisions, their needs and wants can give you clarity in your own, and finally allow you to shake off the sense of obligation so often imposed on us by regular, everyday routines. Stepping out of our day to day lives provides a perspective very different to ours and helps break the barriers of assumptions we hold based on our own beliefs. The world is a diverse place and one needs to step out of their bubble to experience it.
Building and Growing Confidence
Shyness is natural and occurs in many of us. But there’s no time to be shy when you’re out there experiencing the world first hand.
Getting out of your comfort zone to introduce yourself to others and strike up conversations help you find new friendships, yes, but it will also teach you more about yourself, and show you how to actually put yourself forward in new and unexpected situations.
Soft Skills Galore
Patience, Time Management, Organisation, Decision-Making and tradeoffs adaptability and independence –some of the many skills we inadvertently end up picking from our experiences. Skills not advertised in a lot of job descriptions but important nonetheless.
While COVID 19 has made traveling harder than it used to be, I still highly encourage moving out of our comfort zones to explore places not known to us. Perhaps start with a new trail, a new restaurant or even a new type of coffee. If you dont explore, you may never know.
