I've always been pretty darn awesome. I've always been a traveler. I've often thought it impossible to become even awesomer, and yet, I somehow manage to always do so, especially after a fabulous viaje somewhere...now I get the correlation! I travel, therefore I'm awesome. It's even backed my the president, kid president...
Thanks to Nomadic Matt who put it so eloquently, there's no need to reinvent the wheel here...
People
always ask how travel has changed me. If I look back at who I was
before I began traveling and compare that to who I am now, I would have
to say that travel has made me a better and more well-rounded person.
I’m way cooler now than I was at twenty five
when I first left to explore the world.
Simply put, I’m a lot more awesome now than I used to be.
In fact, I think travel makes everybody a more awesome person. We end
our travels way better off than when we started. I’m not saying this to
be conceited or egotistical; I’m saying it because I believe that
travel is something that makes you not only a better human being, but a
way cooler one too. The kind of person people gravitate towards and want
to be around.
You become like
the Dos Equis guy.
How and why does travel make you more awesome? Let me count the ways:
More social – It’s sink or swim on the road. You
either get better at making friends or you end up alone, crying each
night into a pillow. You learn to make friends out of strangers and get
more comfortable talking to new people. When I first started traveling, I
was kind of an introvert and uncomfortable talking to those I didn’t
know. Now, I’ll happily talk to strangers like we’ve been best friends
for years.
Better at conversation – Travel not only makes you
comfortable talking to strangers, it makes you better at it too. After
talking to people all the time, the same questions get boring. You start
to even bore yourself. After a while, you don’t care about where people
are from, where they are going, how long they’ve been traveling, and
yada yada yada. Those kinds of questions don’t actually tell you
anything about the person. You’ll get better at small talk and how to
ask interesting questions – the ones that matter and tell you more about
the person.
More confident – You’ve traveled the world. Hiked Mt. Everest.
Dived the Great Barrier Reef. Wined and dined that beautiful French girl in Paris, navigated unknown cities, and
conquered your fear of heights.
In short, you did awesome things. How can you not be more confident?
How can you not be sure about your abilities? After accomplishing so
much, you’re going to feel a lot more confident in your ability to
achieve anything you set your mind to.
More adaptable
– You’ve dealt with missed flights, slow buses, wrong turns, delays,
bad street food, and much, much more. After a while, you learn how to
adapt your plans to changing situations. You don’t get mad, you don’t
get angry, you just alter what you are doing and move on. Life throws
you curve balls and you hit them out of the park. Why? Because you’re
awesome like that.
More adventurous – When you become confident in your
ability to do anything, you do anything. Last week in Austin, Texas,
despite not liking spicy food, I ate the world’s hottest pepper and some
pure capsicum extract. Why? Because I wanted to. What’s the purpose of
life if not to break out of your comfort zone? My mouth was on fire for
ages but I’d do it again.
More easy-going – All those mistakes? They did
something else for you, too. They made you more easy-going and relaxed.
Why? Because you’ve dealt with all those errors and you don’t care.
You go with the flow now, because if travel taught you anything it is that it all works out in the end and that there’s no need to stress.
Sexier – Stress causes aging. Those carefree,
relaxing days on the road are going to make you more confident, radiant,
and age slower. You’ll look young and sexy.
Unless you are George Clooney, who definitely got better with age.
Smarter – Unless you sit at a resort drowning your
brain in frozen drinks, travel will teach you about the world. You’ll
learn about people, history, and culture, and arcane facts about places
some people could only dream about. In short, you’ll have a better
understanding about how it works and how people behave. That’s something
that can’t be learned from books; you can only pick it up with on the
road experience.
Less materialistic – On the road, you learn just how
little stuff you actually need. You’ll realize that all that crap they
sell at the mall is pretty useless in leading a truly happy life. Coming
home, you’ll find yourself a minimalist simply because you realize what
you need to live and what you don’t. As they say, the more you own, the
more it owns you.
Happier – Travel simply teaches you how to be happy.
You’ll become more relaxed, more confident, and see the world as a
brighter place. How can you not be happy about life after all of that?
Think about all the famous, successful people in the world. How many
of these qualities do those people exhibit? A lot. Why? Because being
outgoing, funny, social, happy, confident, and smart are all qualities
that make people more successful in everyday life.
Travel makes people better people. When you learn more about the
world and the people in it, push your boundaries, and try new things,
you become a more open, outgoing, and awesome person. All the people
I’ve known who have traveled are better people ’cause of it. With all
the ways a trip can make you more of an awesome person, there’s no
reason why you shouldn’t be planning your next adventure now – whether
it’s around the world or just a short two-week vacation to Mexico.
You can sit at home, wishing you were somewhere exotic, having fun, and doing something cool.
Or you can listen to Kid President, stop being boring, and do something awesome: The choice is yours.
Watch the video and decide for yourself....
Original Link:
http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-travel-makes-you-awesome/
