Step Outside of Yourself is the first step in my Five Steps to Transformational Travel and I think it is the most exhilarating as well. I like to consider this the traveler’s version of a “do over”. I believe traveling is a way of taking flight from a life you may no longer be satisfied with. It’s an opportunity to restart and reinvent, free from the expectations that your life at home has saddled you with. You truly have the chance to step outside of yourself and be the person you want to be or have dreamed of being.
You see when you are in a new place or foreign country no one knows that you are the stressed-out executive or the stay at home Mom with 2 kids or the one who just got out of an unhappy relationship or …. you get the picture. Being in a place where no one knows your past allows you to kick start your future and this is one of the ways travel can be so transformational.
When you are traveling, you have the chance to try out a new persona for a while and see how it fits. I’m not saying that you completely let go of who you are but you can make some significant modifications. You can relax and think about a new, less stressful career or you can get back in touch with who you were before you became that mother or you can heal and move forward from that relationship that has ended.
And with time on your journey you can fine tune and adapt this new persona and maybe even become comfortable with this “new better you”. Ideally by the end of your trip, you will have become comfortable enough that you are able to bring elements of the “new better you” home and if that is the case then you have been transformed by travel.
In next week’s blog I will outline Step Two in my Five Steps to Transformational Travel but in the meantime I’d love to hear how you have been transformed by travel so leave me a comment or send an email. Until then, get out there and be a traveler not a tourist.